This Laundry Room Staple May Be The Key To A Cleaner Stovetop

Whether you have an electric stove with a smooth surface or a gas range with hundreds of nooks and crannies, stoves are difficult to clean, and the caked-on grease and stubborn food splatters require some muscle to remove from the surface. Luckily, there is a natural ingredient in your laundry room that you can use whenever you need more scrubbing power — borax. 

This white powder is a type of salt mined from the earth where there are usually tons of minerals, and it's mostly made of boron, oxygen, and sodium. It's traditionally used in laundry to help make the detergent more deep-cleaning, and it also helps make your clothes smell fresher. However, its gritty texture can also help you clean your stove. This is a great hack to try because it means you don't need to buy a specialty stove scrubber, and hopefully lower your grocery bill. Here is how to use borax in the kitchen.

You want to use your borax the same way you would use a powder cleaner on the stove: Simply sprinkle it across the surface, and then use a damp sponge (rough side down) to scrub the glass or steel. The amount of product you need depends on how grimy the mess is. If you only have a few splatters, a small sprinkling should be enough to dislodge the debris. But if you cooked a massive meal with lots of accidents (or haven't gotten around to cleaning your stovetop for several weeks), it's best to add at least 1 cup of borax to have enough scrubbing power. 

Borax works great for this application because its powder form — which is comprised of tiny crystals — makes it slightly abrasive, helping to dislodge dried splotches. If you have stains that are difficult to lift, you can add borax to the stovetop, mist it with warm water from a spray bottle to create a type of paste, and allow it to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. This will help soften the grime, making it easier to scrub away.