Ovens in the average household get a lot of use, making them dirty and smelly when not cleaned often. But, oven cleaning is one of the tasks around the home most people hate, so a lot of ovens in a lot of homes, are dirty and smelly.
The easiest and most stressless way to tackle a grimy oven is to hire a cleaning company, who will use their tried and tested techniques and eco-friendly products, to restore it to its former clean self. However, should you wish to de-grime your oven yourself, here are some simple steps to follow:
Remove all leftover and burnt food debris
Even if you’re a tidy chef, it’s not unusual for food to spill over when left to cook in the oven, or for bits of food to fall from a tray or pot and become stuck to the interior. However, it’s important to try and remove food debris as quickly as possible to prevent it from becoming even more difficult to remove later, and stinking out your kitchen every time the oven is switched on. As well as that, it can also present a fire risk, and make your oven less efficient.
So, ideally all leftover food debris should be removed from the inside of the oven each time it’s used, but if you haven’t been doing this and there is debris inside, getting it out will be your first task.
It’s usually easier to remove all of the racks from inside before doing so, and you’ll need to do this anyway to clean the racks. So, remove the racks, pop them in the sink ready to be cleaned later, and wipe and scrape all burnt food particles from the oven’s interior.
Tackle the inside of the oven
You can opt to use commercial, storebought cleaners or make your own natural solution for cleaning the inside of your oven; it really comes down to preference. Both work effectively, and both require a certain degree of elbow grease and effort, although natural cleaners are more affordable and usually less harmful to the environment.
For a homemade oven cleaning solution, combine two parts baking soda with one part water to create a thick paste that can be spread all over the dirty parts of the oven’s interior. Take care to avoid covering the heating elements though. Ideally, the paste should be left to work its magic overnight, and in the morning, you should be able to wipe it off with a damp cloth.
Degrease and disinfect
White vinegar and a soft cloth work wonderfully well for degreasing a grimy oven (and sanitizing it), and you can simply pour the vinegar into a spray bottle and squirt it all over the oven’s interior and door. Leave it for around a minute, before wiping it off with a clean, dry cloth or sponge. When doing so, you should notice that the greasy stains lift off easily without too much elbow grease required. If there are tougher stains remaining however, you may need to repeat the process a few times until everything is gone.
If you’ve tried this method and it didn’t work, or you simply don’t have the time or energy to clean your oven thoroughly, just leave it to the cleaning professionals from a local cleaning company.
