Allow me to veer off, just for today, into Desperate Housewives territory…
About a year ago, we finally ditched the last bottle of our traditional brand name cleaning products. We’re Whole Foods suckers – going for Seventh Generation anything, Ecover and – most recently – Vancouver’s own, most fantastic Sapadilla brand dishwashing liquid. (One of these days I’ll actually eat it).
With a combination of baking soda, vinegar, Borax, Sapodilla suds, Dr. Bronners and a micro fiber cloth – there isn’t anything I can’t keep sparking clean. (Of superb help is Young House Love’s list of cleaning recipes). Sure, there’s the occasional bleach-bath after raw chicken visits the kitchen – but that’s about as chemically laden as we get.
Am I dreaming? The longer I spend apart from the nasty chemical stuff, the more it seems to bother me.
- A walk down a drug store’s cleaning product aisle has my throat burning.
- Sleeping in bed sheets washed in normal laundry detergent stinks of chemicals.
- (Check out David Suzuki’s article on fragrances – terrifying)
Can I stop caring for a day?
For our last apartment’s final clean-out, I decided I didn’t really care. I wanted it cleaned – and quickly. So I went to the store for some oven cleaner. And immediately changed my mind. I couldn’t help it – ever read the back of that can? Ahmadinejad’s worst has nothing on commercial oven cleaner. No way was that shit coming within a mile of my mucous membranes. Why seek out organic food to undo it all in a toxic oven? Nuh uh. I got good and Googley.
Home-made oven cleaner?
Well, duh. Baking soda. (Thanks One Project Closer!) The helpful team @ OPC told me to coat the oven’s innards with a baking soda paste. A blizzard of bicarb. I just filled an empty spray bottle with water and baking soda, shook well, and sprayed the hell out of the oven.
Over & over & over. It got adorably compulsive.
Living that week on a strict diet of toast and popsicles (hey – it was summer!), I didn’t need to cook. So I just left the door open and within a few hours it’d dried to leave white powder caked across the oven’s interior.
“Spray more, spray more!”
Have to admit, I had little faith in the result but was enjoying the grade school science fair experience. I sprayed the crap out of the oven for probably 3 days straight. It was a snowstorm in there – pure white.
Then I just shut the door and ignored it for a solid week. The spraying had been fun but scrubbing? Not so much. You won’t sell me on that any day. Like any chronic procrastinator I left the grotty chore until the last minute: cleaning-then-hand-in-the-keys day.
I only had a blue & white J-cloth. I sudsed it up with trusty Sapadilla, then got to work.
Holy mother of hell.
It wiped clean. No scrubbing. It just came off, clean as anything. 5 minutes later – I had a new oven. Well, the new tenant did. (Well, the new tenant when the landlord finds one). What I had was a totally black, disgusting J-Cloth headed straight to its burial.
Never buy oven cleaner again. Never use oven cleaner again. If you’ve got it – throw it away.
Baking soda. Make friends.
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Full photo credit to kennymatic and Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr Creative Commons
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Nice tip Lauren! I hope I don’t have to wash my oven for a while, but when I do, I will use baking soda.
P.S. Did you see this article? http://projectdome.blogspot.com/2010/09/six-degrees-at-work.html
Too true – I don’t plan to stick so much as 1 finger inside that Harvest Gold beast. It’s going – and soon! Thanks for the article link – that’s nuts! And such a compliment.
Fascinating! I think I’ll be trying this soon… but I don’t know if I can wait a week, because I use my oven too much… but I’ll give it a couple of days with the buildup in my oven.
Hi Ivy – thanks! My mum also mentioned it’d be a good alternative to using the self-cleaning function (on a new oven) as well…. Apparently that cycle uses tons of electricity. Who knew! Do let me know your results.
YES! I adore baking soda. One time I got a nice red Jell-o stain on the ugly beige formica countertop in my former rental. I freaked out for about 2 minutes and then *lightbulb went off* I grabbed the baking soda and scrubbed like a madwoman.
I also use baking soda for my ceramic cooktop stove. I haven’t found anything else that really gets all the cooked-on grime off.
I’m in love with B.S.
Spread the baking soda love! (I buy it in bulk. Ridiculous).
Baking soda and/or hot vinegar can do anything. And I love that most spray bottles now come with ratio lines printed on the side so I don’t have to mess around with funnels.
Haha I love the name of your blog, Jessica! … How do you heat the vinegar btw? On the stove? Or mix in hot water?
Am moving in a month and a half and have been dreading the (what I thought was) inevitable purchase of harsh oven cleaner. I’ve obviously never been patient enough with my own basking soda cleaning attempts… Will plan to start oven cleaning a week in advance! Thanks for the tip!
Take care.
Noo don’t do it Lisa! Save the dosh & buy yourself a coffee
(An organic coffee – wooo enviro-snobbery!)
lol Cheers to that! I mean, if you’re going to be snobby about something….
Wow, that’s pretty impressive!! Is there anything baking soda can’t do??
We have a self-cleaning over — it just uses mega-heat and turns the oven crud into ashes.
A friend of mine sells Shaklee cleaners. I’m totally not into the whole pyramid scheme thing, but I did buy a bottle of Basic H2 from her and I have to say, it works pretty well. It’s totally chemical-free, and cleans everything I’ve tried it on so far — even the car interior.
And yes, I incorporate subliminal messages into my blog posts to convert everyone to the purple side
Kelly
How long does the self-cleaning process take?
Great tip! I haven’t cleaned my oven yet because I thought we were going to buy a new one. 5 years later…no new stove.
Gotta love the baking soda. A long time ago I did a post on making my own toothpaste with baking soda. It comes down to being really cheap.
Haha! Surely this weekend is as good as any for a family trip to Sears!? How’d the toothpaste turn out? (Wear the cheap badge with pride!)
The toothpaste isn’t half bad. You can’t use it as a primary toothpaste but it is def. better than all of those chemicals.
Here’s the link http://justovertheriver.blogspot.com/2009/12/toothpaste-resolution.html
Cool – thanks!
Love the Star War Lego pic btw!!
Makes me wonder who’s on the flames..perhaps Chewie got just a wee bit too close.
It’s great, isn’t it? I found it on Flickr’s Creative Commons and funnily enough it’s from a local Vancouver photographer. He’s got tons of hilarious Lego photos – my favourite toy ever!