You're not the only person who puts off cleaning their oven until it is 110% necessary. Instagram user Michelle Gundehein (@michelleogundehin) shows users a simple, nontoxic way to clean their ovens in a jiffy.
The scoop
Michelle starts with a metal spatula, removing any loose material from the oven, such as caked-on burnt batter or food residue. She then sprinkles bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) onto the bottom of the oven before "mixing it into a thick paste with just water."
"Smear that all over the inside of your oven," she explains. As she moves her gloved hand across the oven, piles and piles of grime come off the oven quickly. Michelle explains that this hack works because the baking soda reacts with the grease in the oven.
As the paste sits in the oven for an hour to an hour and a half, she places the racks into a "bath" in her sink with some bicarbonate and lets the grease come off overnight. While she waits, she returns to her oven and uses a light scouring pad to wipe up any lingering grease. "No trickery involved whatsoever," she remarks.
After removing all the residue, she returns with a quick coat of white vinegar, noting that this will neutralize the baking soda into water. The video shows a radical transformation of the oven from dirty to pristine.
How it's helping
"You never need to use any of these toxic oven cleaners that you find at the supermarket, no matter how dirty your oven," Michelle explains.
These chemical oven cleaners, often made with noxious chemicals like butoxydiglycol or sodium hydroxide, can irritate the eyes, lungs, and mucus membranes. Many brands recommend users wipe down their ovens with vinegar and water or turn on the oven to burn off the lingering toxic residue before using the appliance for cooking.
This simple and inexpensive hack can decrease the risks of coming into contact with these dangerous synthetic chemicals.
What everyone's saying
Users were thrilled with this simple cleaning hack. "So good to see this, thanks so much for sharing; the shelves of unnecessary and unhealthy cleaning products in shops make me so cross and sad," one commented.
Others were surprised by how easy it is to combine baking soda and elbow grease to clean even the dirtiest ovens. Another viewer shared, "Not the content I was expecting at the top of my feed but glued to watch until the very end nonetheless!"
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