Guess what?!! My gas stove kaput on me this week (but no synpathy sighs wasted on me now); bought another one and am ready to rock-n-roll without skipping a beat BUT……..In the process I took advantage of using my old broken stove as a Guinea Pig 🐽 to trial some cleaning hacks for some really old stuck on hot messes on my stovetop like wax, grease and scratches. *Fault of a fellow homeschool friend who nonchalantly mentioned recently, her own pursuit using Dawn powerwash to get stuck-on stovetop messes off her own stovetop, and since then I’ve been wondering how my routine interior oven cleaning hacks would trial on the stovetop.
It was about a five day excursion. From it evolved many epiphanies and in order to better validate the time I’ve wasted on it, I want to share the results with you.
Additionally I want to share with you this single post….
https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/oven-cleaning-hacksI found from Real Simple Magazine (btw my most favorite magazine on the racks) holding almost ALL of my go-to oven cleaning hacks, endorsed by……MORE cleaning pros. Note: I did notice the cleaning pros in this article endorsing my favorite oven cleaning hacks, WERE ALL MEN (interesting!) and I suddenly realized (yes!) women regularly promote Easy-OFF, the self-cleaning feature on their oven or simply call in a professional service, but not these MEN! They are hacking it up with basic everyday kitchen ingredients! 😳 Kitchen ingredients are ALWAYS my preference but I honestly thought I was pretty alone there. So imagine my surprise when I found a SINGLE article with ALL my favorite go-to’s, endorsed by other cleaning pro’s, and their ALL MEN! How the HECK are they all men?! I can’t wrap my brain around MEN grabbing kitchen ingredients. It’s crazy enough to me that their cleaning at all.
Anyways, without further chatty chat, the epiphanies I found during my oven guinea pigging?……
•boiling water (bonus: add 50/50 vinegar/water) removes stuck on grease splatter that won’t come off with any other cleaning. I literally filled the kettle, and when it reached boiling, poured directly on the stovetop just enough to over the bottom and let it sit. Once cooled (it takes only a minute) I started using a plastic spatula to scrape away grease splatter and dark blackish crusts. Used a dry cloth to soak up water and repeated a few times til all stuck-on mess was gone. Scrubbing with a half of lemon 🍋 rind coated in baking soda helped remove some of the really crusty spots closest to the burners before doing the boiling water and again after a couple of squeezing circular motions, I left it to sit for anywhere from 30-60min.
*The ONLY annoying part about this- is the WAITING. But the more I waited and let it sit the less elbow grease and repeats I had to do.
*If you have a steam cleaner you won’t need to do all this just add the vinegar to the water tank of steam cleaner and spray and scrape. I would still pretreat with lemon rind though before steaming. I intend to get one now and do the inside of the oven and airfryer also with it.
(A fellow friend recently converted ex-cleaning-hating now cleaning-crazed mama shared with me this score that she loves and said works great)
https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=steam%20cleanersPSorry to report that nothing I tried worked on scratches (BOO) but I eventually wanna reach out to some manufacturers for something to the effect of enamel touch-up pens for the stovetop, but we will see how far I get sitting on my butt nursing gets me for phone calls and hustling😜
Rusty, Crusty Cast Iron Grates on Stovetop?
I buffed the cast iron grates with a Sea Salt/
and oil paste (I used 🫒 olive oil). Initially I only intended to do the rust spots and wax stains from my kids candle making project BUT it was so easy and looked so dang good that I couldn’t stop and continued to do the whole grate and then all the grates. It was truly addicting as it was like rubbing on new dark black, seasoned and beautifully coated cast iron. It was literally feeding while exfoliating the cast iron grates.
P.S Along this process I also learned how to DIY Dawn Powerwash if your a fan of it but wanna save a couple buckaroos on refills or have asthma or suffer from migraines (like me) and want avoid the fragrances, glycol and phenoxyethanol for its affects on lungs, CNS, heart, kidneys ……just reuse the Dawn power wash bottle or grab another 16oz spray bottle if you didn’t already buy a Dawn Powerwash, add 13oz water, 2TBSP rubbing alcohol and 4TBSP Dawn dish soap for the exact product or a liquid Castile soap to avoid more SLS or the phenyoxyethanol.
(To answer your question, yes, this IS the stuff I waste my free time on, but before you laugh at me look at the bright side, now YOU don’t have to waste YOUR time on it 🫡)
Signing-off,
Mama de’Mess
(Throwing my previous clean mama aura in the trash because….well…..this one seems more full disclosure).
Is it just me or do most people with clean houses seem to be single, mama’s of grown kids, in their height of maturity? Or mama’s of a teen or two? One day I might get to that grand retirement
BUT that’s not this day for me. For me it’s in the heart of the battlefront, with many kids and even babies at home and I may be off my rocker but I’m determined to have my cake and eat it too.
I want to have a full house AND a clean house.
It is to THAT end this new line of posts, Clean That HOT MESS, has begun.
Her House 