July 3, 2013
During No Spend July, I have been looking for chores to tackle around the house that probably have been neglected with our busy schedules. I have been trying to DEEP clean, organize and pick out items to donate that we no longer use or need.
I began the deep clean in our Kitchen because that's where most of our meals come from, in my opinion probably the second most important room in any house (second to a bathroom of course!) Now, let's talk about that oven! To say its been neglected, would be a joke. We moved into our house in October.. I am just now tackling the oven in July?!? Good thing this isn't the 50's because I'd be shunned by society! I had just finished making a batch of homemade BBQ sauce. As I was setting my Boston butt into the BBQ sauce to marinate, I thought to myself; the BBQ will be in the crock pot all day tomorrow, we won't need the oven for anything....the thought passed as I finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed. I laid in bed wide awake for the next hour.
Of course, like any DIY diva, I turned to Pinterest to help occupy my time. It was like my oven was haunting me! I eventually gave in and started reading the natural ways to clean an oven. Somewhere in the twists and turns, I then ended up on YouTube watching videos on how to clean your oven. I was so amped, I got out of bed in the middle of the night to start my adventure!
First, I began gathering all of the different supplies they had used: Kitchen Rags, Spatula, Hot water, white vinegar (I would guess any vinegar would work), lemon Juice, and Baking Soda-well durn.
There goes that idea! I had used the end of my baking soda earlier to clean the kitchen floor. Back to the drawing board a.k.a. Pinterest.I stumbled onto a European website that was cleaning the oven naturally also, but they had a different trick. Washing soda. I've never heard of using washing soda like that before. I figured they are both made by arm and hammer, they are both bases, chemically speaking, why not give it a try? Plus, my husband had already questioned my sanity once that night when I mentioned running to the store to grab baking soda. And I wanted to clean the oven!
I grabbed the washing soda, and next to it was our borax 20 mule. I read the back of the box quickly and one of the suggested uses was on kitchen appliances. Welp, I'll try some of that too! Next, I started by making a paste. The borax, washing soda and lemon juice didn't react well together, they solidified very quickly and that wasn't quite what I was looking for. I changed my mind and used the washing soda, borax and white vinegar.I really wish I had taken photos! I didn't think that my stab in the dark would be this successful!I proceeded to coat the oven in my mixture. Once that was done, I decided to pour a little lemon juice on the extra crunchy parts for good measure. I was satisfied! I closed the oven, turned off the kitchen light and headed to bed to let the paste work its magic.
The next morning, I ditched my daily routine. I got up, fed the dogs, got them outside to play and went to work on the oven! I noticed the paste had dried pretty hard. I decided the best way to loosen it up, was to add a touch of vinegar to the area I was working on. It did the trick perfectly. I grabbed the spatula and chipped away. Slowly, but surely, I was seeing my brand new oven! As I completed each area, I'd soak a rag in steamy hot water and wipe down the gunk. It required a lot of hot water, rag ring-outs, and elbow grease but our oven looks like a whole different oven! I'm not going to sugar coat it. When I say it took elbow grease, I ended up scrubbing for two days. Mainly, because I still had my daily chores to do and I had to go to work, but I'm thankful I took my time and did it right. Now the younger me, she would have got about halfway through and just rinsed the rest of the oven and said to hell with it.
I remember using a spray on love cleaner in my very first apartment... I don't believe we used that oven eve again. The smell of that cleaner just lingered in it forever.It might seem illogical to you, but I wonder if the smell is still present how many of those chemicals are still in your oven? Does it contaminate your food? How could it not?
I am glad for whatever came over me that night! I don't think I would have ever known how naturally and easy it was to clean an oven. No lingering smells, no harmful chemicals, and certainly no more smoke detectors going off!
Now, to have friends over and
make them look at my oven! Haha! OK, maybe that's a little crazy! I'm just proud:)Do you have a self cleaning oven? Love it or Hate it?
Is borax safe?
I have read where people cover the bottom of their oven with tin foil to make clean ups quick?
Is this worth it to you? Have you noticed if it changes the way your food cooks?
Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email!
Happy Scrubbing!
