Clean Sticky Residue Off Your Oven With Two Kitchen Ingredients

Unless you solely rely on microwave meals and takeout food, your stove probably sees a lot of action each week. Over time, the oven can get particularly dirty and grimy as sticky grease residue and splatters appear. Sticky residue can appear on the stovetop as well as on the surface of other kitchen appliances, but the oven is particularly vulnerable to this kind of buildup. The oven can suffer quite a bit from the appearance of these baked-on, greasy substances. If left unchecked, this sticky residue can make your oven and kitchen look worse and can become even tougher to get rid of. 

Simply scrubbing with water and a dish rag isn't likely to do much good for serious caked-on residue, so you'll need to consider other techniques instead. The solution to this problem comes from an unlikely place. Surprisingly, cooking oil can help you clean your oven if used alongside another tried-and-true, versatile household cleaning tool: distilled white vinegar. Together, these two ingredients form a powerful combo that can remove all kinds of sticky substances. It also works well for removing grease residue from the oven and other kitchen appliances.

To remove stuck-on residue from your oven using oil and vinegar, start by applying a bit of cooking oil to any spot you're trying to clean. The oil will be slick enough to soften and loosen up any sticky or hardened grease in your oven and make it easier to scrub away. 

Once you've applied cooking oil, grab an old toothbrush or scrubbing brush and scrub the residue. After doing this, add white vinegar and buff the spot thoroughly. Vinegar works particularly well on stainless steel and glass and can help when removing this sticky residue from many surfaces around the kitchen. The acidity of the vinegar is excellent at cutting through the grease without making matters worse or leaving residue behind. After you're finished buffing with vinegar, the stickiness should be gone. However, you'll then want to use water and dish soap to clean up any oil and vinegar that remains. 

Keep in mind that the best way to avoid the accumulation of stuck-on grease stains is to regularly clean your stove and oven before things get out of control. The quicker you wipe down and clean up splattered grease, the easier it will be to remove. If you leave sticky residue on your oven for a long time, then they'll turn into baked-on stains that will become harder and harder to get rid of. Be sure to develop a weekly cleaning routine and always try to remove greasy residue soon after it appears. This will help make the task of maintaining your kitchen and stove a much easier process.

To reduce the presence of tough grease stains and sticky residue in the future, also ventilate your kitchen well. If grease builds up easily on your stovetop, it could be a sign that your kitchen has poor ventilation. Better ventilation will make it harder for airborne grease to settle. Be sure your hood filter remains in working order. Spend some time cleaning your kitchen range hood and replace the filter as needed to prevent grease accumulation. If the filter is clogged, it won't clean the air as well, and sticky muck may accumulate more easily. Additionally, you may want to pay closer attention to grease splatters when cooking. Consider using a roasting bag for dishes you cook in the oven to prevent grease from splattering.