Like closets, it can be easy to shut the door and forget the mess inside your oven.
That is until you’re cooking or baking and you smell the ghostly, slightly-burned aromas of mealtimes past.
Besides those unappealing smells and smoke, dirty ovens can impact your current meal in other ways.
If your appliance is more difficult to heat up, it can ultimately wreck the oven’s heating elements.
Another way high temps can damage your oven is by using the self-cleaning feature.
While this sounds like an easy option, repair technicians don’t recommend it.
The self-cleaning feature can also present health and safety risks.
Fortunately, there are other safer and greener options out there.
Just follow a few expert tips from Martha Stewart’s website.
Common household staples make a DIY oven cleaner
MarthaStewart.comtakes an eco-friendly approach to oven cleaning.
To begin, simply combine baking soda and water.
Wipe this paste inside the oven, except for areas like the heating element.
For oven racks, Stewart’s website advises washing them with dish soap.
Villa applies baking soda to the racks, then sprays them with vinegar to create an effervescent cleaner.
Pulling out the oven’s warming drawer provides access to the floor beneath.
Once accessible, this area can be vacuumed or wiped to eliminate long-forgotten crumbs and sticky messes.
For this method, fill a pan with water and a cup of white vinegar.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees.
After 20 to 60 minutes, turn the oven off.
After everything is cool, wipe down the oven’s interior.
As an additional option,Apartment Therapyrecommends using a dishwasher tablet for oven cleaning.
Since some of these tablets contain bleach, the outlet recommends wearing gloves while cleaning.
After activating the tablet in warm water, rub it along the oven’s glass and interior.
Afterward, wipe away the dirt and cleaner, then rinse with water to finish the job.
MarthaStewart.comalso advocates using dishwasher tablets and hot water toclean oven racksin the sink or even the bathtub.
