One of the worst parts of a spring clean, in my honest opinion, is cleaning your oven – I dread the thought of it every time it comes around. Even if I only need to clean the oven once a year, it is absolutely all I could ever tolerate. Over the years, I have learned the best ways on how to clean my oven without chemicals, and there seems to be one good way of doing so. That seems to be using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. So, without further ado, let me tell you how to clean an oven quickly & without chemicals.

How to Clean your Oven using Baking Soda + Vinegar Combo

Although you and I as well as everybody else who dreads the thought of cleaning their oven, believe that it can take endless hours of scrubbing – it really doesn’t.

It does take some time for the baking soda mixture to settle, but it is all worth it in the end.

The best part about this method beyond the time it takes us to clean the oven, is the fact that you will have everything you need in the cupboards of your kitchen, allowing you to get started right after reading my step by step guide.

Things you’ll need

• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Water
• Spray bottle
• Damp cloth
• Rubber gloves
• Empty Your Oven

Preparation

Remove trays, racks, or anything else that you have stored in your oven.

• Make your paste

In a small-ish mixing bowl, add a cup of baking soda with a teaspoon or so of water. This formula needs to be spreadable, so please keep adding water till you get the desired texture.

• Add the paste to the oven

Now that you’ve got your paste ready, spread it inside your oven, staying clear of the heating elements which are generally found at the top of the oven. Apply the paste with by hand (whilst wearing gloves of course). This allows you to get into the hard to reach places which may go uncoated if you were to use some sort of cleaning tool. Don’t worry too much about having the same consistency across the entire oven, just make sure everything is covered; especially the very greasy areas.

• Leave it to sit overnight

Once you’ve thoroughly covered the inside of your oven with baking soda paste, you’re going to want to leave it for at least 12 hours. Personally, I always left it overnight just to be sure the homemade paste can work its magic.

• Wipe the oven clean

Now that 12 hours have passed, you’re going to want to take a damp cloth and wipe away as much of the dried baking soda paste as you possibly can. You can use some sort of spatula to help get into the hard to reach places.

• Spray some vinegar.

Next, you’re going to want to grab the spray bottle I recommended in the beginning, and add a little bit of white vinegar to it – spraying everywhere where you can still see baking soda.

• Give it a final wipe down

Grab your damp cloth once again and wipe away the remaining foamy areas, which should have formed thanks to the mixture of vinegar-baking soda in your oven. If you still see baking soda residue, feel free to spray vinegar once again. Doing so as many times as needed to make sure your oven is all shiny and clean.

• Replace everything

Add back your oven racks and anything else that sits in your oven; and you’re all done!

Congratulations, you now have a sparkly clean oven that has been naturally cleaned with ingredients that have been found in your home!

Alternative ways to clean your oven

Since you now know how to clean an oven with vinegar + baking soda, we will highlight some of the other methods you can use, but ones that we don’t necessarily recommend. Keep in mind that we have used these methods before, and It will become clear to you why we stick with my baking soda and vinegar method after trying them…

You COULD clean your oven with harsh chemicals…

That’s right, instead of using natural materials as we recommend in this step by step guide, you could instead use harsh chemicals. They may clean all of the muck and grime left by months and months of using your oven without cleaning. The problem with using these chemicals is that they can be very expensive. They may also ruin your oven. Finally the chemicals are not great for you, if you breathe them in.

If you just forgot about those very negatives for a moment, then you are more than welcome to go ahead and clean your oven with chemicals that will harm both you and your oven. (Please don’t!…)

You COULD clean your oven with the self-clean option…

Not many people know this, but most ovens come with a self-cleaning option and this supposedly makes the oven cleaning time so much easier.

HINT: The keyword here is ‘supposedly’.

What this auto cleaning actually does is, once activated, it heats up your oven to a point where anything that is left inside is burnt to a crisp. Allowing you to very easily wipe away what’s left inside afterward. From experience, it sort of works, there is an issue, that as soon as you open up the oven, there is a chance your smoke detectors will activate!

Once all of the burnt remains were cleaned out, it appeared that there was more damage done than anything else. If you are happy to use this method, we do have an article to show you how to clean a self cleaning oven quickly

Conclusion

There are many ways you can clean your oven, ways which will make the entire process much easier and perhaps even enjoyable – okay we won’t push it. There are also ways that may damage your oven as well as the surrounding area. In our opinion, as you’ve seen throughout this article, there is only one winning way. That is cleaning your oven with baking soda and vinegar, which will allow you to give it a natural clean. Ensuring it stays spotless and allowing you to preserve one of the most important appliances of your kitchen.