So, here is my oven. My disgusting, yucky, I -hate-my-oven oven. Our house is nine years old. This oven is original to the house. When we bought the house, we were stupid enough to buy it with no oven currently in the kitchen. (You live and you learn.) The previous owners had spilled something on one of the eyes and shorted out the system, so it had to be taken out and repaired somewhere else. They reinstalled the oven shortly after we moved in. However, they didn't install it right and I've had problems with this oven since. So, two or so days later Katrina hit, and we never got anyone out to our house to adjust what needed to be adjusting. So I've lived with it. I guess you can say I hated the oven from day one, so therefore it's been abused. All in an attempt to get a new one. Well, not really, but it would have been an added bonus.
So anyway, I decided to bake some potatoes last weekend, and some oil dripped down onto the heating element and down onto the already 5 year old burnt food at the bottom. My smoke alarms in my house work VERY well. Then my house reeked for the next day. I'm pretty sure my clothes even had that terrible smell which totally grossed me out.
From that point forward every time I used my oven for something, the smoke alarms would sound and the house would smell terribly. I decided it was time to do something. Armed with internet knowledge I decided to use baking soda. It took a lot of elbow grease and from Saturday to today (Tuesday) and several layers of my homemade paste to even get halfway through the grime.
These were my weapons: Almost a full box of baking soda, a spatula (to scrape up the burnt on food), a grill cleaner, a fabulous washable cloth that has a soft side, and a rougher side that is also machine washable, a sponge that was disposed of in the end, a stainless steel bowl, an icing spatula to mix my paste, and something not shown in the picture- my Pampered Chef nylon scraper used for my baking stone to scrape food off. That was my lifesaver. It scraped and scraped and did an excellent job.
Okay, so my oven still isn't perfect, but this is the best I could do. After three days and lots of muscles and two kids and a dog under me, AND five years worth of burnt on food, I think this looks okay. That other stuff wasn't budging. I'm not too worried about it as long as my house doesn't smell and my house isn't consumed with smoke anymore. I just really want a new oven!!! Badly.
Also, while we're on the note of household cleaning, two fabulous items I have found I can't live without.
#1. The Bounce dryer bar. Stick that baby in your dryer and it does the same thing an individual sheet does, only you stick it and it lasts up to four months. My mom got me one and I love it. They're actually really inexpensive, too.
#2. Mr. Clean multi-purpose cleaner with Febreeze. I especially like the lavender vanilla scent. I have been using this on everything. I even pour it in my toilets every day, whether they need cleaning or not, and scrub it around and let it sit there. Brennan went to use the potty today and said, "MMM, Mama, that purple stuff in the potty sure does smell good!" I also use it to clean sinks and mop the floor.
Also, while we're on the note of household cleaning, two fabulous items I have found I can't live without.
#1. The Bounce dryer bar. Stick that baby in your dryer and it does the same thing an individual sheet does, only you stick it and it lasts up to four months. My mom got me one and I love it. They're actually really inexpensive, too.
#2. Mr. Clean multi-purpose cleaner with Febreeze. I especially like the lavender vanilla scent. I have been using this on everything. I even pour it in my toilets every day, whether they need cleaning or not, and scrub it around and let it sit there. Brennan went to use the potty today and said, "MMM, Mama, that purple stuff in the potty sure does smell good!" I also use it to clean sinks and mop the floor.
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