How to Clean Your Oven Without Chemicals

Spring cleaning is in full swing at our house. The weather is gorgeous today so I’m throwing open the windows and tackling my kitchen. I cleaned my oven last weekend and wanted to share my Homemade Oven Cleaner with you.

After a winter of roasting, baking and casseroles my oven has definitely seen better days. This used to be one of my dreaded tasks. I would turn on the self-clean function and once that was done I’d usually get the big can of oven cleaner to get the remaining baked on gunk. It worked but my oven always smelled like the chemical cleaner for a while afterwards which really grossed me out when cooking. Plus the self-clean feature using a lot of electricity and makes my house hot. This is fine for winter but not something I want for summertime.

So, in my effort to try to eliminate unnecessary chemicals in our home, I decided to try a natural cleaning method. I found several different homemade oven cleaners and combined different methods to make mine. The method isn’t really quick, but then again, neither is the self-clean function. However, it’s really easy and most importantly it works and doesn’t make my oven stink!

Ingredients:

• Baking Soda
• Water
• Vinegar
• Essential Oils (optional)

Directions:

1. Remove your oven racks and anything else you have inside you oven that can be removed, like a thermometer. Set those aside to clean.

2. Combine 1/2 cup of baking soda and water in a small bowl. If you have a large oven, it may take a full cup of baking soda to cover the inside surface but start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed. You will need 1/4 cup or so of water. The trick is to make it thick but spreadable. The ideal consistency looks a bit like hair conditioner.

3. Grab a pastry brush or paint brush and spread the paste all over the inside of the oven. If you don’t have a brush, you can just grab some rubber gloves and use your hands to spread it. Don’t worry about clumps. Those are okay. However, be sure to avoid the heating elements. You really don’t want to get the paste on those. The baking soda will turn brown as you are working it in and you’ll already see grime starting to come off!

4. Let the baking soda mixture sit on your oven for 8-12 hours. I usually let mine go overnight. That’s the easiest way. If your over is particularly grimy, go for the full 12 hours. I clean my oven several times a year so I can usually get away with just 8 hours.

5. One the baking soda paste has set, wipe out the open with a damp dish cloth. I like to use rubber gloves for this task because it’s pretty gross. You can also use a silicone spatula to scrape off the paste if needed.

6. Add some vinegar and essential oils to a spray bottle. I usually do 1/2 cup of vinegar and 5-6 drops of Purification Oil. However, you can use Lemon Essential Oil to make things smell fresh or try Thieves to make it smell like you’ve been baking! The essential oils are optional, I just prefer them since the mask the vinegar smell.

7. Once you have your Vinegar spay, spritz it inside the oven. Even though you wiped out the baking soda, some residue will still be left behind. You’ll see the vinegar and remaining baking soda foam up. Wipe out the oven to get all the remaining baking soda. You’ll need to do this step 2 or 3 times until you no longer see foaming when you spray the vinegar mixture.

8. Wipe down your oven with a damp cloth one last time to get things clean and shiny!

Now I clean my oven usually once every season. If you have years and years of baked on gunk, you may need to do this whole process a second time to get everything sparkling clean.

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