How to Clean the Oven Quickly
Clean the Oven | No Soaking | No Waiting
We have had our oven for almost 6 years and I had never cleaned it before today. I wanted to be able to clean the oven as quickly as possible. After a ton of research, I found the fastest way to clean the oven, oven racks, and oven glass. I’ll be sharing all of that with you.
During my research, I kept reading all of these suggestions to let things soak overnight. That seemed way too long of a process for me. When I decide that I want to clean the oven… I want to clean the oven and I want the process to be as simple as possible.
I wanted my oven to be clean and I didn’t want the process to be drug out over two days.
Also, I was not about to soak my oven racks in the bathtub. I’m sure this works, but for me, it felt like I would be overcomplicating things. I didn’t want to have to clean the bathtub out as well.
So I set out to find a way to clean the oven quickly. I take a small amount of scrubbing, but I was able to get the whole oven clean, racks, and glass door included, in under 30 minutes.
This page may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.
How to Clean Oven Glass
What you need:
- spray bottle
- vinegar
- dish soap
- water
- baking soda
- stainless steel scrubber – this is the real MVP of the whole process
- washcloth
*If you don’t have the materials just click the links above. You can have the items and start cleaning your oven in two days. (If you have Amazon Prime).
Steps for cleaning your oven glass:
- Fill your spray bottle 3/4 of the way up with vinegar, add one large squeeze of dish soap, and fill the rest the way up with water. Shake the bottle to combine the ingredients.
- Open the oven and spray the vinegar cleaner on the glass surface.
- Cover the entire oven glass with baking soda.
- Use your stainless steel scrubber to scrub the oven glass.
- Continue to spray the vinegar cleaner as you scrub.
- When all the grime is scrubbed up wash away the mess with a wet washcloth.
I found things worked a lot better if I was continuing to spray the vinegar mixture as I scrubbed. I also found that I didn’t have to scrub very hard at all.
Also, I had to rinse my washcloth numerous times and continue to wipe away the baking soda.
I was prepared for this to be hard work and was amazed at how easy this was. Keep in mind, my oven is 6 years old and I have never cleaned the glass before. I understand that some of you may be working under different conditions.
If your mess won’t scrub away easily then you may need to let the original vinegar spray and baking soda sit for a little bit before scrubbing.
But that’s it! I can actually watch my cookies bake now. 🙂
How to Clean Inside Your Oven
Before I tell you how to clean the inside of your oven I want to tell you how to avoid cleaning your oven… get yourself an oven liner.
I would have never known about these if some older lady from my church, hadn’t strayed from my wedding registry, and bought me an oven liner… insisting it was a lifesaver. I didn’t believe her at the time, but boy am I glad that I went ahead and used it anyway.
This thing will catch the majority of the mess in your oven and can be washed in the dishwasher. It will save you a ton of time down the road and is just one of my kitchen cleaning tips.
What you need:
- the vinegar spray you made to clean the oven glass
- baking soda
- stainless steel scrubber
- washcloth
Steps for cleaning inside your oven:
- Spray the walls and bottom of your oven with the vinegar cleaner that you used to clean the oven glass.
- Sprinkle the sides and bottom of the oven with baking soda. You may need to use a cloth to get the baking soda on the sides. I was lazy and just kind of threw it on there.
- Scrub everything down with your stainless steel scrubber.
- Wipe everything away with your wet washcloth.
Now you have a shiny new oven!
Oven Self Cleaning Option
I know you can use the self-cleaning feature on most ovens. I personally decided to opt-out of that option for a couple of reasons.
One, as I mentioned, I wanted my oven to be clean and I wanted it to be clean now. I know that if I would have waited for a convenient time to turn the self-cleaner on, I would have continued to put it off.
Two, I don’t like the smell and the heat.
Three, I don’t like that you have to stay in the house and keep an eye on it. Again, the process is just long and drawn out and I wanted it to get done.
And Fourthly, you should really take caution when using your self-cleaning oven option. It’s not always the safest choice.
How to Clean Oven Racks
What you need:
- the vinegar cleaner you made previously
- baking soda
- stainless steel scrubber
- washcloth
- small bowl
Step to cleaning your oven racks:
- Put some baking soda into your bowl and pour some of your vinegar cleaning mixture into the bowl as well. Mix it up.
- Place one oven rack across your sink.
- Spray the oven rack with the vinegar cleaning solution.
- Take your stainless steel scrubber and dip it into the baking soda mixture you just made.
