How to Clean an Oven: 7 Best & Easy Tips

Cleaning the oven is a chore that often gets overlooked by many homeowners. With a self-cleaning function and a dimly lit interior area, most people are led to believe that these machines are incapable of acquiring stains and hardened food particles. As a matter of fact, there are three tell-tale signs that signal it’s time for an oven to get cleaned: the appearance of stain residues, the strong smell of odor and the unusual trace of smoke.

When it comes to the actual deed of cleaning the entire thing, ovens aren’t necessarily hard to tidy up. With the right set of cleaning tools and the knowledge of the cleaning how-tos, you can make the overall task bearable and easy to manage.

How Often Should You Clean Your Oven?

Most of the time, how often you use your oven will tell you how often you should clean it. If you’re a baker or a cook who relies on the machine to cook most of your meals, cleaning it once every three months is a good rule of thumb to live by. On the other hand, if you’re just the occasional oven user, cleaning it once or twice a year is a good way of maintaining the appliance.

Related article: Kitchen Cleaning Checklist for Daily, Weekly, Monthly Tasks

Materials for Cleaning

1. Store-bought oven cleaner
2. Baking soda
3. Water
4. Vinegar
5. Spray bottle
6. Lemons
7. Rubber hand gloves
8. Protective safety goggles
9. Old newspapers
10. Paper towels
11. Cloth rags
12. Pumice
13. Microfiber sponge
14. Garbage bag
    

How to Clean Oven: 7 Ways and Tips To Follow

1. Use the self-cleaning function

If you use the oven moderately, you can use the self-cleaning function to do the job for you. Simply press the self-clean button of the machine and this will make the machine climb to a high temperature of 550 degrees. This extreme heat will take care of the grease and stains inside the machine by melting them out of existence. But if you have a large build-up of stains and food particles inside, forget the self-cleaning function. Roll up your sleeves, get your cleaning supplies and do the deed of cleaning the machine yourself.‍

2. Use store-bought cleaning materials to remove stains

• Before cleaning the machine, you must first remove all items from the machine such as racks, pizza stones, thermometers and grills.
• Spread out the newspapers or paper towels below the oven to protect your kitchen floor from getting any stains or scratches
• Wear your rubber hand gloves and protective safety glasses before cleaning. Once fully equipped with the gear, spray the machine using the oven cleaner. Do this for the interior, back, sides, bottom, top, door and even the crevices of the machine. If you’re cleaning an electric type, be careful not to spray on the heating elements. Instead, simply lift the area up and spray gently underneath. For gas types, avoid spraying where the gas passes through.
• Let the oven cleaner solution sit inside the machine and the surfaces for about 20-30 minutes.
• Take your oven racks outside and spray them with the cleaning solution. Afterwards, place these oven racks inside a plastic garbage bag and shut tight. Leave the bag outside for a few minutes.
• Get the damp cloth rag and wipe down the machine's surfaces. Use a wet pumice to remove the sticky spots in the machine.

3. Use DIY cleaning materials

You can create your own cleaning materials when tidying up your oven. A good natural and DIY cleaning solution is the powerful combination of baking soda and water. The sodium bicarbonate removes the stains and the water loosens food particles to further break down the dirt.

4. Use sodium bicarbonate and vinegar

If you want to only use natural cleaning ingredients for your oven, you can go the DIY route and get the following: baking soda, vinegar and water. The powder is a very powerful ingredient when cleaning almost anything in the kitchen or at home. Paired with vinegar, the solution gets an extra cleaning power due to the liquid’s abrasive material.‍

5. Use lemons to tidy up the machine

• Get a medium-sized and oven-safe mixing bowl with water. Cut two fresh lemons and place them inside the bowl.
• Turn on and heat the machine for about 250 degrees.
• Once the machine is fully heated, place the bowl with the lemons inside and leave it for at least one hour.
• Let the oven cool down after an hour and open the door to release some of the heat.
• Once cooled down, put on your gloves and wipe down every corner of the oven with the mist and moisture of the lemon extracts.
• Wipe any remaining grease and grime inside the machine using a clean and dry cloth.
  

6. Steam clean the outside of your machine

You can also use a steam cleaner to do the trick in removing grease and dirt from your machine. If you have a handheld steam cleaner at home, just turn it on, press the trigger and begin releasing the steam around the area.

7. Hire a professional home cleaning expert

While cleaning the oven machine using any of these methods is highly effective, getting a professional home cleaning service or oven cleaners is another good way to get your oven clean.

Clean Your Oven The Right Way

Removing grease and food stains from the machine might seem challenging at first, but with the right set of cleaning tools and steps, you can make the whole process easy and manageable! There may be a lot of ways to clean the machine, but if you choose the right method to go with your cleaning requirement, you can easily do it with ease.