The kitchen is one of the dirtiest areas in any home besides the bathroom. This is because the kitchen is used extensively almost every day. Another reason is that food and cooking can deposit a large amount dirt, grime and germs on every surface over the course of a day. Most people try to keep the kitchen clean by going through and wiping down everything once a week. This is not always sufficient since there are hidden spots and inaccessible areas that you might have just given up on ever reaching. Those dirty areas can cause problems for you later or could even damage appliances over time.
A job that no one likes to do in the kitchen is cleaning the oven or stove. The oven is a confined area inside of a larger appliance that is sometimes hard to access. It can be incredibly difficult to reach all the way inside of the oven. The baked-on dirt and food inside can create patches that simply seem impervious to various cleaning products. A particular problem is the oven door. The door can get very dirty very quickly. Most oven doors have a window that actually makes even the smallest dirty spots more obvious. A blogger named Jess Kielman recently took the time to figure out how to clean the outside and inside of the oven door.
The first step in this process is to clean the exterior of the oven door. The front facing the kitchen is usually easy to clean. You just need some standard general-purpose cleaner, a rag and some hard work. The inside of the oven door can be much more difficult. You will need to wipe away any food that has been burned onto the door. Try a general purpose cleaner to remove everything else like oil and grime. If that does not work, then you want to pour some baking soda over the door and start scrubbing with a mildly abrasive sponge or rag. Add water as you scrub. The baking soda will begin working and cut through most grease and oil. Be certain to get the top and sides of the oven door as well.
You now need to take the oven door apart so that you can clean inside of it. Crumbs, grime and other things can get into the center of your oven door even though it seems sealed. You are going to need a special tool to do this. It is called a torx wrench. This looks like a screwdriver although the end has a five-pointed star instead of what you are used to. You can get the tool for just a few dollars at any good hardware store.
You want to look on the inside of your oven door. There should be two largish screws near the top corners. These are torx screws. Use your special tool to unscrew them slowly. Be prepared while doing this. The screws have springs underneath. They could pop out and shoot across the room if you are not careful. Remove the screws and then pull up the interior panel of the door.
You now have access to the inside of your oven door. Use general-purpose cleaners, a vacuum and anything else you need to clean away everything inside the door. Be certain to really get the window areas spotless since that will make a huge difference when looking around your kitchen. Let everything dry before you start putting the oven door back together again. Tighten the torx screws and check that the inner panel is firmly in place just as it was before. This technique actually takes very little time once you are used to removing the door panel.