- Scrub all parts of your oven rack with the stainless steel scrubber.
- Rinse your oven racks.
- Let the oven racks dry and then place them back in your oven.
It’s really that easy. I found this way faster than letting the oven racks sit in your bathtub overnight. Plus, you are now avoiding the nightmare of cleaning the oven rack gunk out of your tub.
Final Steps to Clean the Oven
Since you are here and took all that time and elbow grease to clean up your oven, you might as well end with a bang. Finish up with this list:
- Put your new oven liner in the oven so cleaning the oven in the future will be easier for you.
- Pull everything out of the oven drawer and wipe the drawer clean.
- Use a glass cleaner or stainless steel cleaner to wipe down the outside of the oven. If you don’t have a stainless steel oven then a multi-purpose cleaning spray will work great.
- Go all in and clean the stove top as well or save that task for another day because you just worked hard on this oven!
Thank You! Need More Support?
Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll stick around and read some more.
Here are some more simple cleaning tips.
My main passion is helping women build systems and routines that make homemaking simple. I find this possible through simplifying life, decluttering, and building routines that work for your household.
If you love all of that or want to learn more you should jump on my email list. I’ll send you a bunch of info on how I take care of my house, free access to my printables library, and a weekly newsletter with challenges and tips. Hope to see you there.
Either way, thanks again, and come back any time. 🙂
Iris
February 24, 2023 at 9:42 pmI want to try this but I thought you can’t use steel wool on Teflon (which coats the inside of self-cleaning ovens). Isn’t scratching the Teflon with metal toxic?
Shelby
January 16, 2023 at 4:45 pmNever thought how easy this could be! Thank you for the tips!!
Sharon Blancarte
July 29, 2022 at 3:09 pmBest oven cleaner ever! Doesn’t compare to other vinegar and baking soda recipes. Was fast, cheap, did a great job of cleaning. Got stuff other cleaners didn’t. With it 107 degrees outside it’s a relief not to turn on the oven
DSmith
April 16, 2022 at 12:59 pmSo…..I just tried this and I’m pleased to report it worked pretty well. My self cleaning feature
stopped working so before I sprayed a horrible chemical in the oven, I figured it couldn’t hurt to try this. The cons are that my arms aren’t long enough to reach the back of the oven (did something, unbeknownst to me, explode in there?!?) and you have to find away to work around the door. All in all, I’m pleasantly surprised.
Nina
October 17, 2021 at 10:13 amI just wanted to say thank you so much for your oven cleaning method! I was skeptical at first because we had moved into our home in July and the bottom of the oven was crusty and nasty. I did the glass first and was pleasantly surprised at the result. I tackled the bottom of the oven and omg it works! It wasn’t a lot of work either. I did purchase the liner as well. Thank you!
KatiesKottage
November 8, 2021 at 8:52 pmI’m so glad this helped you Nina. Thank you for the kind comment.
Evelyn Seaton
December 15, 2021 at 9:29 amDoes the stainless steel scrubber scratch the glass?
Linda Holmes
May 25, 2021 at 5:33 pmI have a LG stove. When I first got it my family came over for Christmas and before I could tell my family not to use aluminum in the oven. Now the bottom of my oven is ruined. I hope I can use the liner. I used to use them with my old stove and they really worked.
Donna Delhagen
April 14, 2021 at 8:00 amI am concerned that the wire scrubber would scratch the glass??
Rainey
January 27, 2021 at 3:06 pmJust finished my glass door and yes it was super easy and now it’s really clean, but ( sorry ) now I have greasy water stains that seeped between the two glass doors
Rainey
January 27, 2021 at 3:15 pmUpdate: found a site that showed how to wrap the end of a wire fly swatter with disinfectant wipes and go up thru the bottom vent slots in the door ?
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:44 pmThat’s great! I’m glad you were able to find something to help you figure that out.
Dorothy
February 13, 2021 at 3:13 pmHow do you clean inside the glass
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:46 pmRainey posted in another comment that she found a website that shared how to wrap a cleaning wipe around the end of the fly swatter and stick that up through the slot between the door and glass. Hope that helps.
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:46 pmglad you were able to get this fixed… thanks for the updated comment.
LINDA TORRENCE
January 4, 2021 at 2:00 pmI an going to use this to clean my oven tomorrow, I have streaks inside the glass on the door. Is there any way to remove it? My stove is only about 4 years old but is has gotten rusty on the outside of the oven door, on the bottom. There is a lip on the bottom of the door where is opens and the rust has acquired on the top of that. Am really disappointed in this stove!
