How to clean your oven naturally [DIY for a cozy home]

November 2, 2021 Elaine

Let’s be honest.

Very few of us make cleaning the oven regularly a priority. As a result, sometimes it can take us days, weeks, or even months in between oven cleanings.

Mostly because we think of it as more of a chore and less of preservation of your appliance. You most likely spent a lot of money on your oven. Why shouldn’t it be well-taken care of?

The one common thing that puts most people off when cleaning the oven is the harsh chemicals used in conventional oven cleaners.

Most of them contain a range of chemicals such as potassium hydroxide, monoethanolamine, and sodium hydroxide.

The fumes emitted from these oven cleaners are strong enough to single off your eyebrows accompanied by some awful dizziness.

There are plenty of safe, natural, and effective methods to get the job done. Despite it probably taking a little time, the result is worth it. Plus, you most likely have everything you need already in your household.

Options for natural oven cleaners

There are many ways of cleaning your oven without using hard chemicals.

1. Naturally clean your oven using vinegar and cornstarch

Ingredients: White vinegar (1 cup), cornstarch (1 tablespoon)

Directions for cleaning

Stir together vinegar and cornstarch
Heat until thickened
Cool to room temperature
Apply to the oven
Let sit for 20 minutes, wipe clean.

2. Clean your oven naturally with lemon juice and dish soap

Ingredients: Lemon juice (1 cup), cornstarch (1 tablespoon), dish soap (1 teaspoon)

Cleaning steps

Stir together lemon juice and cornstarch
Heat until thickened
Cool to room temperature
Stir in dish soap.
Apply to the oven
Let sit for 20 minutes
Wipe clean

3. Cleaning your oven using baking soda and white vinegar

Ingredients: Baking soda (1/4 cup), white vinegar (1/4 cup)

Directions for cleaning

Sprinkle baking soda over the surface until covered
spray baking soda with white vinegar until wet and bubbly
Let sit for 20 minutes
Wipe clean

4. Naturally clean your oven using baking soda, white vinegar, and dishwashing soap

Ingredients: Baking soda (3 tablespoons), white vinegar (1 tablespoon), dishwashing soap (1 tablespoon)

Steps for cleaning

Stir together baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap
Apply to the oven
Let it sit for 20 minutes
Wipe clean

5. Clean your oven naturally using baking soda and water

Ingredients: Baking soda (3 tablespoons), water (1.5 tablespoons)

How to clean your oven using baking soda and water

Stir together baking soda and water.
Apply to the oven, let sit for 20 minutes
Wipe clean

6. Naturally clean your oven using rubbing alcohol, water, and dishwashing soap

Ingredients: Rubbing alcohol (1/4 cup), water (1/4 cup), dishwashing soap (8 drops)

Directions for cleaning

Put the rubbing alcohol, water, and dishwashing soap in a container
Stir together
Spray the mixture on the oven
Let it sit for 20 minutes
Wipe clean

7. Use baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and dishwashing soap to clean your oven

This is another way of cleaning your oven with minimal chemicals.

What to use

Baking soda (3 tablespoons)
Hydrogen peroxide (1 tablespoon)
Dishwashing soap (1 tablespoon)

Steps for cleaning

Stir together baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and dish soap.
Apply to the oven
Let it sit for 20 minutes then wipe clean.

8. Naturally clean your oven using baking soda and dishwashing soap

Ingredients: Baking soda (1/8 cup), salt (1/8 cup), dishwashing soap (1 tablespoon)

Cleaning steps

Stir together baking soda, salt, and dish soap.
Apply to the oven
Let it sit for 20 minutes, then wipe clean.

The most recommended natural cleaning option for your oven

The best and most natural option oven cleaner is the most simple: baking soda and water.

This method by far excels compared to harsh oven cleaners.

Why does this combo work?

