How to Clean the Oven Quickly - KatiesKottage (2024)

We have had our oven for almost 6 years and I had never cleaned it before today. I wanted to be able to clean the oven as quickly as possible. After a ton of research, I found the fastest way to clean the oven, oven racks, and oven glass. I’ll be sharing all of that with you.

During my research, I kept reading all of these suggestions to let things soak overnight. That seemed way too long of a process for me. When I decide that I want to clean the oven… I want to clean the oven and I want the process to be as simple as possible.

I wanted my oven to be clean and I didn’t want the process to be drug out over two days.

Also, I was not about to soak my oven racks in the bathtub. I’m sure this works, but for me, it felt like I would be overcomplicating things. I didn’t want to have to clean the bathtub out as well.

So I set out to find a way to clean the oven quickly. I take a small amount of scrubbing, but I was able to get the whole oven clean, racks, and glass door included, in under 30 minutes.

How to Clean Oven Glass

What you need:

• spray bottle
• vinegar
• dish soap
• water
• baking soda
• stainless steel scrubber– this is the real MVP of the whole process
• washcloth

*If you don’t have the materials just click the links above. You can have the items and start cleaning your oven in two days. (If you have Amazon Prime).

Steps for cleaning your oven glass:

1. Fill your spray bottle 3/4 of the way up with vinegar, add one large squeeze of dish soap, and fill the rest the way up with water. Shake the bottle to combine the ingredients.
2. Open the oven and spray the vinegar cleaner on the glass surface.
3. Cover the entire oven glass with baking soda.
4. Use your stainless steel scrubber to scrub the oven glass.
5. Continue to spray the vinegar cleaner as you scrub.
6. When all the grime is scrubbed up wash away the mess with a wet washcloth.

I found things worked a lot better if I was continuing to spray the vinegar mixture as I scrubbed. I also found that I didn’t have to scrub very hard at all.

Also, I had to rinse my washcloth numerous times and continue to wipe away the baking soda.

I was prepared for this to be hard work and was amazed at how easy this was. Keep in mind, my oven is 6 years old and I have never cleaned the glass before. I understand that some of you may be working under different conditions.

If your mess won’t scrub away easily then you may need to let the original vinegar spray and baking soda sit for a little bit before scrubbing.

But that’s it! I can actually watch my cookies bake now. 🙂

How to Clean Inside Your Oven

Before I tell you how to clean the inside of your oven I want to tell you how to avoid cleaning your oven… get yourself an oven liner.

I would have never known about these if some older lady from my church, hadn’t strayed from my wedding registry, and bought me an oven liner… insisting it was a lifesaver. I didn’t believe her at the time, but boy am I glad that I went ahead and used it anyway.

This thing will catch the majority of the mess in your oven and can be washed in the dishwasher. It will save you a ton of time down the road and is just one of mykitchen cleaning tips.

What you need:

• the vinegar spray you made to clean the oven glass
• baking soda
• stainless steel scrubber
• washcloth

Steps for cleaning inside your oven:

1. Spray the walls and bottom of your oven with the vinegar cleaner that you used to clean the oven glass.
2. Sprinkle the sides and bottom of the oven with baking soda. You may need to use a cloth to get the baking soda on the sides. I was lazy and just kind of threw it on there.
3. Scrub everything down with your stainless steel scrubber.
4. Wipe everything away with your wet washcloth.

Now you have a shiny new oven!

Oven Self Cleaning Option

I know you can use the self-cleaning feature on most ovens. I personally decided to opt-out of that option for a couple of reasons.

One, as I mentioned, I wanted my oven to be clean and I wanted it to be clean now. I know that if I would have waited for a convenient time to turn the self-cleaner on, I would have continued to put it off.

Two, I don’t like the smell and the heat.

Three, I don’t like that you have to stay in the house and keep an eye on it. Again, the process is just long and drawn out and I wanted it to get done.

And Fourthly, you should really take caution when using your self-cleaning oven option. It’s not always the safest choice.

How to Clean Oven Racks

What you need:

• the vinegar cleaner you made previously
• baking soda
• stainless steel scrubber
• washcloth
• small bowl

Step to cleaning your oven racks:

1. Put some baking soda into your bowl and pour some of your vinegar cleaning mixture into the bowl as well. Mix it up.
2. Place one oven rack across your sink.
3. Spray the oven rack with the vinegar cleaning solution.
4. Take your stainless steel scrubber and dip it into the baking soda mixture you just made.
5. Scrub all parts of your oven rack with the stainless steel scrubber.
6. Rinse your oven racks.
7. Let the oven racks dry and then place them back in your oven.

It’s really that easy. I found this way faster than letting the oven racks sit in your bathtub overnight. Plus, you are now avoiding the nightmare of cleaning the oven rack gunk out of your tub.

Final Steps to Clean the Oven

Since you are here and took all that time and elbow grease to clean up your oven, you might as well end with a bang. Finish up with this list:

1. Put your new oven liner in the oven so cleaning the oven in the future will be easier for you.
2. Pull everything out of the oven drawer and wipe the drawer clean.
3. Use a glass cleaner or stainless steel cleaner to wipe down the outside of the oven. If you don’t have a stainless steel oven then a multi-purpose cleaning spray will work great.
4. Go all in and clean the stove top as well or save that task for another day because you just worked hard on this oven!

Thank You! Need More Support?

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll stick around and read some more.

Here are some more simple cleaning tips.

My main passion is helping women build systems and routines that make homemaking simple. I find this possible through simplifying life, decluttering, and building routines that work for your household.

If you love all of that or want to learn more you should jump on my email list. I’ll send you a bunch of info on how I take care of my house, free access to my printables library, and a weekly newsletter with challenges and tips. Hope to see you there.

Either way, thanks again, and come back any time. 🙂

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