During No Spend July, I have been looking for chores to tackle around the house that probably have been neglected with our busy schedules. I have been trying to DEEP clean, organize and pick out items to donate that we no longer use or need.
I began the deep clean in our Kitchen because that's where most of our meals come from, in my opinion probably the second most important room in any house (second to a bathroom of course!) Now, let's talk about that oven! To say its been neglected, would be a joke. We moved into our house in October.. I am just now tackling the oven in July?!? Good thing this isn't the 50's because I'd be shunned by society! I had just finished making a batch of homemade BBQ sauce. As I was setting my Boston butt into the BBQ sauce to marinate, I thought to myself; the BBQ will be in the crock pot all day tomorrow, we won't need the oven for anything....the thought passed as I finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed. I laid in bed wide awake for the next hour.
Of course, like any DIY diva, I turned to Pinterest to help occupy my time. It was like my oven was haunting me! I eventually gave in and started reading the natural ways to clean an oven. Somewhere in the twists and turns, I then ended up on YouTube watching videos on how to clean your oven. I was so amped, I got out of bed in the middle of the night to start my adventure!
First, I began gathering all of the different supplies they had used: Kitchen Rags, Spatula, Hot water, white vinegar (I would guess any vinegar would work), lemon Juice, and Baking Soda-well durn.
There goes that idea! I had used the end of my baking soda earlier to clean the kitchen floor. Back to the drawing board a.k.a. Pinterest.I stumbled onto a European website that was cleaning the oven naturally also, but they had a different trick. Washing soda. I've never heard of using washing soda like that before. I figured they are both made by arm and hammer, they are both bases, chemically speaking, why not give it a try? Plus, my husband had already questioned my sanity once that night when I mentioned running to the store to grab baking soda. And I wanted to clean the oven!
I grabbed the washing soda, and next to it was our borax 20 mule. I read the back of the box quickly and one of the suggested uses was on kitchen appliances. Welp, I'll try some of that too! Next, I started by making a paste. The borax, washing soda and lemon juice didn't react well together, they solidified very quickly and that wasn't quite what I was looking for. I changed my mind and used the washing soda, borax and white vinegar.I really wish I had taken photos! I didn't think that my stab in the dark would be this successful!I proceeded to coat the oven in my mixture. Once that was done, I decided to pour a little lemon juice on the extra crunchy parts for good measure. I was satisfied! I closed the oven, turned off the kitchen light and headed to bed to let the paste work its magic.
The next morning, I ditched my daily routine. I got up, fed the dogs, got them outside to play and went to work on the oven! I noticed the paste had dried pretty hard. I decided the best way to loosen it up, was to add a touch of vinegar to the area I was working on. It did the trick perfectly. I grabbed the spatula and chipped away. Slowly, but surely, I was seeing my brand new oven! As I completed each area, I'd soak a rag in steamy hot water and wipe down the gunk. It required a lot of hot water, rag ring-outs, and elbow grease but our oven looks like a whole different oven! I'm not going to sugar coat it. When I say it took elbow grease, I ended up scrubbing for two days. Mainly, because I still had my daily chores to do and I had to go to work, but I'm thankful I took my time and did it right. Now the younger me, she would have got about halfway through and just rinsed the rest of the oven and said to hell with it.
I remember using a spray on love cleaner in my very first apartment... I don't believe we used that oven eve again. The smell of that cleaner just lingered in it forever.It might seem illogical to you, but I wonder if the smell is still present how many of those chemicals are still in your oven? Does it contaminate your food? How could it not?
I am glad for whatever came over me that night! I don't think I would have ever known how naturally and easy it was to clean an oven. No lingering smells, no harmful chemicals, and certainly no more smoke detectors going off!
Now, to have friends over and
make them look at my oven! Haha! OK, maybe that's a little crazy! I'm just proud:)Do you have a self cleaning oven? Love it or Hate it?
Is borax safe?
I have read where people cover the bottom of their oven with tin foil to make clean ups quick?
Is this worth it to you? Have you noticed if it changes the way your food cooks?
Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email!
Happy Scrubbing!
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