The Parts Of An Oven That Everyone Forgets To Clean

Almost every home, no matter how grand or humble, is equipped with an oven that serves an important purpose: helping you to prepare food. But like any appliance that is used for food prep, it becomes grimy and greasy over time with debris like crumbs, melted cheese, splattered sauce, and more. These messes not only look gross but are also unhygienic and can attract bugs and other pests, making it a non-negotiable that you should be cleaning your oven regularly.

Even if you wipe down your stove top after every meal, there are still countless areas on your oven that get gross over time and need a deeper clean. Common spaces that you may be forgetting to clean on your oven range from the bottom drawer and drip pans to the stove's control knobs. While it may initially take a bit of effort to stay on top of oven cleanliness, knowing where to look for lurking messes makes all the difference in the world.

Among the most obvious oven spaces that many people forget to clean is the drawer under the oven. If you're like most individuals, you likely only use this space for storing cookie sheets and other pans, but even though it is underutilized, its position under the oven door hinge makes it a natural crumb trap. In order to clean this drawer, empty all of the contents, and then arm yourself with a handheld vacuum attachment to suck up all of the crumbs and debris. Follow with a clean, wet cloth and some multipurpose spray, wiping the drawer until it is free of dust and grime.

Another natural space that attracts messes on the daily are the drip pans that sit under electric range coils. Boiling pasta water spillover and spaghetti sauce drips can cook on quickly and become difficult to clean and gross to look at. To clean the drip pans, pull on and gently wiggle the electric coils until they come out of their sockets, then lift up the drip pans and either soak them in warm soapy water (we recommend dish soap, which will help to cut through grease) or run them through the dishwasher before returning them and re-inserting the coils into their sockets.

While the aforementioned spaces build up a lot of visible grime, there are more furtive nooks and crannies where oven grossness lingers. Oven knobs can get dusty and greasy over time, and a simple wipe-down will not suffice if you dream of a shiny kitchen. Instead, pull off the knobs (most stoves allow for this, although if you don't clean them regularly they may offer some resistance), and then clean them in warm and soapy water, scrubbing wherever there is stubborn grease.

The inner workings of the stove and oven are also likely to be a breeding ground for crumbs and other food debris, but this next oft-forgotten place is also easy to forget: underneath the stovetop. To clean under the stovetop, simply place one hand under each side of the stovetop's lip and lift with gentle pressure. The hinges should allow the top to swing up, and you can then collect any crumbs before spraying and wiping the surface down with a DIY natural degreaser cleaning spray. By implementing these cleaning tasks, you can achieve the satisfaction of knowing your oven and stove are as clean as can be.