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:48 pmOh man that is such a bummer. You left this comment so long ago… sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I had a baby and took some time off. Where you able to solve your problem. You can put a cleaning wipe around the end of fly swatter and stick that up through the gap between the layers of glass.
Nancy
December 16, 2020 at 9:41 amI did the glass front 1st- looked amazing…..turned oven light on so I could close the door and look in through the glass. Looked great for 5 seconds, then a water streak appeared between the glass! Nothing I can do about it because I do t want to take apart. Maybe I scrubbed too hard. Oven looks great and I appreciate your method…I don’t mean this as a negative, just thought you would want to know. Doing my daughter’s oven using same method. Thanks!
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:49 pmYou are not the only one… a lot of people comment this same thing. There is a gap between the glass. It can be tricky but you can use a cleaning wipe and the end of fly swatter to go up through the two layers.
Melody
December 6, 2020 at 10:14 pmI like using a Magic Eraser instead of the steel scrubber.
KatiesKottage
February 15, 2021 at 8:50 pmThose really do a great job cleaning a lot of things.
Renee
July 14, 2020 at 11:06 pmThank you! My oven looks great, I’m exhausted but happy. No yucky chemicals and didn’t heat up my house My oven was so much dirtier than your too!
KatiesKottage
July 15, 2020 at 9:12 amThat’s great Renee! So glad that it worked for you. 🙂
Debbie
July 10, 2020 at 11:09 pmHi Katie,
Just wanted to say a big thank you re the oven cleaning info, I followed your guide and it worked a treat.
KatiesKottage
July 15, 2020 at 9:12 amThat’s great! So glad that it worked for you Debbie!
Clair Lune
April 27, 2020 at 10:10 amThank You Katie for these super helpful tips.
I tried out vinegar and baking soda solutions before but with little success.Need to apply the necessary elbow grease:)
I shall try it out today.
Much appreciated.
KatiesKottage
April 28, 2020 at 10:18 amThanks Clair! I hope it worked for you. 🙂
Carolyn
April 22, 2020 at 2:44 pmThank you. Very helpful. Do you have ant suggestions for rust stain in the shower?
Carolyn
KatiesKottage
April 27, 2020 at 9:24 amHi Carolyn, I can’t quarantine this will work but I have removed rust from stainless steel and from a toilet bowl with Scoth-Brite Heavy Duty Scour Pads. You do have to put some muscle into it. The same baking soda and vinegar paste I used on the oven should help as well. These are the pads I’m talking about: https://amzn.to/2y4jAWP
Sharron
April 19, 2020 at 3:49 pmHey Katie,
62 yr old newbie here,and I have a 2 yr old LG Electric Range that says NOT to use foil in the bottom but says nothing about a liner
Have you had any feedback on using a liner in these newer ovens that can do both convection and regular cooking?
I really like the sound of the liner.
Thanks
Sharron from VA
KatiesKottage
April 27, 2020 at 9:26 amI have one of those ovens and use the liner so I’m guessing it’s fine. I’ve never had any problem with it. However, I never did any research on it so try it at your own risk. Lol. 🙂
Pat
April 4, 2020 at 7:48 amWhite or cider vinegar?…
KatiesKottage
April 4, 2020 at 8:28 pmWhite vinegar is what I used and what most use for cleaning. I would imagine cider vinegar would work as well if that is all you have, but I have never tried it.
Kelly
January 5, 2020 at 11:16 amThis works amazing! Thank you! ?
KatiesKottage
January 6, 2020 at 2:30 pmThanks Kelly! I’m so glad that this worked for you. 🙂
Adrienne
January 4, 2020 at 9:39 amYour first step says to fill with vinegar twice. Is that correct or is it a vinegar and water solution?
KatiesKottage
January 4, 2020 at 1:44 pmIt should say “fill the rest of the way up with water.” I edited it. Thank you for pointing that out so that I could get it fixed. 🙂
Gen Smyth
January 29, 2019 at 5:16 pmCan’t wait to try it. Can it be used on a gas oven? Just want to make sure.
KatiesKottage
January 29, 2019 at 8:52 pmHey Gen! Yes, since it is all natural ingredients with no chemicals, I believe you can. 🙂
Carolune Hunter
April 26, 2020 at 6:43 pmVery informative i will try that next time for sure
KatiesKottage
April 27, 2020 at 9:21 amThanks Carolune. I hope it works out for you. 🙂