Ahem. But I digress. Over the last few months, as my love (obsession) of Pinterest has grown, I've pinned a few natural oven cleaners. In a fit of energy, I decided to put them to the test.
First up was probably the most simple. I pinned it from DIY Home Sweet Home. Simple baking soda, with enough water added to make a thin paste. I used a small paintbrush I keep in the kitchen for tasks just like this to spread the paste over the window. My door was also dirty, so I spread the paste over the door too. I wish I would have taken a paste-free before picture, but I was inspired to blog about it between pictures. So, here's the before! You can see it is pretty bad!
I left that to sit for a while. Long enough to cut up 1/2 pound of vanilla beans to make vanilla extract. More on that another time. I then wiped off a little corner of the window with just a wet paper towel to check our progress. It was ok, but not great. I finished wiping it all off and went in search of another recipe. I can't find the link now, but it was basically the same thing with hydrogen peroxide mixed in. So, I painted that on, and left it to sit again. You can see below half of the door painted with the new solution. It *is* a bit cleaner than it was! But the door is still pretty dirty.
And I waited about 30 minutes, then wiped it down. This time I used a scrubby sponge and put some elbow grease into it, but I am still not satisfied with the results:
So back to the internet I go! This time I found Crunchy Betty's oven cleaner and set to work:
30 minutes later, this is our result, with lots and LOTS of hard scrubbing this time.
Well, it is significantly cleaner than when I started, and that is a step in the right direction. I can't say as I'm putting much faith in homemade oven cleaner at this point though. All three websites promised me a sparkling oven with very little effort, but I certainly had to scrub pretty hard to get it to the point it is at now.
Do you have a favorite recipe?
I cleaned mine with some concoction of baking soda, baking soda/water mixture, washing soda, and maybe borax (can't remember). It worked great! The trick (as my mother in law taught me) is to use a metal scouring pad. Not quite steel wool, but the kind that's made of thousands of small, silver curlies.
ReplyDeleteI admit, I have not been on this web page in a long time... however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues. Professional Cleaners London
ReplyDelete