You know your oven needs cleaning. You can see it. There are chunks of burnt food and charred particles sitting on the bottom. Then there’s the grease caked on the lights and racks. It’s so filthy that you start having second thoughts about whether you should even be using it to cook food anymore.
While some manufacturers do make a self-clean feature on their appliances, these cleaning cycles aren’t as effective as you might like. They can perform some basic cleaning functions, but they aren’t removing scoops of burnt food matter.
You may think cleaning the oven is the worst job in the house, but it really doesn’t have to be. We assure you that you won’t blow yourself up if your oven is gas. And when you’re done, you’ll wonder why the hell you put it off for so long. Trust us!
The Dangers of a Dirty Oven
A dirty oven is more than an eyesore. It actually comes with a number of dangers and unwanted side effects, including:
- Safety issues. A dirty oven can be a fire hazard. When food and grease build up inside the oven, it could eventually give way to excess smoke or even flames. The smoke is not only a risk to the house, but it could prove dangerous when breathed in.
- Unwanted flavors. Some foods, like a steak or chicken breast, taste good with a smokey flavor. But leave smoking to the backyard barbeque. Nobody wants smokey bread or cupcakes – especially when the smoke is coming from year-old grease caked on the bottom of your oven.
- Unpleasant smells. Finally, let’s not forget about the unwanted smells that a filthy stove creates. All it takes is a little bit of buildup and your entire house will smell when you use the oven..
In other words, just clean the damn oven – it’s not worth it!
Thankfully, cleaning your oven doesn’t have to be a pain. Below, you’ll find a fool-proof how-to for oven cleaning where YOU get all the credit!
4 Steps to a Sparkling Clean Oven
Step 1 – Take Out Your Oven Racks
If you’re a part of the #cleaningarmy, you know the drill. Whether it’s an entire laundry room, a playroom, or an oven, a good deep clean always starts with removing everything from the space so that you can get into every nook and cranny. This means step one is to take out your oven racks.
- Place the racks in the sink with two dishwasher tabs and very hot water. Let them soak for 2 hours. The dishwasher tabs lift the grease easily, usually without much scrubbing. You can also use a large Tupperware container or bathtub, but if using your bathtub, please protect it from scratches by placing towels down first.
- If there is a lot of grime, you may need to spray them down with an oven cleaner and place them in a garbage bag (instead of soaking them).. The bag holds in the heat from the chemical reaction between the gunk and the cleaner, and it helps the product penetrate better. Please be VERY careful when spraying oven cleaner. It will eat the finish off countertops, backsplashes and hardwood floors.
Step 2 – Spray The Inside Of Your Oven
An essential part of this job is using the correct product for your type of oven. If your oven is self-cleaning, use only a fume-free oven cleaner. The heavy-duty oven cleaners can erode the interior lining of self-cleaning ovens, making this feature less effective and causing damage.
If your oven has a self-cleaning feature, you can find it on the control panel and the door will have a lock feature. Always follow the directions as stated on the product label. Open a window when using oven cleaner. You might even want to wear a mask to prevent breathing in the fumes. These are stable aerosol chemicals but do not use them near an open flame.
- Lay down some paper towels or newspapers on the floor surrounding the oven before you start. This will prevent the oven cleaner from ending up on your floor.
- Spray the inside of your oven, including the glass on the door. Don’t be shy and spray it down well! Ensure that it doesn’t drip down to the warming drawer or any cabinets below and immediately wipe down any overspray that may have occurred.
- Close the oven door and walk away. Oven cleaner needs time to work, so let it sit and penetrate for at least an hour.

Step 3 – Send In The SOS
Now for some light elbow grease and an SOS® pad. Wearing gloves is necessary as this is a messy job, and the chemicals will burn your skin.
- Scrub the entire oven, including the interior door glass, with an SOS® pad. If there is excess burnt-on grease, you may need to repeat these steps as the oven cleaner works in layers. (If you haven’t cleaned your oven in a while, this might be the case.)
- Use a wet sponge, cloth, or paper towel to wipe off the mess from scrubbing.
- When it’s clean, and you’ve removed all the oven cleaner residue, spray the interior oven glass with Windex® and polish it like a shiny penny.

