Today I tackled my oven. I know it's going to be a shock to some of you, but I've never cleaned an oven in my life. I just found it easier to move! But since we've been in this house for 10 years I figured I better give it a go. There is this charcoaly stuff left over from an over flow of sweet potatoes and marshmallows from Thanksgiving.............about 6 years ago! It smelled really good the first 10 times I turned on the oven but now it's just a charcoaly mess! So I figured once every 10 years isn't to bad to clean an oven. What do you think? lol! I can't say I haven't tried but I just couldn't stand the smell of those cleaners and would give up before I got started. Anything that takes a gas mask and thick rubber gloves should be a dead giveaway NOT to use it. So with that said, I know you just can't wait to get a look at my yucky oven, so here you go. To better enhance your viewing experience you should click the picture to enlarge. I want you to fully appreciate the job I did. Ha! Ha!
Here is the before! Duh!
And the after. There is still a twinge of black sweet potato mess left but it was determined to stay so I felt sorry for it and let it. Now how did I clean this so "easily" and non toxic?
Here is the miracle worker. I had just gotten this hand held steamer cleaner in a combo pack with the steam mop. I wasn't sure what I was going to use it on but I filled it with water and plugged it in. I was zapping everything with it. It was breaking up messes that cleaners couldn't touch. I was now a woman on a mission. Looking around to see what else I could blast, it was like a light from heaven shining down on my oven with the Hallejulah chorus in the back ground, I knew what I was to do next. Me, me, me it seemed to say. Clean me. I lowered the door and in I went. I started spraying like a mad woman and the grease started to break up and I was able to wipe it off with ease. No messy chemicals or smells. The only thing I used on the stubborn charcoaly mess was some scrub stuff from Shaklee which is a non toxic cleanser. With a little elbow grease I was able to get almost all the mess up. I highly recommend both of these two products and I'm sure the steamer will be a Works for Me Wednesday star some time in the near future. I want to play with it more first.
This just in. I've had most of the comments say something about their self cleaning oven. Well mine is a self cleaning oven lol. But it just never seemed to get this horrible black stuff off so I had to use drastic measures and do it myself. Plus like Debra said in her comments, the fact that the self cleaning thing gets so hot it kind of intimidated me.
So there you have it. My tremendous tackle for this Tuesday!
For more tremendously, tough, terrific tackles, go check out 5 Minutes for Mom.
Blessings my friends.
That is a tremendous tackle!! Good job!!
ReplyDeleteWith all the baking and cooking I do, I have to clean my oven as the manufacturer recommends. So, I bought a self-cleaning oven. It still stinks to high heaven but it is hands-off:-)
I'm so glad that I have always had a self-cleaning oven. I'm afraid that if I didn't, it would never get cleaned! Sadly, all appliances are not self-cleaning. Someone should really do something about that.
ReplyDeleteWonderful job! I am impressed. :o)
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI am laughing out loud right now, my friend! Dying! We both know how much I cook and bake right..but when we moved...my sister (who doesn't cook at ALL, I might add) came over and looked in my oven and said "when is the last time you cleaned this?" and I said "uh, never" (actually, Jay had to once, see below) ...She flipped out! She said, it's self cleaning! But I'm convinced nothing should burn that hot and the house will catch on fire so I never did it and I can't stand the chemicals either!
So one time I made fish sticks (you know, one of our favorites..quit rolling your eyes) and they were covered in black! So my hubby did buy something to spray on it and we left the house for 2 hours and we came back and he wiped it down...I've so digressed...
I love the sprayer thing!! Hope you have a Happy Tuesday, my friend. ((hugs)) to you!
Wow!! Awesome tackle! Now you just inspired me to do mine next week!!! Scary!
ReplyDeleteToo funny! My husband and I have lived in 6 houses in the last 9 years and there were a few ovens that I just never got to. It was easier to just move. I do have that self cleaning feature and have for the last, oh, 3 or 4 houses....but.... I still don't clean as often as I should! I will add that when we move we hire cleaners to come in and I always have them clean the oven (I wouldn't want the next lady of the house to have to start out with a dirty oven)!
ReplyDeleteLast Friday I cleaned my microwave. I had been neglecting it and it was horrible :( I filled a mug with water and a few tablespoons of lemon juice and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes. After that most of the gunk just wiped off but I had to put the mug back in for another 3 minutes to get the rest off since it was so gross to begin with. My husband opened it up on Sunday and was shocked, he asked if I had bought a new microwave, lol.
We have a self-cleaning oven, but I don't want to stink up my house. I'm soooooooo obnoxious when it comes to stuff like that and it drives hubby crazy. LOL We have one of these steamers though. Yeehaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
ReplyDeleteYou did a marvelous job and I applaud you for going the non-toxic route!
