Easy Natural Oven Cleaner

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Last night I cooked a chicken in a glass pan for a family get together, which resulted in a chicken grease explosion!

I thought about turning on the self-clean setting, but didn’t want the house filled with smoke.

I initially started just wiping out the grease with a damp rag. Even though this did help remove some of the grease, I didn’t want to hang out in my oven all night. I needed to speed up the process!

My cousin said why not just go buy some oven cleaner, but cleaning with store bought chemicals is not an option for me.

Toxins in Store Bought Oven Cleaners

Not only do I not want toxins in my oven because that’s where I put my food, but I don’t want to breathe them or have them touch my skin.

Commercial oven cleaners are one of the most toxic cleaning solutions to use. They are made with powerful chemicals including: ammonia and lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide).

Using these chemicals exposes you to harmful fumes that can go into your lungs and linger in your home polluting the air.

These chemicals are especially a concern if you have young children as they are extremely dangerous, fatal if swallowed and can easily burn skin.

After spraying down your oven with these chemicals, they will still reside in your oven and remain a danger to your food.  The chemicals linger in the oven and particles can be baked in your food.

Additionally, a concern is depositing this toxic waste in to the environment.

How to Clean Your Oven Naturally

I always keep a box of baking soda next to my sink for cleaning uses. After breakfast, I clean my frying pan with baking soda and it removes all of the grease and stuck on food particles with a quick wipe.

Last night when I started looking for recipes for a natural oven cleaner, I was surprised to see many mention just using baking soda. So, using baking soda seemed like a great option to try first.

Natural Oven Cleaner:

What You Need:

• Baking soda
• Water
• Spray bottle (optional)
• Dish cloth or sponge

Directions:

1. Make sure your oven is completely cool (takes longer than expected).
2. Take out all the oven racks so you have space to work.
3. Lightly wet the sides and bottom of the oven with water. A spray bottle is best or you can use a wet cloth and wipe the area.
4. Sprinkle the baking soda on the bottom and sides of the oven.  Since the oven is slightly wet, the baking soda should stick to it pretty well.
5. Lightly spray water on top of the baking soda.
6. Let it sit for at least an hour. Some say to let it sit overnight.
7. Wipe out the baking soda, the grease and food particles should come out with it.  The grease becomes dried up and should come out fairly easy when you wipe out the baking soda.

I repeated this process twice because I had a complete disaster! I was very pleased with how it worked. My oven looked like new!

Baking soda even makes it easier to scrape out any stubborn spots that have hardened.

Other Helpful Hints:

Right after a grease spill occurs, you can cover the area with salt and let it sit until the oven completely cools. This way the grease spill will be easy to just wipe off.

Have you used baking soda as a natural oven cleaner?  Or any other do it yourself cleaning recipes?