Spring Cleaning: The Oven

Over spring break I finally got around to cleaning our disgusting oven. It was disgusting when we inherited it, but I would be lying if I said we didn’t contribute to the mess.

This is the horror I started with

I don’t understand how an oven gets to look like a murder scene, but this one sure does

I’m honestly kind of embarrassed by the fact that this oven has been this gross for so long. And by the fact that I actually cooked food in here.

To start I sprinkled baking soda over everything and tried my best to get it on the sides.

I read on Pinterest that simply letting baking soda and vinegar sit for a while then scrubbing works pretty great, so that’s what I did. I already use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning several other things in the house, so I had confidence it would clean the oven.

I used a spray bottle to spritz the vinegar in the oven. Even though it’s completely natural, be careful not to breathe in the vinegar fumes/spray. Acid in your lungs is never a good idea.

Before getting my sponge out I literally got a spatula to scrape out the gunk. Disgusting.

This is what the door looked like after the baking soda and vinegar method. Still gross, but it got the majority of the mess off. The sides of the oven also look WAY better.

 

The bottom of the oven was still pretty nasty though, and I wanted to see if the rest of the oven could get quite a bit cleaner with only minimal effort, so I broke out the big guns. Mean Green Super Strength Cleaner & Degreaser. I’ve used this to degrease my cabinets, and it works pretty great.

I sprayed it on the entire oven and let it sit for a couple of hours. It dried out by the time I got back to it, so I sprayed it on again before scrubbing with the sponge.

The oven looks way better than it did to start with, and I’m more at ease about cooking food in here now.

I’ll probably go back over it again when I’m out of school, and have more time.

What’s on your spring cleaning list?