My version of "self-cleaning": Buy the extra long roll of Reynolds Wrap, tear off a piece the width of the oven, place it under the coil on the floor of the oven. When the lava has piled up enough to merit "cleaning", pull out the foil, ball it up, throw it away and put down a new piece.
ReplyDeleteLove it :) And congrats on your first oven-cleaning! That steamer looks pretty cool (well, hot actualy, but you know...)!
I thought that oven looks familiar. It's a GE Spectra. Right? I have one just like it,(LOL before picture). I could never get the glass sparkling clean. Can you?
ReplyDeleteWow what a tackle!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have always had self-cleaning ovens so getting them clean wasn't a problem. But three years ago, we moved from a rental house into the house we're in now. The rental house didn't have a self-cleaning oven...and I wanted every penny of my security/cleaning deposit back. So I made sure to get that oven sparkling. It was definitely a rubber gloves job!!
And in some ways, my dear, we ought to look at keeping our ovens clean as a spiritual lesson. If we just cleaned up each mess as it happens, then we wouldn't have a disaster on our hands. But we let one spill-over remain, and then another and another. Then we end up with years' worth of gunk...difficult to clean. Here's the spiritual lesson. With the sin in our lives, we need to confess immediately rather than ignoring it or wallowing in it for weeks or years. Less of a mess to clean up!!
Blessings on your day,
Patti
Hello precious sister Kim!
ReplyDeleteI think we have the same oven! Except yours is clean and well.....okay, I better go clean mine now! THANKS!!! :-) Is your oven a Thermador? B/c if it is, I'm going to die! That would be so funny if we had the same exact oven!
And thank you for the tip! That's a great idea for it sounds like...everything! I have asthma so I don't do well with most cleaners either...so I just don't clean....just kidding. :-)
Hey, I have a bloggy award waiting for you at my place! Come by and grab it won't you?
You inspire me, make me think and laugh all at the same time! You're a blessing sister! You really are!
Much love in Christ,
Sunny
You are AWESOME! I am so in the same boat as you - cleaning the oven is intimidating! It's still pretty new, so I can get away with not cleaning for at least eight more years! ;)
ReplyDeleteWOW! I would of looked closer at your dirty oven, but I was afraid you'd push me in! (Isn't there a fairytale about something like that?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I LOL when you said you never cleaned your ovens because you always moved! Same here! ;-)
BUT, I JUST bought a brand new stove, so I think I'm going to start doing MAINTENANCE each time I drop a crumb so it never gets THAT bad...
Yeah, right, we'll see how that goes! ;-)
((((GOOD JOB!!!)))
And here's another thought on our ovens. Why is it that we let the spills and junk pile up for months (or years)? I mean, we certainly wipe up spills on our kitchen counter. So why do we just let the spills in our oven just stay there. There could be another spiritual lesson there, huh? Like cleaning up on the outside and not cleaning up the inside!!
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love my spiritual lessons from the oven? Kind of corny, huh?
Love you, dear friend,
Patti
Good idea, I am still waiting for my new oven and stove to get installed, heck I am still waiting for my new kitchen to be built. You would think a retired fireman/ carpenter would understand what it means to "light a fire under him" to get things done! Good grief! Any one want to buy a new stove? It is in the garage and it is pretty!
ReplyDeleteOMGoodness! Are you sure you didn't just buy a new oven? You did a wonderful job!
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, what a great idea. I need one of those for cleaning.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a self cleaning oven. I really don't want to use chemicals either so I haven't cleaned my oven in . . . nevermind. Guess I should get to it to get it ready for the holiday season.
ReplyDelete10 years??? Seriously? Mine are self cleaners too but the smell is awful. Brenda uses her Shark on her jacuzzi bathtub too. I may have to put this little thing on my wish list!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I hate cleaning the oven myself.
ReplyDeleteWow, it looks awesome! I've heard of the steam cleaner, but to see how it works is definitely more convincing for me. I just cleaned my oven today with baking soda and sos. It looks a lot better than it was, but I know the steam cleaner would probably make it look awesome! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the award! :D
Fantastic job! I've been wanting a steamer like that for some time... maybe I can convince the husband. :)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try this! I'm intimidated by the self-cleaning thing too, my neighbor's oven actually caught fire inside and we couldn't open it to use the fire extinguisher because it locks!
ReplyDeleteYour oven looks so pretty now - you better not cook anything for a while! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know I'm not the only one with an oven like that. Mine is also a self-cleaning, but the first time we did it - it was running full blast for a few hours which we figured ran our bill way up - didn't seem like a good idea.
The steamer looks fun to use!