Give Your Oven Some Lovin': A Cleaning Guide

After the hassle of baking, cooking, and eating, it’s not surprising that most of us forget about the clean-up. While cleaning dishes and countertops might feel like a job well done, many of us are missing a pretty big part of the kitchen: the oven. 

Your oven puts in work when it comes to feeding your family or your late-night craving for chocolate chip cookies, so it shouldn’t be a massive surprise that it needs a good cleaning job now and then. Whether you didn’t know an oven could be cleaned, or need to brush up on your skills — we’ve got you covered.

Keep reading to learn the  best ways to clean an oven (plus the easiest way to keep it clean.)

P.S. Make sure to put cleaning the oven on your deep-cleaning checklist. 

How to Clean An Oven 

You may be asking yourself, why should I clean my oven anyway? Newsflash: It can actually improve the quality of your food. Enough said. 

Cleaning the oven is usually a chore that most of us procrastinate on, but once you get the steps down it can become a quick part of your cleaning routine. We put together the best way to clean all the nooks and crannies of your oven without using uber harsh chemicals to get the job done. Yes, this method skips the oven cleaner (AKA the chemicals) 

Here is what you need:

Baking Soda

Water

White Vinegar

Spray Bottle

Cleaning Rag

Safely Glass Cleaner

Safely Universal Cleaner

Gloves (optional)

 

How To Clean the Inside of Oven

1. Take out everything from inside the oven (racks, thermometer, etc.) and put them to the side. We will cover these items later. 
2. Next, make a paste with baking soda and water. Mix 1/2 cup baking soda with 1/2 cup of water— this will create a spreadable paste. If the oven is super dirty, double the recipe. 
3. Apply your paste all over the inside of the oven, avoiding all heating elements of the oven. 
4. Wait about 12 hours or overnight. We recommend doing this before bed so you can spend your waiting time catching up on beauty sleep. 
5. Times up? Use a damp rag (or two) to wipe away your paste along with all the oven grease. Gloves may come in handy if you want to avoid getting your hands greasy. 
6. Spray the oven with a generous coat of white vinegar, loosening up any leftover baking soda. 
7. Wipe with a clean rag.
8. Brag to your mom that you know how to clean the inside of an oven. 

Clean-Freak Code: While scrubbing away, things can get messy. Lay down some old towel to avoid making an even bigger mess. 

How to Clean the Outside of an Oven

1. The outside glass of your oven might be just as grimy as the inside. Spread any leftover paste on the outside glass. 
2. Wait 30 minutes. 
3. Wipe clean with a damp, clean rag. 
4. Create a streak-free shine with a few sprays from our Glass Cleaner. Our combination of coconut oil, mineral salt, and corn-derived alcohol will penetrate any leftover oil and residue.
5. While you are at it, spray our Universal Cleaner on stove top build up and let it sit before wiping the mess away
6. Next, use the power of our Universal Cleaner to scrub off any random spots you see on the knobs or handles of your oven. 
7. Watch your oven sparkle.

How to Clean Oven Racks

The best way to clean oven racks is by letting hot water do most of the work for you. Save time and clean oven racks while your oven is basking in your baking soda paste. 

1. Fill either a super-sized sink, a bathtub, or a jumbo bucket with hot water. 
2. Let the racks soak for two hours. 
3. Wipe off any excess grease or spots with a damp rag. 

Okay, but what about self-cleaning ovens?

A self-clean option is a helpful tool, though only for semi-dirty ovens. When you put your oven on self-clean, it locks and climbs to super-high temperatures. This helps melt and loosen up all the grease and residue buildup on your oven. Be warned, if your oven is super dirty, the self-clean option can sometimes create smoke and even start a fire. 

If you clean often and choose the self-clean route, always remove the oven racks and clean these yourself. Also, make sure to stay home while your oven self cleans, to keep an eye on it just in case something goes wrong. 

How Often Should I Clean My Oven?

Take a peek at the inside of your oven to find out when it’s time to give it a scrub. We recommend cleaning your oven when you notice the following: 

• Crust or residue on the bottom
• Splattered Grease
• Weird smell
• Smoke (a sign of build-up)

Get Safely Clean.

You shouldn’t have to settle for irritating your skin with super harsh cleaning products or risking your oven when setting it to self-cleaning. Once you start cleaning your oven following our simple steps, you’ll end up with less work in the long run (we swear!) 

We just brought a whole new meaning to “clean” cooking. While we can’t promise our oven cleaning technique will make terrible cooks into amazing chefs, we can promise that our method is natural and safe. A clean oven makes for endless possibilities — helping you get cooking (not cleaning.)