Spring Cleaning: Deep Clean the Oven

Spring cleaning. Also known as doing those irregular tasks that no one likes to do! I feel like I'm nearly done doing the tasks I set out to do. And I've added in another one. Like cleaning our oven. Or ovens. My friend Amy was needing inspiration to get hers done, so I mentally added it to my list.  I didn't really think it needed to be done as it was pretty clean when we moved in but I was wrong.

The lower oven was in really good shape. There were some crumbs in there, but I was able to just wipe it all down and it looks sparkly clean as you can see in the pictures. (Mental note: Do not to use this one ever again so there is less to clean on move out!)

Here is the upper oven before I started cleaning:

It's not awful. And it would have been easy to just skip it. However, I decided some of you may need motivation, so in the spirit of team player I'm cleaning my oven. I suppose if we all did these more frequently they would be easier to clean.

When we moved out of our last home I cleaned our oven with Easy Off Oven spray. I really dislike the self clean oven smell as well as commercial cleaners, even though they do work! I decided I would try several things this time. 

I cleaned the glass portion of the oven door with cook top cleaner. I figured it is primarily glass like a cook top so should be fine. And it did help dissolve a lot of the grease splatters. I squirted in on, rubbed it around with some paper towels. After drying most of the way I clean it off. It was pretty good at that point, but then I decided go over it a second time with a stainless steel wool pad so I could get more scrubbing action. That did get rid of the rest of the baked on grease!

I would be very cautious with the steel wool pads. I do think I left some scrubbing scratches. They are pretty minor. In the future, I will probably skip that on this oven since I am not the owner. But look how shiny!! 

I did a little looking online for natural oven cleaners. I came across several blogs here and here that explained how they used baking soda and water to clean their ovens. I was shocked that something so simple could actually work. I decided to try in my oven.

I used several methods of applying the baking soda. Including sprinkling it on the bottom, which did work pretty well (but I didn't take a picture). 

I found that mixing baking soda and water in a cup and applying it with my fingers worked pretty well. It was more runny than thick, but not too thin. I just played around with measurements. I also waited fifteen to twenty minutes before wiping the baking soda off. It work better on the bottom than the sides. And it takes quite of bit off rinsing and wiping to get rid of all that baking soda residue. 

Here's what that side above looked like before I started.

I think it's cleaner. It seems like it even though I couldn't get all the little grease splatters off. Those really like to stick on don't they! One of the blogs I linked to used an overnight process that would probably help. And I only did one pass of the baking soda. If I was really motivated I would apply the solution again. And if I were moving out I would guess this oven would pass the clean enough test!

I did not clean the oven racks. They probably need it, but I don't know what the trick is for those yet, do you? And by the way, my friend Amy who asked if I would do a post to motivate her to do hers completed hers two days before I worked on mine! Who is motivating whom here?! She used an oven cleaner by Norwex that she thought did a pretty good job. 

How do you clean your oven? How often do you clean it and what do you use?