A Healthier Way to Clean Your Oven

Now that the holidays are over (leaving behind their mess) and the lovely spring weather is FINALLY here, you may be ready to finally have your house as bright and shiny as the world outside. Most of that house is easily cleanable, except that tortuous dungeon that we call an oven. If you have a self-cleaning oven, to run the cycle you need to be home for hours and hours (making sure no little hands go need the burning inferno). If you want to use a store bought cleaner you need to worry about ventilation for all of those fumes (which you then put your face in to inspect the job its doing). Instead I found a simple and more natural solution that won’t tie you up for hours or fumigate your house!

All you need for ingredients are:

• ½ cup of liquid dish soap
• 1 ½ cups of aluminum-free baking soda
• 2-4 drops of essential oil of choice (or not, if you don’t want to add any)
• ¼ cup of white vinegar
• Enough water to make a thick paste of the solution

You’ll also need:

• A paint brush
• Glass bowls
• A scrubber sponge
• Spoon

Start by removing the racks from your oven. Combine all of your ingredients in a glass bowl and mix together well, until they create a thick “paintable” paste. Paint your paste over the entire surface of your oven, and allow it to sit for 6-8 hours (works great overnight or while you’re at work). Fill a bowl with clean water, dip your scrubber into it, and wipe away the paste and grime in your oven. You shouldn’t need to scrub, but you’ll need to keep wiping away the combo until it’s all clean (likely refilling your bowl with clean water a couple times, as well). Then start baking all over again with an oven that’s as good as new!

Two tips: 1) Make sure that the oven is cold, because your solution needs to be moist to work: heat will evaporate your liquids. 2) If you have really stubborn stains, once rest of oven is cleaned, reapply solution and let sit. Baking soda will continue to react with the baked on carbons, lifting the stain more and more.