Winter is such a dry season, and the appropriate time to keep the air quality inside of…
How to Clean Your Oven Door Naturally + Free Checklist
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The other week I have a major life revelation. Well, more of a cleaning break through really. My self cleaning oven.
I don’t know where I’ve been but I never realized what a miracle invention self cleaning ovens are. Who knew you could press a button and come back three hours later to a cleaned kitchen appliance with zero work done on your part? I guess a lot of you probably did 🙂
This was a totally new thing to me. Embarrassingly enough, we had never once cleaned our oven since we got it about 3 1/2 years ago when we bought our house. It never got extremely dirty, I just never thought about it. Until one day, I knew I had to think about it.
So I went to my handy home organization binders and pulled out the one for the oven. When you self clean it you have to do a few things like take out all the racks and take out stuff from the bottom drawer if you have one. I did a quick clean cycle and soon enough, all I had left was a pile of ash at the bottom of the oven to wipe out.
Although amazing as it is, I’m not here to tell you how to self clean an oven, I want to tell you how to clean your oven door naturally.
(And stick around to the bottom of this post because you an get my Kitchen Cleaning Checklist for FREE too).
The stubborn, dirty, grimy glass door that doesn’t get cleaned in that self-clean cycle. It has to be cleaned on its own. Enter the before picture.
How it gets that dirty, I’ll never know. It’s not like we put food on it. I had heard that baking soda was supposed to work well to get the grime off so I thought I’d try it out.
My friend gave me this awesome naturally cleaning book called Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda
Then you spread the paste on the glass part of the door, once it is opened flat. Since the paste was kind of thick, I could see an easier way to do this as soon as I started.
Instead of trying to spread the paste all around, just sprinkle the baking soda on the glass they spray it with water. And if you don’t have a spray bottle, just splash some on from a bowl.
I’m going to sound like a commercial right now, but I really couldn’t believe how great this worked. As soon as I was spreading the baking soda and water paste around the grime and grease from the door was coming off. I used a wet sponge to wipe all of it away and the glass was instantly clean. I didn’t even have to wait for it to work. You’ll get a big pile of dirty basking soda paste, but this is one cleaning trick I will be using again.
Here is the before and after of the door. This was over a total of about 10 minutes time.
See the difference? Here is another after photo of the door. And you can partially see how clean the inside got too after the self clean.
A super simple cleaning trick to give you a jump start to some spring cleaning. Now you know how to clean your oven door naturally.
And if you want more kitchen cleaning tips, get access to our printable library, which includes this Kitchen Cleaning Checklist for free. Leave your email and it will be sent right to you.
Was this helpful? I wonder if this works on the stove top too? Leave a comment and let me know how it works for you.
You can also shop the items in this post here (these are affiliate links). These are all actually items I use in our home.
I wrote about how to clean wood floors naturally here. Maybe this will inspire me to make my house cleaning checklist once and for all. It’s been on my to do list forever!
Perfect timing… I was just thinking over the weekend i need to google how to clean my oven door. Mine is same as yours… Thx for sharing….
How can the outside of the door be so shiny and the glass all brown?
Hi Pat,
I think it’s because they are different pieces of glass. Thanks for reading my blog.
What about BETWEEN the glasses? Sorry about posting on your comment, couldn’t find another way. I saw a post once upon a time how you could clean between the glasses, but I lost it.
I would like to know that as well.
I take the screws out of the top of my oven door which releases the metal strip holding it together. Then I use a long flat stick to put cleaning stuff in and out-I wrap rags around the stick.
Down the bottom of the door you will find holes for ventilation. As my door comes off I stick a pipe cleaner down with vinegar on it and it comes up sparkling. If not there is always a bit of the smelly awful oven cleaner and I leave that for a while, then poke in the bottle cleaning brush and firmly wrap a bit of cloth around it to clean it all off. It lasts for ages, only had to do it after 7 years but the oven I wipe out after each use. It all fell down when our youngest son came back to New Zealand after living in Sweden and brought a Swedish wife and a toddler and a baby that it all fell down hahaha!
Even easier just use a really wet wash cloth and start wiping it up 🙂
Thanks Linda, good to know!
