Some chores just get put off, forgotten and procrastinated until they are horrible.
This spring has been a time of spring cleaning for our family. I had surgery in January so MANY things around the house just had to wait.
One of them was my stove. It had gotten BAD.
One of the things I have resolved this year is to use more natural cleaners and less chemicals. So far using vinegar to get rid of hard water stains & get rid of a musty smell in my washer are the only changes I have made.
One thing that has built up in my kitchen is the grease on the back where the knobs are located. It is a hard thing to take a photo but here is my best try.
I tried wiping it off with vinegar but that didn’t take off the stickiness of the grease. This was going to need a stronger scratchier cleaner. I decided to pull out good old baking soda.
I wet my rag down, made a bit of a paste & just went to work. I love it when something so simple works so well. The sticky grease was gone and things were shiny once again.
The stove top wasn’t greasy but there were several places that had food that was cooked on. One of our favorite foods is rice and it regularly boils over. More baking soda here & worked up the paste right on the stove top. I did let it set for several minutes before I went to work but again the baking soda went right to work.
The last thing that desperately needed to be done was to clean out the oven. As you can see it has been a LONG while.
I could have run the self-cleaning cycle but with that much in the bottom it would have stunk up the house so I just used a little whisk broom to sweep it all out. I will still run the cleaning cycle but on a day where I can open the windows up to air out the smell.
I will have to try the baking soda! I use natural cleaners, too, and usually that just includes soda, vinegar, alcohol and water. Lately I've been using Caldrea brand counter-top cleaner that I buy on Amazon.com. My daughter sent me some for Christmas and it WORKS and is all natural, however, it's rather expensive. When I got my new propane stove last year, I found myself having to soak the spillage with ammonia all night to get the burned on things off. It may be that a smooth topped range is easier to clean. I only use the Caldrea on the stove. It saves me SO much time. I will try the soda again, though, and see if that will work. It is very nice to have a clean stove, isn't it. I hope you are ok - you mentioned surgery. I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteI abhor cleaning the stove. Thanks for the tip about the baking soda! We're in the Army and moving this summer - they're ultra-picky about us cleaning the house when we move out, so I'll definitely be trying this on the stove. When we move, I'll be getting rid of all of our cleaning supplies since the movers won't take them for us. Once we set up house overseas, I plan to use more natural cleaners, both for eco-friendly and economical reasons, so baking soda and vinegar are top on the list!
ReplyDeleteI came over from WFMW. Have a great day!
I use baking soda and vinegar almost exclusively. I've not tried the baking soda on the knobs though...used ammonia - whew. Thanks.
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