Step 4 – Cook Off The Chemicals
The final step is to heat your oven to eliminate any excess oven cleaner. Keep pets and children out of the kitchen while doing this.
- With the oven door closed, heat your oven for 15 minutes, leaving the windows open and hood vent running. If there is any excess oven cleaner residue, it will burn off.
- When the inside is done, polish the exterior, Windex® the exterior oven glass and call it a day.
Or if you’re feeling really brave you can check out our video below on going all the way!
Technically, you can use your oven immediately after cleaning it, but we recommend ordering dinner!
For a list of our favorite products, click here.
– Katie W @gocleanco
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gocleanco
Sep 24
Heya. 👋🏼 Sarah here. We are wrapping up Week One (Kitchen Week—the most overwhelming) of the Fall Cleaning challenge. How is it going? What have you got done? My job during these Challenges is to motivate and help educate you on the most efficient and effective ways to clean so you feel confident about moving onto the next week with us! The Cleaning Challenges get easier each time we do them as it’s a scheduled, routine deep clean that helps you stay on top of things before they get out of hand. If you deep cleaned in the Spring Challenge with us, I know (based on the hundreds of DM’s🤣) that this week felt easier because you lined the tops of your cupboards with parchment paper in the Spring! I find it hard to put into writing how cleaning can make you feel SO GOOD, satisfied and proud of your home. I can’t explain the feeling feeling until you roll up your sleeves and get to work and feel it yourself. Once one room is done, please stop and stand back and survey your work. Take a minute to feel the accomplishment in your bones. This is hard but rewarding work and you CAN do it—I will cheer you on the entire way. Keep sending me your before and afters! They make me so happy and proud of each you, I feel like I am helping clean millions of homes around the world and that’s honestly pretty cool. 😎
gocleanco
Sep 22
It’s Kitchen week of the Fall Cleaning Challenge and I can finally share my new kitchen sink from BLANCO that everyone has been asking about. I am very excited to be working with @blancoamerica1 they are THE kitchen experts and a global brand with over 95 years of experience. Head to my stories to see how I care for this beauty on the daily and how easy it is to treat stains. BLANCO is more than just sinks; they also have faucets and organizational systems (like the BOTTON) that work together as an integrated UNIT. #ad
gocleanco
Sep 19
We kicked off the Fall Cleaning Challenge by flying to Burnaby, British Columbia and cleaning our Spring Cleaning Challenge (2023) winners house! We had so much fun doing this clean. Lots of team work, planning and love was poured into this project! Getting cheered on by you folks makes it all worth it! Being able to pay our good fortune forward to our followers makes us all warm and fuzzy. Big thanks to our brand partners who generously hooked us up with so much gifted stuff for the winner. We all need to go nap for 3 days now 😂 Did you enter the Fall Cleaning Challenge so that this can be you Spring 2024?! Link in our bio or head to our website to enter. #cleaning Special thanks to @ruggable @bollandbranch @oceansalesltd @proctergamble @amazoninfluencerprogram 💕
gocleanco
Sep 15
Want to open your front door and see our smiling faces coming to clean your house? Then you better get over to bleachpraylove.com on Monday, September 18th and join the Fall Cleaning Challenge! That’s right, the Grand Prize is a house clean by yours truly and my crew. We fly to you and give your house a top to bottom clean like only we can. How does the Fall Cleaning Challenge work? Each week for four weeks follow along and clean your house with me! Plus we have soooo cool many prizes! Each week we will be giving away some of my favorite things like @bollandbranch @ruggable @sharkbeauty blow dryers, and my personal fav cold hard 💰 to help you catch up on bills, buy a new vacuum or hire someone to help you with your looming House Work if you can’t get caught up! If you want to see more of our adventure at the Spring Cleaning Challenge winners house stay tuned in stories for the next few days PLUS we are filming it all for YouTube and you can watch it all the behind the scenes dirty laundry…The good, the bad…the filthy. Love you folks. For reals. 💕 Thank you for making our job so fun! #cleaningmotivation
gocleanco
