I love a clean house, but I am going to be totally real here and I have a confession to make. I never hardly ever clean my oven. Okay it’s out….but I am turning over a new leaf. I think my biggest problem is out-of-site out-of-mind. When I am cleaning my kitchen I would always just forget. Or it would be too big of a project to tackle during my kitchen cleaning time and then again I would just forget. I have tried my “self-cleaning” oven feature before but it really did not work…old appliances. But then every time I would open it up to put something in my preheated oven I would think, oh my gosh I have to clean my oven!! But at this point it is preheated and way too hot. So in goes the food. Then when taking the food out I would think….oh my gosh I NEED to clean my oven!! But of course the oven was still way too hot so I would close it and move on with dinner. And the same pattern would continue. Can anyone else relate?? So on a normal day-to-day basis I usually don’t spill much, if anything, in my oven. But at holiday time when baking turkeys and hams and basting is going on….and your husband tends to splatter and spill turkey juice all over the oven….and then you forget to clean it like I said above your oven can look like this. Gasp!!!!
Okay, once you take your jaw up off the floor, or stop laughing, take a few deep breaths. Hopefully I have not scared everyone away for good! Remember, we had a major turkey juice explosion that happened last Thanksgiving and it has just been cooked and re-cooked on the oven for several months now. So total #homemakerfail right here. And I feel the picture with the flash makes it looks worse on camera….kind of like the camera is said to add 10 pounds?? Okay, now that everyone else feels better about themselves and their homemaking abilities let’s get to the point. I was going through Facebook one time and I saw a video about a natural oven cleaner. I watched the video and thought it looked so cool so I wanted to try it. Maybe you have seen it?? Sorry I have no idea who to give credit to here. So I wrote down the recipe thinking I needed to try it and see if it would work on my horrible oven. Since my oven is the worst of the worst I figure it will be a good test if this actually works! 😉 I am all about “natural” cleaning so this was right up my alley. I think I let the recipe sit in my drawer a few months, you know how I like to “forget” to clean my oven, but finally about a month ago I got the stuff and made it happen. If you follow me on Instagram you saw this beautiful oven cleaner that I put together.
You just put in a mason jar an orange peel, lemon peel, rosemary and white vinegar. Let that sit for 5 days and then pour the liquid in a spray bottle.
When you are ready to start cleaning remove your oven racks and then sprinkle out baking soda all over your oven and then spray on your oven cleaner all over the baking soda. Let that sit for 20 min and then clean off with a scrubby sponge.
Well you can see it made decent progress. If your oven was not as gross as mine, or if you didn’t let the spilled stuff sit there as long, it probably would be looking a lot better after the first round and that would probably be all you need! The part of my oven where all that turkey juice dripped out was the worst. I actually did about 2 more rounds of putting baking soda down, spraying on more oven cleaner, and cleaning it off. Then I got it to look like this.
So starting to look better. If you go back up two pictures you can see that the door still looked awful and the see through part had stuck on stuff that would not budge. I knew I needed the help of something else. Young Living lemon essential oil to the rescue! This stuff is amazing on so many things….removes grease stains, crayon marks, permanent marker off of floors, have you ever accidentally washed your kid’s shirt to realize after the fact it had a sticker on it and then it came out glued on?? Well lemon oil will take it right out and not ruin the shirt! It also has great health benefits too! By by Goo Gone! So I thought I would put it to the test on my stubborn oven door…
There you have it! I put some drops of it all over, let it sit a few minutes and then rubbed it off. I did have to rub on it with my sponge but at least it was working.
I also added some lemon oil to the really stubborn turkey dipping spots on my oven and it seemed to do the trick! Not perfect but a million times better than the top picture!!
So overall I have to say that the natural oven cleaner worked pretty well. I did have to try it about 3 times on the really stubborn spots but if I used a toxic oven cleaner from the store I probably would have had to use that a couple rounds too. Maybe that was another reason I never liked cleaning my oven before. When using the store bought oven cleaners I felt like all those toxic fumes were going into the next several things I baked in my oven. Yuck! And then for the really stubborn spots I recommend lemon oil! So my new plan is to never let my oven get like this again! I did this about a month ago and it still looks just as good. After next Thanksgiving I plan to tackle it right away!
