Ugh, oven cleaning is the WORST. But it’s time. We’ve spent autumn and winter baking wonderful roasts, fruit crumbles and puddings. And you bet, our ovens are looking a little worse for wear because of it. Let’s not put it off for another weekend, here are five ways to get that oven sparkle back for spring!
There’s an oven cleaning method for everyone and every state of oven cleanliness – or dirtiness. If you’re mostly on top of it, you can likely get away with a lemon refresh or if it’s at the other end of the scale (hello, it’s me) you might be looking for more of a chemical peel option to dislodge those baked-on remnants and dehydrated fries. #GUILTY
How often should you be cleaning your oven?
If you’re wondering exactly how long you should be cleaning the oven, every three to six months is the recommendation. Considering I can’t even REMEMBER the last time I did mine, I’m confident that an oven cleaning is well and truly overdue.
Some ovens DO clean themselves
Nope, not a myth, but if you have a fancy pants pyrolytic oven (a self-cleaning oven), you definitely DO want to utilise that self-clean feature and NOT use any commercial oven cleaners inside it as it can damage the enamel coating. If your oven is in dire need of cleaning and the self-clean doesn’t get it all the first time, run it again.
The more you clean now, the less you have to do later!
Spot cleaning along the way is a good oven-cleaning practice to get into. After all, it’s much easier to wipe the oven clean of that chocolate pudding spill when it’s fresh than chiselling off baked-on spills, months down the track.
And if you know something is likely going to make a mess, take precautions like putting a tray under the dish or using oven bags to reduce splatter and keep your oven cleaner for longer.
OK so now that we’re willing to right our oven cleaning wrongs, let’s explore the methods below.
5 ways for busy mums to nail oven cleaning
1. Clean your oven with lemons
If your oven is only mildly dirty and your racks are mostly clean, using lemons to refresh your oven is a great, natural way to clean the appliance – and it will smell so zesty fresh too.
Preheat the oven to 120°C. Fill an ovenproof bowl with water and place two lemons, cut in half in the bowl and place it on the rack for an hour. Turn off the oven and allow it to cool slightly. While the oven is still warm, give the inside walls and door a quick scrub and wipe it out with a dishcloth to finish.
2. Koh Universal Cleaner spray
For fume-free, no-chemical oven cleaning, Koh is as easy and pain-free as it gets! Mum Central put Koh Universal Cleaner through its paces with oven cleaning and the results sparkled. You can watch below to see just how easy it is to use.
Koh Universal Cleaner uses no harsh chemicals so it’s safe to use around babies, kids and pets. It’s also good for those who have allergies or sensitive skin and comes with approval from the National Asthma Council of Australia’s Sensitive Choice Program. Amazing, right?
3. A heavy-duty commercial oven cleaner
If your oven is REALLY bad (and you’ll know deep down in your heart if it is) there’s no shame in throwing a heavy-duty commercial oven cleaner at it. A complete oven cleaning system in a box, my go-to for years now has been OzKleen Oven Power.
It’s as easy as following the packaging instructions. There’s no scrubbing or scraping of oven racks, you pop them in the supplied bags with the cleaning gel and over a set time, the baked-on grease and grime lift and peel away. It’s truly amazing. It does stink though, so I recommend doing it when the kids are at school and the pets are outside.
4. Bicarb soda and vinegar
Is your oven glass looking a little blergh with baked-on bits? An excellent alternative to harsh chemical oven cleaners, Bi-Carb when used as a paste is quite an efficient oven cleaner. Dust the oven with the powder, apply a little water and a splash of vinegar to make a paste, scrub, rinse well and wipe over with a clean cloth. Voila!
5. The dishwasher tablet hack
What is used to clean your dishes can also prove to be a game-changer for cleaning your oven door! Take a dishwasher tablet and give it a quick dip under running water to help dissolve the outer plastic.
Wipe or spritz the oven door with warm water and (using gloves) scrub at the door glass with the dishwasher tablet. Prepare to be grossly (yet satisfyingly) horrified at the muck that you can wipe away with a damp cloth.
A note on cleaning oven doors
Many oven doors have simple clips keeping the inner-door glass in place. This can be really easy to remove to clean properly (those annoying drips between the glass, be gone!), but be VERY careful not to drop it or it will be an expensive mishap.
Lay a bath towel down on the kitchen bench (or floor) to gently lower the glass onto, to clean it without it slipping. Also, be mindful that your oven door doesn’t flick back up without the weight of the glass.
How often do you clean your oven? Are you a stickler for a clean appliance or more of a ‘few tea towels should hide it’ kind of girl? If you have a tried and true oven cleaning method, drop it in the comments below to share.
2 Comments
We put aluminium foil on the rungs under the one on which the food is cooking and the base of the oven. It catches any messes that may occur on the rungs or the base in the oven. We usually do roasts with aluminium foil on top of the food. It saves a lot of scrubbing, especially if you wipe them over with a damp cloth after enjoying your meal.
I clean my oven lightly every day, when I wipe the benches and stovetop I give a quick spray in the oven and wipe it over . It’s not a complete or thorough clean but it helps me stay in top of it