Thanks so much, Jessica! The inside of my oven door has been bothering me for a long time. I’ve tried the baking soda/water mixture before, but without success. This time I let it sit for 30 minutes and then used a plastic spatula (to avoid scratching the glass) to scrape off those sticky orange/brown spots. Worked like a charm…looks brand new!!
Hi Julie,
Glad this helped you. It’s amazing how easy this works and how good the door looks after right!
That’s a great idea for the oven door. I was wondering how to get it nice and shiny again. I tried self cleaning my old oven, and I killed it 🙁 I don’t know how old it was, but it did something to the wires. I’m scared of doing it to my new oven.
Hi Erin,
I’m sure with your new oven you will not have any problems when you self clean it. The one thing you have to do is take out the racks, at least that is what my oven’s instruction manual said. They have a coating on them to make them slide that could come off with the extreme heat. But I’ve been happy with the self cleaning feature and have used it twice now.
You can leave your oven racks in the oven. After the cleaning cycle is finished, pour a bit of vegetable oil on a paper towel and wipe the oven racks down. They are as good as new.
Hi Marlene,
Great to know. Thanks for leaving this tip!
Tried. Doesn’t work.
Hi Shelly,
Sorry this didn’t work for you. Did you add enough water with the baking soda and let it sit for a while? I hope you have better luck getting your door cleaned.
Hello Ladies im in Africa does it work with any baking soda want to try before Christmas. Or is it just a specific one from the US.
Hi Tshego,
I’m not sure what kind of baking soda is available where you are, but I’m pretty sure the product is the same as what we have in the US. You can try it out in a small area and see. I hope this helps you.
I tried too and no luck. I tried it several times…nothing.
I have a self-cleaning oven but the first time I used it, it blew the circuit board because of the high heat. The appliance guy that came to replace the board ($350!!) told me to never use the self-cleaner if you have a circuit board–they just can’t take the high heat involved in the self-cleaning.
You can also use baking soda on glass top stoves, in stead of that the one you pay so much money for to clean them. It works wonderful. I loved your post.
Hi Meme,
Thanks for leaving a comment. I don’t have a glass top stove, but one with gas burners. Maybe I’ll try the baking soda on the top in a small area. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Jessica. Can u give some tip to clean grout of tiles. Thanks
Hi Ayesha,
Actually I don’t have any tiles in my home with grout. We have original wood floors throughout. I bet if you search online, you can find some good solutions. Hope that helps.
We have found an answer to grout. Use reason carpet cleaner. Spray it on and use a brush that gets gets I down to the grout. I have a battery brush (I think Tide puts it out) and it works really well.
I find that using toilet bowl cleaner on the grout is amazing! I actually use it in the bath tub, showers and sinks in my home. It works really well. Just pour some in your grout line and let it sit for a while. It will change color, come back and scrub it up.
Hi Elisabeth,
Glad to know you have a great cleaning trick! Thanks for reading my blog.
I need tips on what to use for my white ceramic floors grout
Hi Elodia,
I actually don’t have any tiled floors in my home, they are all wood or vinyl. I’m sure if you search online you an find some great options.
I have a friend who uses easy off oven cleaner. You’d need a pretty well ventilated room got that though.
Try a steam cleaner and the wire brush nozzle and paper towels. The steam with with wire brush nozzle will concentrate the steam on the grout line and lift off the yucky stuff. Wipe it up with the paper towel, dog towel (wash really well after). Will take a while as it is not a fast process, but gets things really clean.
I used to do my tile once a every 3 months.
Doesn’t toilet bowl cleaner have toxic chemicals in it? I don’t think you’d want chemicals on your counter tops around food.
hi,
my name is jennifer and my favorite thing to use when i’m cleaning trash cans or litter boxes or anything etc… i like to use a toilet brush because it has hard bristles and i use clorox clean up and really hot water and the brush prevents your hands from touching anything.
I just used this method on my boyfriends bathroom floor. It works amazing.
Vinegar with water spray and let set a minute and pass a brush on it comes out real good but add a little water to vinegar
OMG the best thing to clean grout is toilet bowl cleaner!!! The power clean, squirt it on and let it sit for like 30 mins and then take an abrasive sponge and scrub. You can get a big bag at dollar store but make sure you wear gloves and rinse with cold water if it gets on your skin.