I would love to hear what your worst or most unfavorite thing to clean is!
I would love if you would join my Friday link-up party!
- 1 orange peel
- 1 lemon peel
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- white vinegar
- mason jar
- Spray bottle
- 1-2 boxes of baking soda (depends how dirty your oven is)
- Lemon Essential Oil (optional for really stuck on stains)
- Add your orange peel, lemon peel, and rosemary to a mason jar.
- Fill up the jar with vinegar.
- Put on the lid and let it sit for 5 days.
- After 5 days pour the liquid into a spray bottle.
- Remove your oven racks and sprinkle down baking soda all over.
- Spray your oven cleaner all over the baking soda.
- Let sit for 20 minutes and scrub off. (I used one of those sponges that are yellow on one side and have the green scrubby part on the other side.)
- Repeat if necessary.
- Use Lemon Essential Oil for any really stuck on stains or grease spots.
mommyhomemanager says
Ooh, I bet this smells amazing! I should try it out. 🙂
Jen says
Yes, and so much better than the toxic smell from store bought cleaners!!
Barrie Bismark says
Wow! I’ll have to try this. My oven is bad. Really bad.
Jen says
Okay so you just made me feel so much better! I was hesitant to post my horrible oven pictures! LOL!! Glad I am not the only one. 🙂
Ariella (Aritha) says
Thank you so much!!
Unmasking the Mess says
Thank you! I’m going to try this 🙂
Visiting from #TuneInThursday
Jen says
You are welcome and thanks for visiting!
Tracy @ Our Simple Homestead says
I am guilty to of forgetting to clean my oven. I think I purposely forget because I hate the smell of the oven cleaner. So I am definitely going to try your recipe. Thanks
Jen says
You are welcome! I totally agree. I felt like all those toxic fumes were seeping into my food!
satrntgr says
I love this idea! The products on the market make me sick, and this would help the kitchen to smell amazing! 🙂 Pinning this!
Jen says
Thank you! Yes, I don’t like the products that you can find in most stores. I have stitched everything to natural products. 🙂
House of Hollingsworth Blog says
I think you got really great results with this recipe and I highly doubt a chemical could have removed all that baked on goodness in one go anyway. As an added bonus, I bet your oven smelled amazing afterwards when you went to use it. xx
Jen says
Yes, it did do a good job. I’m sure a chemical cleaner would have still took lots of scrubbing. I loved how after cleaning I had no toxins seeping into my food the next time I used it.
Lynda Hardy says
Oh great job! Cleaning the oven is my least favorite thing in the world – nothing could make it rate higher for me, but getting it done without inhaling toxins would at least not make it as bad as it could be! Thanks for sharing with Awesome Life Friday! 🙂
rchreviews.blogspot.com
Jen says
I hear you not fun, hence I let it go so long! Yes, totally ditch those toxins!
Teresa says
Very unique oven cleaner! My oven looks just about like yours so maybe I’ll give it a try. I really like the lemon oil, I had never heard of it. Thank you for sharing at Party in Your PJs! Pinned and shared.
Jen says
Thanks! Yes, totally try the cleaner and the lemon oil is great for the really stuck on stuff!
Rhonda Gales says
I love homemade cleaning solutions. Baking soda and vinegar are amazing together. I wonder if this would work on Pyrex baking dishes and glass top stoves? Please share your posts on my Sunday’s Best Linkup. We’re live now. Starts every Saturday at 8:00 PM EST.
Jen says
It might work on that and also the lemon oil would probably be good for those too! I will check out your link-up!
starsunflower says
Wonderful recipe! Bonus of aromatherapy while cleaning as well. I absolutely love the smell of lemon essential oil. Anyways, having a really good scrubby sponge is probably important too. Those toxic oven cleaners are so nasty! thanks for sharing this great recipe. I found you on the “You’re the star link party”. Happy Monday!
Jen says
Thank you and glad you like it! Lemon EO is amazing and I agree I so don’t like those toxic oven cleaners! Have a great week!
Maxine says
Thanks for the. formula. I did get some help with a paste of baking powder and vinegar but still have more to do. My terribly baked on area is relatively small (only on the right side) but have been working on it for the past two hours after having the formula sit for 6 hours first. I’m going to buy your ingredients Monday and will let you know which works better.