Aug 25
No visit from @hellohairhouse is complete without a kitchen haircut! #fallhairtrends
gocleanco
Aug 24
The Fall Cleaning Challenge starts on Monday Sept 18th, 2023. Y’all ready? The download will be available on September 18th and the grand prize is a house clean by yours truly! We also have some new vacuum testing coming your way 😈 My garage is FULL of suckers baby and I’m not mad about it. #fallcleaning
gocleanco
Aug 19
Update: It’s a damn ice box in here and I’ve been sleeping like a baby. #airconditioning
gocleanco
Aug 8
Perfect example that cleaning 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 home 👏🏻 maintenance 👏🏻 Take care of your stuff and it will last longer. This little handy-dandy-doo-dad scrubber is linked in my Amazon Storefront. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Aug 3
Had fun in the angels’ city chasing fortune and fame 😎 Thanks @amazoninfluencerprogram for #hosting me. And no I didn’t get tickets to any shows this weekend but for the rest of you—take the moment and taste it. 🫶🏼
gocleanco
Jul 19
To the Salon!!!!!! (Or in this case, the laundry room.) Saved these fabulous scuffed up pumps with some @tidelaundrystainremover a cloth and some patience. Just in time for @barbiethemovie premiere! Have fun @lauren_lally always happy to be of service 🫡 #barbiethemovie
gocleanco
Jul 12
Bathroom organization top picks! Everything is in my storefront to 🛍️ #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jul 11
Summer is here! Clean up your space so you actually want to hangout in it. That hot tub…it’s not mine…k🤦🏼♀️ Link in bio for these products, some are on sale for Prime Day, just check the albums for your country.
gocleanco
Jul 11
Robot Vacuum Fight Club! 💪🏻 Things we threw on the floor: Shreddies, Powdered Tide, (clean) Cat Litter, A crumbled up loaf of sourdough and good old dirt! Stay tuned for the results. 🧐 #thiswasmorefunthaniexpected
gocleanco
Jul 8
Spent my morning making a very aesthetically pleasing Raspberry Pie Reel for y’all but it ended up being a Raspberry Scramble 🥴💀 Wasn’t gonna post it BUT when life feels like a scramble it can still be delicious. 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 Please consider this my official petition to bring @jello back as a dessert staple.
gocleanco
Jul 7
Shower tracked destroyed with built up hard water minerals? Here’s an easy solution with a simple house hold ingredient and elbow grease. Still gonna take some scrubbing friends, good results take work. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Jul 6
Is pressure washing considered a form of therapy? Asking for a friend. #backupvocalsduuuuuuuuupe
gocleanco
Jun 29
Years in the making…it’s FINALLY here…and it’s a masterpiece. Over the years I have received thousands of DM’s asking what to pick when renovating your home. What is the easiest to clean? What will survive the test of time? So I compiled it all here in our Home Renovation Guide. Apologies for taking so long but we kept adding and it kept getting longer and longer. This has been a labour of love. Link in bio to purchase or tap to shop! #itsbeenalongtimecoming
gocleanco
Jun 21
Sounds like a lot of you have slime problems. Here’s how we got it out! Sprinkle baking soda on the slime and smush it down into the carpet fibres so it gets in deep. Add straight vinegar and let it sit for about 30 mins. Scrub it with a brush. Repeat until it’s gone! When you repeat, you need to let it sit each time for 30 mins so it starts to break down the slime. We scrubbed for 30 mins too, don’t give up! Think about how expensive the damn carpet is to replace and that will give you lots of energy! As always: It is a good idea to test an inconspicuous spot first (like in a closet) before try you so this because all carpets are different. Try at your own risk but also if you have dried slime all over your carpet I think you are screwed anyways. GOOD LUCK and report back. #slime #slimetoturial
gocleanco
Jun 18
I’m a simple creature. Here’s the haul I promised from the viral sweater set. Yellow usually isn’t my colour but I’m feeling it the most! Wearing a medium, it’s machine washable but I have been laying it flat to dry. Everything is linked in my bio and up in my stories. #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jun 17
If you thought I was going to miss an opportunity to use this bop, you were wrong. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there, reminder that a clean tractor is a sexy tractor. @kubotacanada if you wanna detail this thing next year LMK. 🚜 🧽 🫧😎