Utter nonsense! Doesn’t work at all! Either in the US baking soda contains something other than just Sodium Bicarbonate, which is possible as the FDA allow all sorts of toxic stuff for human consumption as long as the lobby is paying enough, or your oven wasn’t fractionally as filthy as mine! This is the 3rd lot of Baking soda, and I’ve used warm water now, and the soda paste is still pristine white and the glass is still, well filthy.
Hi Gaby,
Sorry this didn’t work for you. Some people had success using vinegar too.
I’ve tried the baking soda and vinegar route, and while it did help a lot initially, it’s nowhere near spotless and there is still scrubbing
Try getting the oven door damp and then sprinkling salt all over it, scrub it with a damp wash cloth. The salt will not scratch the glass, we use this method for cleaning fish tanks since we don’t want to use any kind of chemicals inside a fish tank.
Hi Amber,
This is a great idea. I used to have fish, and you are right, a no-chemical clean is the best way to do it. Thanks for leaving a suggestion.
Using salt and ice is good for cleaning coffee pots too. Even if the coffee pot has burnt on coffee. so I am sure it would help on oven door.
Hi Lucinda,
Great to know. Salt is a good cleaning element, that can be used on a lot of items. Thanks for leaving this comment.
I agree! Didn’t work at all!!
I just tried and was thrilled with how easy and how clean.
Hi Marilyn,
Great to hear! I’m glad it was easy or you to clean. Thanks for reading my blog.
Try baking powder a mixture,which has cream of tarter in it (Australia ) and peroxide from a new bottle. It’s great on baking trays and oven doors. Hope you find success.?
I’m like You my cooker is very much neglected. I recently tried scrubbing steaming pretty much everything.. but not baking soda. So at the weekend I’m going shopping and investing. Does it work on the inside of the oven as well?
Hi Kira,
Check your oven’s owner’s manual to see if you can use it on the inside of the oven. Usually you cannot use special cleaners like this, the over might just have a self cleaning mode you can use.
Jessica,
Thank you so much. This worked very well, and it is a blessing for someone with arthritic hands. I didn’t have to scrub so much, I flaking the arthritis in my thumbs. I hadn’t been able to totally clean my oven and door because of the arthritis, but with the baking soda and water, it was a breeze. There were a couple trouble spots, so I added salt and vinegar. That took care of them!
Thank you,
Linda
Something I have to try… But before I do I have a question… Once I put the baking soda on the door do I shut it and set it to self clean? Or just leave it open for a while?
Hi Lucy,
You just leave the oven door open with the baking soda water mixture on it. Do NOT close it or turn on the self clean! Leave the door open for a while and then you should be able to wipe off the dirt after about 15 minutes, depending on how dirty your door is. Hope that helps.
I just need to say that I tried this several months ago. It improved the grease spatters that were on the glass, but they are by no means gone. Also, and much more upsetting, what happened was the water/baking soda mixture dripped down in between the two panes of glass, and I cannot get in there to clean it off. So now it looks terrible! The oven is only 2 years old, so we are not getting a new one for a long time, and now we have to look at this…
Hi Claire,
I’m sorry that happened to your oven. I know there are ways to clean the glass in between if you have the chance to look it up. If it helps, I can suggest contacting the oven manufacturer to see if there is anything they can help you with. I wouldn’t think that is supposed to happen. I hope this helps.
The same thing happened to me! I was not a happy camper, and the “unreachable” mess has been driving me crazy.
Anyway, to make matters worse (before they can get better), we recently needed to get the oven looked at for a mechanical issue. While the professionals were here I asked them to please open the whole thing up so I could clean it. They looked at me kind of weirdly, but the mess was annoying me THAT badly. They opened it, and I happily cleaned out the gunk. Yay! But only for a moment. As they tried to put it all back together, one of the glass panels fell and shattered. They’re going to replace it, but I’ve been without use of my oven for a week because the wrong part was shipped to them and we’re waiting for the glass. 🙁
I strongly suggest no one try this method unless they are willing to risk a mess inside their oven glass where it cannot be easily accessed. It’s great for those for whom it has worked, but an annoyance for those who end up with even more of a problem.
