Need some “good housekeeping” info

[Joel_BC]

I could use a bit of advice from people here who do kitchen clean-up. I’m often the person in our home who does the heavy-duty stove cleaning. Besides a little propane unit and a barbecue, we’ve got an electric stove for everyday use. The old-school type with removable spiral burner elements on top, and a conventional oven.

My wife is generally good on many sorts of cleaning, but due to heat turning some spill-overs in the oven and around and under burners into a sort of varnish (plus some lumps and grit of fused-on black carbon), I wind up tackling that. The reason is: I will use lye in water (sure, with gloves on and avoiding inhalation), and she won’t. She’ll use elbow grease, but she developed a liking for “friendly”, non-toxic spray stuff. The stuff sold as “natural” in many kitchen and hardware store these days. (Lye was the essential ingredient in old-school EasyOff and similar cleaners.)

I’m all for using something less “harsh” than lye—but I want something that actually achieves “old fashioned” clean. Can you recommend anything that is truly effective? (Brand names, please. Many products available in the U.S. are also sold up here.) Thanks.

 

[Britesea]

Sanitizers for the house:

Grapefruit seed extract
Works better than hospital disinfectants
Even works against haemophilus influenzae
For a spray: 30 to 40 drops in 1 quart of water and shake.

Vinegar
Kills some germs but not all, and inhibits their growth
For a spray: ½ cup per cup of water, add some lavender essential oil
To make it smell good and increase antibacterial properties

Hydrogen Peroxide
Mix with equal amounts of vinegar to kill Salmonella, shigella and e coli
Can be sprayed directly onto countertops

Tea Tree Oil
Against staph, e coli, shigella and salmonella
For a spray: 2 cups water, ½ tsp liquid soap, 2 tbsp vinegar and 20 drops tea tree oil

Neem Oil
Good sanitizer and insect repellant
Mix neem oil with castile soap and use a few drops to clean counters, or add to water in a spray bottle.

Lavender
1 cup water, 20 drops Lavender essential oil, 20 drops thyme or eucalyptus essential oil and 10 drops tea tree oil

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Are ya'll gonna make me admit this? I get up at 5ish every morning. I go out and feed chickens, pigs and goats. I think I'm about to start milking again in the mornings instead of evenings which will add to my list. I go to work from 7:30a until 4:30 / 5:00 M-F (no more Fridays off until next summer) Oh, and I work at least one Saturday a month during the academic year.

I come home and change clothes and go out again to feed/milk/worm/inject/cuss/chase/ goats, horse, pigs, and dogs. Oh - and pick up eggs if there are any. Put out hay if I'm out of round bales. Then I go inside about 7ish and do the same thing for DH. Well...leave out the milking, worming, and the pick up eggs parts, lol! We, hopefully, eat by 8 but sometimes it's 9. Somewhere in the week I run errands, do laundry, buy groceries... that kind of stuff.

So, to make this long story shorter - NO - my house is NEVER clean-clean. Parts of it can be...sometimes even more of it is - but I do not enjoy it. It is simply just about the only thing in my life where there is a little wiggle-room. I can live with a little dust on the furniture for a few days. However - when I do clean I do get obsessed. I can spend hours with the vacuum cleaner. I start at the top and go to the bottom. Top being the ceilings...can't have those spider webs! Bottom being under the furniture for the same reason. I wish the stupid spiders would make up their mind whether they like it high or low...geeze! Throw in yard work on the weekends and there are simply no more hours in the day for anything else.

I try NOT to spend my entire weekend being a slave to these floors and walls. I am more of a slave to the yard and pens...those thing have to be done. It took a long time to develop the ability to ignore some of those things. I WAS that obsessive cleaner when I had kids at home. I was a twice a day vacuumer - every day duster - mopped the floor every day too. Also had that hot dinner on the table at 6p each and every night for probably 20 years.

I'm OVER it - LOL! (just noticed that my long story didn't get any shorter)

 

[Mini Horses]

I have used a good degreaser sprayed on oven at night, most all came of with wet rag next day. Burnt on always a job!!
Mean Green has worked well.

Quite by accident....found that mint leaves get rid of fruit flies. Lay a sprig onto the fruit/veg. It's great. Peppermint oil on a napkin works well, also. But we are able to grow mint.
I've "heard" snakes are not fond of it....plan to plant it all around chicken coops & runs next year!!

I keep peppermint essential oil on hand as mice do not like it. Using a syringe & small guage needle, I squirt a couple drops of it anywhere they want to enter or hide, behind stove & frig and into cabinet corners to keep insects out. Does help some with spiders I've noticed.

Bay leaves go into every bag of flour & does great in a cabinet also. Again, insects. Inexpensive to buy.

 

[tortoise]

Confession: I would buy new bowls for under the burners.

I know everyone says not to use foil in the bottom of the oven, but I do. I'd put it right over what is there. Because I'm a lazy housekeeper.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm fine with EasyOff...it's old, tried and true. Then I'd line that stove with tinfoil afterwards if the wife is prone to letting things boil over in there. It can save you many hours of cleaning by using preventative measures.

I've never used any other product for ovens than that, so have nothing new to offer, Joel...sorry.

One other method is just to soak a towel in soapy ammonia or vinegar and lay it over the bottom of the stove and let it soak in all night...make sure the towel is good and soppy. It could very well turn that layer of varnish into something that then wipes or peels right off.

If the bowls under the top burners are not removable, I always use soaking and then scouring powder on those areas. If removable, I just replace them if they are too bad...it's cheaply done. Then you can wrap the new bowls in tinfoil to prevent boiling over from causing a problem, then just replace them each time the stove is cleaned.

If not wanting to replace them, soaking them in soapy ammonia or vinegar overnight and then rinsing them well...then using SOS pads or scouring powder on any stubborn residue should render them shiny and new.

 

[tortoise]

If it's very thick, I will carefully use a razor blade to scrape. If it's thinner, a magic eraser works wonders. And no! Don't buy the name brand! They're >$1 each! Crazy! I ordered 100 generic online. Cost $0.08 each, free shipping, i shared with a neat-freak friend who can't fit magic erasers into he budget. The generic "melamine foam sponge" is usually and off color, a little smaller, but works better on cooking mess. The only application the name brand is better is on washing walls, and it's not much difference.

 

[Joel_BC]

Thanks for all the replies.

It seems that generally, amongst those who don't manage to totally avoid spill-overs directly onto stove surfaces, that EasyOff and similar lye-based products are acknowledged as most effective... with Mr Muscle getting a vote from the British Isles.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Uh no, I've got to disagree that there is anything enjoyable about cleaning. I like it being done, but I hate it. And I have a 4 year old, 2 dogs (one of whom sheds like mad), and a messy husband so no, my house is not often spotless!

 

[Britesea]

Best way I ever had of cleaning the oven was to put a small bowl of ammonia on the top shelf, a large pan of boiling water on the shelf below it, close up the oven and leave it overnight. In the morning, everything wipes clean with a damp rag.

If you catch something boiling over in the oven- before it has actually burnt in- sprinkle salt all over it. It will puff up into a light, crispy something that wipes off easily with your damp rag.

What I have trouble with is the burners on top. I used to wipe them down before I started cooking (can't wipe them down afterwards- they're too hot!) and that kept them clean. Unfortunately, DH and DS didn't do that when I was doing craft show and gone most weekends. By the time I would get home, everything was turned into varnish. I've tried soaking with ammonia, but in an arid environment it dries up before anything softens.