Lyndsey Day 12 of “A 30 Day Guide to Spring Cleaning“.
Let’s talk about the best way to clean your stove….
DON’T DO IT. Buy a new one. Just kidding, kind of. I do not like cleaning stoves, the main reason for this is because I am very much about natural cleaning products and less harsh cleaning products. I prefer to use my Norwex where you can clean with just water! Sure there are definitely cleaning products that I use, and I do love that fresh clean smell, but I don’t use products that burn my nose and eyes when I use them.
When it comes to cleaning ovens, especially if your oven really needs work like mine did, you will need one of those cleaners that you want to keep off your skin and away from your kids at all costs. Sure, there are natural ways to clean your oven such as baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice, but these don’t get the gross build up off the way you want it to.
Additionally, let me just take a minute to talk about the fact that YOUR OVEN DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT. It just needs to be good enough for you. Don’t feel like you’ve failed if you can’t get everything off, sometimes we don’t have the time to let it sit as long as it should, or to continue repeating the same steps until everything is cleared, and THAT IS OKAY!! I can’t say it enough.
What to clean:
- Oven Racks
- Oven burners and around burners
- Oven grates and burner covers
- Oven walls
- Oven door
- Oven hood (if you have one)
- Oven fan vents
Supplies needed
- Rubber Gloves ‘paid link’
- Bucket
- Stainless Steel Scrubbers
- Scour Pads
- Junk/throw away towels
- Eye protection (optional, but nice to have)
- Recommended:
- Alternative: Any oven cleaner, cloth and dish soap
Cleaning Your Oven Hood
You will want to start by cleaning your oven hood, if you have one. You will want to do this first because of gravity, and anything you clean or spray will drip down onto your oven, always clean from the top to bottom.
Step 1: Fill your bucket with hot water and get your supplies ready. Get your gloves on before using the cleaner.
Step 2: Spray your oven hood down with your selected oven cleaner (I highly recommend easy off, heavy duty cleaner). Follow the directions provided by your selected oven cleaner. With easy off you will want to spray from a distance of 9-12 inches. A personal note from me, try not to inhale this stuff!
Step 3: Let the easy off or oven cleaner sit for the recommended time. Since you cannot heat up your oven hood like you can your actual oven, I would suggest letting this sit for about 20 minutes if possible. That way you can assure you have the best results.
Step 4: For heavily soiled areas, you can use the stainless steel scrubbers to work off the stuck on debris. A lot of times your hood will not be as dirty as your oven, so you can usually simply wipe this off. Use your bucket of hot water and a scouring pad to wipe this down, and then a throwaway towel to wipe off the access cleaner and water.
**I do not have a oven hood to show pictures of as an example.
Cleaning Your Oven
When we moved into our house, we cleaned out our oven, but not like we should have. We wiped everything down with an all purpose cleaner, and we scrubbed as much as we could. But we never officially deep cleaned our oven, and it surely needed it!
Step 1: Vacuum out any debris at the bottom of your oven. Remove your oven racks and preheat your oven to 200F (or whatever your cleaner recommends). Fill your bucket with hot water and get your supplies ready. Make sure to have your gloves on before using the cleaner, even just spraying it. Lay out a towel or newspaper under the stove to protect the floor from overspray and dripping. The cleaner can damage many surfaces!
Step 2: Once your oven is pre-heated, start by spraying down the top of the oven while it is still on (make sure to protect your counter tops with towels). The top of the oven won’t get as warm as the inside, and it will cool down much faster. You want to have the oven on while the cleaner works on the top surface. If you have grates and burners on a gas stove, leave all the components on when you spray this down so the cleaner soaks the stove top and grates. Make sure to spray underneath the grates, and place them back down to sit in the cleaner. Allow this to stand for the recommended time (please remember this will not be as warm as the recommended temperature, so let this sit as long as possible).
Step 3: Once the cleaner has had time to sit, take your stainless steel scrubber with water and scrub the surface to remove the burnt on and stuck on debris. The stainless steel scrubbers are great for removing debris, but they can scratch your surfaces if too much pressure is applied, so make sure you are aware how hard you are pushing. Once you finish scrubbing, take your scouring pad with water and wipe down the surface, scrubbing any areas that still need it. Let this sit while you move to the oven insides. You will need to put some elbow grease into this!