When I couldn’t stand looking at the mess between the panels on our oven door any longer, my hubby removed the door (I guess it is easy enough) and we just took it to an appliance repair guy. For a nominal fee and the time it took us to eat breakfast he had it looking like new.
I lived in a rental for 11 years while saving up for a down-payment for our own home. The stove died, and after fighting the landlord for while, he finally replaced it with a used one. It was FILTHY! I figured out how to take the door apart (just a screwdriver), and was able to clean both panels of glass, inside and out.
Hi Yvonne,
Glad to know you got your oven clean, especially after it was so dirty! Thanks for reading Decor Adventures.
I’m always curious as to the radically different results people can get when doing the same action. I tried this on my oven, and not only did it not help, I ended up with baking soda inside the glass of my oven. Don’t ask me how since that particular section of glass is suppose to be completely sealed on my oven. So, for those this method works for: good for you! 🙂 But for others, beware. Needless to say, my oven may have clean glass inside the oven, but you’d never know because of the disgustingness inside the glass “cavity”. :-/
When I used the self clean feature of my new oven the grease or something got between the glass layers and now I look at dirty glass that I can’t clean. Never had baking soda leak into glass, just whatever happened when I self cleaned it.
You can remove screws on the door to open up and clean the glass door from the inside. Check your owners manual on how to do this or Google your oven brand for specific details on your model. Helps to have an extra set of hands to do this step
Good luck#
I tried this, even with a lot of elbow grease……It did not work. Save yourself a lot a grief and just use a straight edge blade. Much quicker and less mess.
Hi Denise,
Good idea with the blade. Yea for some people this isn’t working. I’m sure it depends on the age of the oven/grease. Thanks for the tip!
Didn’t work for me either.
This worked great! The stains came out after a few times and shines. Couldn’t believe it!
Did not work. It cleaned some, but not enough for the effort to get all the baking soda mess off.
Hi Lisa,
Sorry this didn’t work for you. If you leave it on longer, maybe that will work. Or use a scrubby sponge too.
This worked great! I was impatient and only left the paste on for 5 minutes. I used elbow grease and a wet dish washing cloth to scrub the glass. The results were better than anything else I’ve ever tried, including harsh chemicals specifically made to clean glass oven doors. I had one small area that would have benefitted from leaving the paste on longer. The whole process took me 10 minutes and it didn’t take much effort in my opinion. I will be using this method from now on & plan to leave the paste on for 30 minutes before removing. Thanks for the idea!
Thanks so much! Can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself. I use this method all the time to get burned food off the bottom of pots and pans. Just make a paste and leave it to sit for about 1/2 hr. Can’t wait to have a nice clean oven door, trying it tonight!
Hi Deb,
That’s good to know it works on pots too, I’ll have to try that! Have fun cleaning your oven. In fact, I have to clean mine again too 🙂
I just stumbled upon this today. Had nothing better to do, so tried it out right away. I even added a few drops of young living lemon oil. I think your recipe would work for those that clean their ovens regularly. I hadn’t cleaned mine in years and I had to scrub. I saw it worked, but the door is only 85% clean. I tried again after getting what I could off and got a little bit further. If I hadn’t ran out of steel wool, I bet it would have gotten 100%. But it isn’t a simple apply and wipe recipe. There is elbow grease involved.
i just had no idea that backing soda would work so great on my oven. Although I’m a professional cleaner, I don’t like using store bought detergents when cleaning at home. Cleaning the oven is often a nightmare for me and your recipe is exactly what I need . Thank you for sharing! Greets, Christine
Hi Christine,
Glad this helped you! Yes, there are a lot of store bought and natural ingredients that work great for cleaning. Particularly salt, lemons, vinegar and baking soda. I use this book a ton (this is an affiliate link): http://amzn.to/1RjdlLm
I have to go and clean my oven too!
We don’t have a self-cleaning cycle on our oven so I get to do the dirty work by hand. I don’t like the chemical odors that comes from the grocery store cleaners so I put an oven safe bowl with around 2 cups of water in and turn on the oven to 350 for 30 minutes. Everything is nice and gooey from the steam released while ‘baking’ the water. I put a liner in the bottom of my oven before (aluminum foil) so that if it drips from the top of the oven, it falls on the foil. Let the oven cool, remove the foil and discard and then wipe everything down with paper towels. Rinse off the racks and you’re good to go. For what looks like stubborn baked-on grime I sprinkle with baking soda before I turn on the oven. the steam released makes it’s own paste and I can go after it with a scrubbie, or just leave the oven on a little longer before I wipe down.
