Homeade and/or natural oven cleaner

[nicolelynn]

Time to clean my oven out and now that I've done away with chemical cleaners what do you use?

Does just some wet baking soda and a good scrubbing work? My oven is fairly crusted at this point and when it set the smoke alarm off Sunday I knew something had to be done....

[linguistmama]

For really bad spots or when it has been at least a year since the oven was cleaned I make a paste with bs and water. I pour it over the bad spots and let it sit for awhile. Then I just use a rag and wipe it all off. I have been amazed at how effective it is even on smoke alarm spots.

[MommyErin]

For projects like this, I've been using Holy Cow Degreaser.

See www.holycowproducts.com

They are also very, very reasonable in price.

Their Web site sez:

"These amazing cleaners contains NO solvents, NO VOCs (volatile organic compounds), NO toxins, NO alcohol, NO ammonia, NO harmful oxygen-based bleach cleaners, and NO citrus-based products which may dissolve rubber or plastics. Holy Cow Products are biodegradable and non-hazardous, so they're safe for you and your family as well as for the environment."

Not as natural as making my own but they work great and my house doesn't stink like bleach or disinfectant.

[nicolelynn]

Thanks Mamas!

[EnviroBecca]

Baking soda works well on the caked-on stuff. To get off the general greasy film, I use Orange Plus poured full-strength onto steel wool, then rinse thoroughly with a wet dish towel followed by a second wet dish towel. If you don't get it all off, the next few things you bake taste like burnt oranges, but at least it's not harmful. I had a VERY bad experience with conventional oven cleaner (head and chest pain, visual distortions) a decade ago and have not used it since!