I have had this conversation w dh this wkend--I have noticed over the past few years that harsh oven cleaning evil stuff doesn't really work! Although I no longer let my oven get really bad, I find that soaking with just water for a while combined with scrubbing is the best. I just use steel wool or sos and huge amounts of elbow grease.
oven cleaning???
Help me please! I have a problem of my own making
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: . My oven is filthy, and I've been putting off giving it a good, thorough cleaning for far too long. I really really want to avoid using nasty strong chemicals in there, especially because I'm TTC and there's always the chance I might be pregnant. Does anyone have any ideas for what to use to clean an oven-- something that'll get the job done without being horribly toxic?
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I used a recipe I found in The Naturally Clean Home by Karen Siegel-Maier that included baking & washing sodas, salt, and a little water to make a paste you apply after heating up the oven. The paste sits on there for a little while, then you spray vinegar on it to scrub off the paste and all the gunk with it.
<As an aside, you might want to wear gloves when you put the paste on to steer clear of getting the washing soda on your skin -- it warrants checking into... maybe you could leave out the washing soda and just rely on the abrasive powers of the BS and salt.>
A tip if you go this route: plug up any openings in the oven before you slather on the paste so that it doesn't go where it isn't supposed to!
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The walls of our oven needed more scrubbing than the floor of it to get off gunk that pre-dated our ownership of the house, so they needed more paste than the floor of the oven did.
Here's a great idea I got from Karen Logan's Clean House Clean Planet: after the oven's clean and you've admired how pretty it is and everything, stick an oven liner in the bottom to catch any drips. That's a lot easier than breaking out the elbow grease again!
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<As an aside, you might want to wear gloves when you put the paste on to steer clear of getting the washing soda on your skin -- it warrants checking into... maybe you could leave out the washing soda and just rely on the abrasive powers of the BS and salt.>
A tip if you go this route: plug up any openings in the oven before you slather on the paste so that it doesn't go where it isn't supposed to!
Here's a great idea I got from Karen Logan's Clean House Clean Planet: after the oven's clean and you've admired how pretty it is and everything, stick an oven liner in the bottom to catch any drips. That's a lot easier than breaking out the elbow grease again!
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Thanks for the info, mamas! I was about to ask the same question. My oven has 3 years of our disgusting spatters, plus 3 years of the previous owner's disgusting spatters. I turned on the oven light this morning for dd1 to see the baking cookies. "Mommy, I can't see ANYTHING!"
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Ewwwww...
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I had this problem too, even though I tried working on it a little with my pasty mixture and vinegar rinse (but was afraid the paste would scratch the glass). I thought about trying a little bit of dish soap diluted to get it off, but by then I was tired of the project and decided I would try it some other time...
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Originally Posted by holliebug There are a couple of smaller grease areas on the inside of the glass on the door that didn't come off completely, but I probably didn't coat enough with the mixture. |
Here's what I did a month or so ago, I poured baking soda onto the oven door (that was the nastiesy place since I keep a drip pan under the element)
then poured boiling white vinagar onto that-made a steamy-foamy degreaser. After it cooled a bit, I scrubbed it and did that again, then used a piece steel wool to get the stubborn stuff.
It worked really well-I hope it didn't make any harmful gasses!
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then poured boiling white vinagar onto that-made a steamy-foamy degreaser. After it cooled a bit, I scrubbed it and did that again, then used a piece steel wool to get the stubborn stuff.
It worked really well-I hope it didn't make any harmful gasses!
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