Scrubbing the Stove

I have three friends with babies due in the next 4-6 weeks. Know what that means? NESTING!

I remember when I was nesting with each of my cubs. It was awful. I hadn't learned how to make my own cleaning supplies, so I was dealing with harsh cleansers that made me queazy, or made my hands itch and sting, or my eyes and throat burn. Now I'm convinced more than ever that those harsh cleaners are a pointless, toxic waste of money.

I'll prove it. Today, I'm tackling the stove.

(The stove was a mess when I began, but since it is white, the pictures didn't really come out.)

There are a lot of chemical cleaners out there that would do the job and do it well. We used to use Clorox Clean-up, or Formula 409, or any one of a number of things. They run between $3 and $4 per bottle.

I can do better.

I used my home made spray cleaner, a wash cloth, and some baking soda.

I've had a stressful week, so I used the frustration energy to get to every little crack and crevice. I even took the nobs off and attacked the grease built up behind there. Here's how it looked before:



Yuck. So I sprayed it, then sprinkled baking soda on a wet washcloth and went to work.


After less than a minute, it was the grease never even happened.


I even took the nobs to the sink and scrubbed them with the washcloth and baking soda. I then repeated this on the stove top, the display, the door, the place under the stove top but above the oven whose name I don't know, etc. Suddenly everything is beautiful and sparkly!

Except...

That's right. The dreaded drip pans. Crap.

I wonder if the same thing would work. Let's EXPERIMENT!

So I sprayed it with spray cleaner, sprinkled it with baking soda, and waited.


While that did it's thing, I grabbed a steel wool pad (because the washcloth is not going to cut it against a couple of months worth of charred spills).

After a good bit of elbow grease...TADA!

Oooo. Shiny.

A quick summary of today's results:
1) One clean, shiny stove
2) Four clean, shiny drip pans
3) Less than 10 cents worth of supplies used
4) No sore throat, stinging eyes, burning hands, etc.
5) No garbage generated

Win.