Baking soda is inexpensive, easy to use, and remarkably effective in cleaning oven grease.
Baking soda is alkaline, and oven grease made of food particles is typically acidic. It neutralizes acids and breaks down the grease, allowing you to wipe it up without a lot of elbow grease.
It’s also a mild abrasive, so it works well at removing dried, stuck-on foods.
Water softens the grime and baked-on food particles so they can be easily wiped away.

Baking soda works its magic in most situations in only 15 minutes, making oven cleaning less of a nuisance and more of something you can accomplish in the time it takes to prepare a snack.

How to clean an oven quickly

The basic baking soda oven cleaner recipe for regularly cleaned or lightly soiled ovens is as follows.

List of requirements for a quick oven clean up

Half a cup of your preferred or readily available baking soda
3 tablespoons of water
If you are adding any essential oils, you can do so here (two to three drops should suffice, but you may add more if desired).
A small bowl
Gloves
Spatula
Paper towels

Steps for cleaning your oven quickly

Here’s how to clean your oven in about 30 minutes.

1. Remove the loose debris

Vacuum or wipe out the bottom of the oven before applying the baking soda cleaner. This will remove some of the black ashes and stuck on grime. It will also loosen the dirt, making it easier to clean.

2. Give the oven cleaner some dwell time

You’ll get the best results if you allow the wet baking soda some time to work (also called dwell time) before you start wiping. Let the cleaner sit on the surface for at least 20 minutes then wipe out the dirt.

3. Use a circular motion

Oven grime can be baked on, caked-on grease. Remove most baking soda cleaner, then wipe any hard-to-clean spots firmly with a rag using a circular motion.

4. Make chemical reactions work for you

Baking soda can leave a bit of grit in your oven. Spray the oven with white vinegar after wiping out all of the baking soda cleaners, and the vinegar will react with any leftover baking soda so you can easily wipe out the bubbling remains.

5. Clean first, then shine

Finish by buffing the oven surface with a damp microfiber rag.

How do you clean a really dirty oven?

If your oven is heavily greased with things like sauces or gooey cheese category, then a deep clean would suffice.

This kind of cleaning needs an addition of more pantry ingredients. It would consist of a mixture of a little vinegar, baking soda, regular salt, and some drops of essential oil. All these are non-toxic and safe to use around food surfaces. The preferred essential oil would be tea tree oil which can act as a natural degreaser.

Baking soda (a natural alkali) and vinegar (a natural acid) help lift off stubborn stains and grease for easy wiping.

Here is how to give your oven a deep clean

Deep cleaning your oven needs that extra attention than a quick clean.

1. Make a paste

The paste made for a deep clean is slightly different from the basic cleaning. First, there is an addition of salt (regular salt works fine) and vinegar.

Start by stirring together 3/4 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup warm water. Note that a large oven may require more paste. Triple the recipe if you are doing the back, sides, ceiling, and oven floor.

If you choose to add any essential oils, you can do so at this step. Two to three drops should suffice, but you may add more if desired. Just be sure to steer clear of metal or plastic bowls, which could react badly with essential oils,

2. Clean oven racks

Make sure that the oven is off and completely cool before you bring in your homemade oven cleaner.

Remove the racks and lay them as flat as possible in an empty sink. Using a spatula, cover the entire metal or glass surface with the paste. Only use on stainless steel racks; the baking soda can discolor aluminum.

3. Cleaning the glass oven door on the outside

When cleaning your oven window, the outside is the easiest.

We’ll start here and work our way up to the more challenging task.

You will need a side solution of lemon juice and white vinegar mixed into a spritz bottle for this process.

Once that is in order, spritz the cleaner on the outside of your oven door. Using downward strokes, wipe the cleaner and grime away with a microfiber cloth.

Repeat if needed.

Use a dry microfiber cloth to buff any streaks out of the glass.

4. Cleaning the glass oven door on the inside

Open the door and wipe off any loose bits of grime with a damp microfiber cloth. Pour the baking soda into the bowl.