Step 4: TURN OFF YOUR OVEN. Once your oven is off, you can spray the oven cleaner on the insides of your oven, starting at the top and working down. This cleaner will steam when you spray it on, so be careful of your eyes, and breathing any in. Spray from as far a distance as possible (although I know this is hard when trying to spray the insides of the oven. Once you have thoroughly coated the inside of the oven, close the door and let this sit for about 10 minutes (or whatever your cleaner recommends).
Step 5: Once your oven cleaner has sat the recommended amount of time, you can open your oven again. At this point you will want to remove your oven door. Many doors remove in the same manner, but you can determine this by looking at the hinges (if your door doesn’t remove you can just work around it, but it’s messier). To remove your oven door, take a flat head screwdriver and lift up the “locks” to the hinges towards where the hinge connects to the stove. Once these are lifted on both sides, you can move your oven door towards a shutting position, and then lift the door up and out towards you to remove it from the oven.
Step 6: Now that the door is out of the way, it is time to start scrubbing this down, first using the stainless steal scrubber, then moving to the scouring pad just like in step 3. Continue rinsing off and wringing out your scrubby and scouring pad as needed in your bucket of water (and yes this bucket will get very gross, very fast). If you plan to use eye protection, this is when you will want it! Make sure you are cleaning starting with the top, moving to the sides, and then down to the bottom. Try not to have too much water on your scrubby or your scouring pads, as water can get down into the oven cracks. You want enough to get it wet, but not enough that it’s running down the sides or dripping off the top.
Step 7: After you have completed scrubbing, and have gotten as much build up and grime off as you believe you are going to get, you will want to wipe everything down with a dry throw away towel. Wiping this down will remove most of the excess cleaner, and the grime that was pulled off your stove with the cleaner. Make sure to get all of the cleaner and grime that you can with these throw away towels. If you don’t have any throw away towels, you can use paper towel, but you will go through A LOT. Make sure to do this for the oven insides, and the top of the oven.
Step 8: Upon completing wiping all the cleaner possible off, next you will want to use a wet enviro cloth, or a cloth with dish soap, to remove as much residue from the cleaner as possible. Wipe down over all the areas you just cleaned to remove the cleaner residue. You can also use the cleaning paste and envirocloth the try and take off any further spots that are left over. Oven cleaner leaves a very streaky residue, so you can use the polishing cloth after wiping it down to make your oven shine like new! I use this cloth almost every time I clean off our stovetop.
Step 9: Wash your oven racks with soap and water in your sink and set them to the side to dry. You can also use the oven cleaner on these, but I don’t have a good area to set them that the oven cleaner wouldn’t be damaging something underneath.
Step 10: Remove any fan vent covers, if you have a fan above your oven, and place it on a throw away towel. Spray the oven cleaner to completely coat the vent cover, and let this sit.
Step 11: While your vent covers sit with the cleaner, take your stovetop grates and burner covers and wash them with soap and water in the sink to remove the cleaner residue.
Step 12: Rinse out your vent covers in the sink until all the cleaner and grease has rinsed out entirely, and set this to the side to dry.
Step 13: Place your oven door back on. Lift the door and align the hinges with the corresponding holes in the oven front. Slide the hinges back into place, allow the door to move to the open position, and then engage the locks back down into place. Make sure your door opens and closes properly, or readjust as needed.
Step 14: Once all items have dried, reassemble your oven to include all the washed and rinsed components.
Step 15: Allow time for your oven to air out and dry completely. After about an hour, go back and preheat your oven to 300F. Allow this to sit at 300F for about 30 minutes to help evaporate any leftover residue before fully using your oven again.
I didn’t get a lot of pictures through this process as I had rubber gloves on that were coated in thick oven residue and cleaner, so I hope that the before and after pictures below show you what you need to know!!
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I would be happy to get back with you.
Check out Day 11. Clean Your Refrigerator here.
Check out Day 13. Clean/Polish Your Appliances here.
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