Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Cleaning the oven with baking soda

A lot of The Work is dealing with things as they come up. I made it through most of my before-baby task list, but I didn't get around to cleaning the oven. Then recently there were some spills in it that made it set off the smoke alarm when I tried to use it.

But I didn't want to use oven cleaner on it, because it is the middle of winter, and none of us, least of all the baby, needs to be breathing oven cleaner fumes. So I used baking soda instead.

The advice that I've read from cleaning professionals is that if you are going to use cleaning chemicals, don't skimp on the quantity, and give them plenty of time to work. So I used a good amount of baking soda, mixed in a little water to make a paste, and applied it to the oven. And also to the racks, separately.

I left it for a few hours, and then rinsed and scrubbed the baking soda off. It didn't get everything, but with a lot of elbow grease it got the worst of it off.

The racks came out somewhat better, as I was able to scrub them with very hot water in the utility sink. They're not perfect, but are shiny enough to "read" as clean now when I open the oven.

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