Cleaning the oven isn’t high on anyone’s joy list, but it’s a task that has to be done in order to have a clean oven and get rid of any spillage so you don’t run the risk of starting an oven fire.
There are many oven cleaners on the market that advertise how quickly they cut through grease and clean your oven. And while they do clean the appliance, it’s what these cleaners don’t tell you that matters.
You won’t hear that the fumes from these cleaners can permeate your entire home and can cause coughing and watery eyes. You also won’t hear that the ingredients are caustic. Caustic means that the ingredients can cause painful skin burns.
Lemon Method
Natural oven cleaning methods are safer to use in your home and you won’t have to worry about damaging your skin or breathing in a caustic substance. If you need to clean your oven and want to use what you have around the house to do it, then you can use citrus fruits, like lemons.
But this is more of a time consuming task because even using lemons, you’ll still have to scrub – and if you have a stuck on mess, you may end up using something to scrape off burned on food spills.
Baking Soda and Vinegar Method
You can also use baking soda to clean an oven, but for the scrubbing action, you’ll need to use it in conjunction with white vinegar. Even then, depending on the shape your oven is in, you’ll still have to put quite a bit of effort, aka elbow grease, into scrubbing it clean.
- Make a paste of baking soda and water.
- Add a small amount of dish detergent. Dawn is great, since it cuts grease.
- Remove all racks, etc, from the oven
- Wearing rubber gloves, spread the paste thickly over all crusty and grimy areas inside the oven
- Leave overnight, or for at least 12 hours. Clean the racks during this time.
- Wipe or scrape the grime and paste from the oven, using a cloth or some sort of scraper (maybe a spatula)
- Spray or pour vinegar onto any remaining spots of paste/grime. It will foam up.
- Give it a few minutes to soak, then apply elbow grease.
- Oven should be nice and shiny clean. See foil tip below.
An Easier Way
Both of these methods will work to get your oven clean, but they do take up a lot of time and since time is a precious commodity to most of us, we prefer to look for faster, just as effective methods.
To do that, you can use a natural oven cleaner that’s designed to break apart food spills and cut through grease. You can find these natural oven cleaners in handy spray bottles available through online suppliers.
Because they’re organic, they’re safe to use in all types of ovens, including countertop versions. By using only natural ingredients found in these formulas to clean your oven, you won’t be dealing with any of the dangerous fumes, either.
Unlike the other chemical-based cleaners that require you to saturate the oven and then wait half an hour before cleaning, with a natural cleaner, you can spray the oven – and because the cleaner works fast, you can wipe it down in minutes without having to wait. These natural oven cleaners are also great for cleaning barbecue grills.
Foil Tip
And now that you’ve cleaned your oven – line the bottom with aluminum foil. Make sure your pieces are long enough to turn up on the ends, so spills don’t seep out. Now the foil will catch any spills and it will be easy to pull the foil up, throw it away, and put down a new layer!