Slowly add water to the baking soda to make a paste. It should be about the consistency of the previous paste used.

Avoid wetting the gasket. Spread the paste on the inside of the oven window. Let this sit for around 15 to 20 minutes.

Moisten a clean microfiber cloth and wipe the paste away.

5. Cleaning between of the oven door

You’ve cleaned the inside glass, and the outside window is sparkling. But what’s up with that annoying grime stuck in the middle?

You’ll have to roll up your sleeves and break out a few tools for this one, but it is possible to get the inside of that glass clean.

You’ll need the following things.

Your oven’s manual (You can find this online if you chucked it long ago).
A screwdriver
A clean towel or sheet (not a nice one)
The oven cleaning natural paste
Microfiber cloths
A razor blade (optional)
A helper

Cleaning steps

Open your oven door and look at the screws used to hold it together. Many ovens use star screws, so you may need to run to the hardware store for a star screwdriver before you get started.
Lay your towel on the kitchen floor where you plan to work.
Consult your oven manual to see how to remove the oven door.
Ask your helper to lend a hand taking off the door. (Those things are heavier than you think. Be careful and don’t try to go this alone.)
Lay the door on the towel or sheet with the inside window facing up.
Remove the screws from the door. There are typically two above the window and may also be two on the base of the oven door, depending on the model you have in your home.
Take the door apart and lay the two sides next to each other. The innermost glass of each half of the door should be facing upwards.
Follow the instructions in the above section called “How to clean your oven window on the inside”
With the assistance of your helper, reassemble and replace the oven door.

6. Cleaning the inside of the oven

After covering the rack and cleaning the door, go back to the interior using a metal spatula and gently scrape food residue from the sides and ash from the floor of the oven chamber.

Next, fill any openings in the oven with foil. Then, taking care to avoid the heating elements (usually located on the roof and floor of the oven chamber), spread the homemade oven cleaner overall visible interior surfaces, including the back wall.

The baking soda will turn a brownish color as you rub it in; it also might be chunkier in some places than others, which is fine. Just try to coat the whole oven to the best of your abilities, paying extra attention to any particularly greasy areas.

Let the oven absorb the baking soda paste for eight to twelve hours or overnight.

To protect your kitchen floor from liquids used in these next steps, spread newspapers all around the oven.

7. Wipe out the oven

After 12 hours or overnight, take a damp dishcloth and wipe out as much of the dried baking soda paste as you can, wetting as needed.

Wipe with a damp cloth, repeating to remove streaks. Use a plastic or silicone spatula to help scrape off the paste as needed.

The damp cloth is enough, but a spatula might come in handy in those hard-to-reach places.

Using a damp sponge, wipe the surfaces of the oven chamber.

Start with the sides, then move to the back of the chamber, wiping these surfaces from the top down to allow ash chunks to fall to the chamber’s floor. Then, taking care to avoid the upper heating element, wipe the chamber’s roof from back to front.

Lastly, clean the floor of the chamber using back to front motions. Rinse the sponge as needed with clean water and repeat until no baking soda.

Wipe down the oven to have it looking clean as new!

Here are additional questions of interest on cleaning your oven.

How do you clean the glass on the oven door?

Combine 3 tablespoons baking soda and 1.5 tablespoons of water. Open the oven door. Spread the mix across the glass on the oven door. Wait 20 minutes then wipe clean.

What is the fastest way to clean the inside of an oven?

Remove as much loose dirt as possible from the inside of the oven with a wet paper towel. Mix water and baking soda. Spread the paste over the dirty areas of the oven. Wait 20 minutes then wipe clean.

What is the best natural oven cleaner?

A paste of baking soda and water.

Can you clean your oven with baking soda and vinegar?

There are a lot of online cleaning tips that recommend mixing baking soda and vinegar to clean your oven. This fun bubbling reaction is actually the baking soda neutralizing the vinegar. The resulting mix cleans about as well as plain water.