Hi,
Thanks for leaving this detailed information. Glad it works to clean your oven so easily!
Was really hoping this would work and it didn’t. And now it looks even worse.
Hi Jennifer,
Sorry this didn’t work for you. Some other people have mentioned this before so I can only assume it’s the type of oven or something. I hope you find a good way to clean yours.
I have been cleaning my oven door like this for some time. I have also found this “recipe” works very well with glass top stoves. Its better than the expensive chemical cleaners recommended.
Hi Michelle,
Great to hear this is working for you. I need to do it again myself soon 🙂 I try to use natural cleaners as much as possible. They are great for the entire family.
Thanks for reading my blog!
I tried this method and I do have to admit it came out pretty good. I will have to do it again as I have tried cleaning my oven window previously according to the manufacturers recommendation and I had a bit of build up. But overall I think it was a good and cost effective idea.
Worked fine to my satisfaction. Better than before. Also I leave the racks in. No harm and the racks go in just fine. I also put the stove pans in. No more scrubbing. I even put a cast iron skillet and it got rid of the gunk that had accumulated on the outside of the skillet.
This works, but sometimes the glass ends up smudged and when I turn on the oven there’s this strange smell. It’s better than the toxic fumes from the commercial oven cleaners, but still. Don’t know why this happens.
Cleaning the glass on oven door. Read all comments ,thanks to all ideas.
I clean my glass inside oven door every time I use my oven, no build up of grease and grime. I do have a drip stain in between the glass it drives me nuts.
Thanks to all
I jaunt gave this a try today….it worked great. I did what one of the other posters suggested. I didn’t make a paste I sprinkled the baking soda on the door and on a few dark spots on the oven floor, then I sprayed it with water and just let it sit for about 10 mins and it came out beautiful.
I’m so glad this worked for you! Thanks for reading my blog 🙂
Fast and easy! I made sure I coated entire surface with the baking soda, and then sprayed hot water on it. Let it sit for 5 minutes, and then wiped clean with a wet wash cloth. I then dried with a micro-fiber towel. So happy with the results — I plan to try this on my toaster oven door next!
So glad this helped you! I use it often on lots of surfaces in my home. Thanks for reading my blog 🙂
Works great!! Thanks. I used the same fromula on the top of my toaster…the chrome part where the slots are…Nothing else worked, the baking soda got it shiney and new in about 30 seconds!!
DONT DO IT!!! I cleaned the whole oven with baking soda a loooong time ago and I don’t know how but there is baking soda between the glass in the oven door!!! Now, how did that happen!!!??? Plus I’ve been wiping white residue out of oven for a year!!!
Hi Jo-Ann,
Sorry you had a bad experience with cleaning your oven. This information was specifically about cleaning the inside of the door only. Others have reported it getting in between the glass but I have not had that problem. I think making a paste and carefully using it on the glass can help.
Thanks! I don’t know what I did different from others but it worked great for me.
Well mine didn’t budge after using the baking soda and water twice leaving it on longer the second time. I had such high hopes after seeing yours so pretty and they both looked alike to begin with.
My oven is twice as had as that one but I will give it a shot. All tho I think I’ve tried baking soda and vinegar before, I can’t remember how it worked.
Use the Pumie Scouring Stick! It’s a pumice stick made for cleaning. Works like a champ on stove tops too. They’re a couple bucks and I get mine at walmart. My daughter works for a cleaning company and they use them. I’ve used it on stove top, oven door glass, inside the oven, bbq grill racks etc, Its in a blue and white package in the cleaner isle,
I tried this and used a scrub daddy and it’s sparkling clean now! Thanks for the tip!
This is a very helpful article – thanks again for sharing. I am new to your blog and am finding this incredibly insightful 🙂 xx
I have a double oven and the glasses in between get dirty. The repairman told me to take apart and clean each glass. I did that once and thought we (my son and his wife)would never get them back together. Do you have and easy answer for this type of door?