All-Natural Household Solutions - Cleaning Your Stove With Baking Soda & Vinegar

Stoves are often the dirtiest part of a household kitchen. Months of cooking without enough cleaning can cause thick layers of burnt-on grease and food to accumulate on the burners and other surfaces. Although it's possible to clean your stove using harsh cleaning products, many people are not comfortable spraying toxic chemicals on a surface used to cook food.

Instead, it's possible to remove much of the grease using just baking soda and vinegar. In addition to being the key components of a science fair "volcano," baking soda and vinegar are excellent cleaning products for many applications. The foaming chemical reaction that occurs when you combine the two is useful for cleaning drains and stubborn clogs, but it can also remove stuck-on grease from stoves.

To clean your stove, remove all the knobs, burners, and drip trays from the stove top. Allow those to soak in hot soapy water while you clean. While they are soaking, wipe any visible dust or debris off the stove. Next, create a paste by combining one part baking soda with one part water in a bowl. Most people will only need to use around 1/2 cup of baking soda and 1/2 cup of water.

Use a cloth to take a small amount of the baking soda paste. Scrub the most difficult-looking stains on the cooking surface firmly in a circular motion until they begin to lift. This will not remove them completely, but baking soda paste is an excellent abrasive and can wear down stains. Once you have worked the most difficult stains, apply the rest of the paste to the stove top. Use the cloth to scrub all the surfaces of the stove thoroughly until everything has been scrubbed.

Now comes the "science fair" part. Pour a bottle of vinegar into a spray bottle and spray it all over the stove. If you do not have a spray bottle, gently pour small amounts of vinegar on the stove. It will react with the baking soda dramatically, so it is not hard to tell how much to use if you are careful. Scrub the stove again and let it sit for a minute.

Finally, rinse out the rag and use it to gradually mop up the foamy mess. The reaction between baking soda and vinegar leaves absolutely nothing harmful, lifting grease away as it works. Wipe the stove down one last time and replace the burners, knobs, and drip plates.

While this method can work for minor spills and stains, more serious problems require more serious solutions. If you are dealing with an overwhelming cleaning situation, leave it to the professionals. Visit the website of the Austin maid service WOW Total Cleaning today for the assistance you need.