Do you have those areas of your house that are so difficult to clean you eventually just stop trying? That is the grease on my stove for me...everything I tried was not touching it so I was at the point of not trying. We're military and expect to move this summer so I was just trying to deal with it until we leave! Talk about denial!
Unfortunately when we were stuck in the house for days during the blizzard I got stir crazy and decided no more-I was going to figure out how to degrease a stove no matter what! I tore up Pinterest trying different things and finally found a couple of things that work (and many, many others that didn't!)
Thieves Cleaner
The first thing I tried was my favorite Thieves cleaner from Young Living. It's my go to cleaner for the kitchen normally but not today-the dilution I had for other cleaning didn't touch the grease. I'm sure I could have tried it at a more concentrated strength but I was out of my concentrate so I moved on....
Dawn Dish Soap
Next I tried Dawn dish soap-hey, it works on greasy pans and they use it in oil spills, surely it can handle some kitchen grease, right? Nope. Nothing. Even with a significant amount of elbow grease. By this time I was getting fired up. Time to head to Pinterest!
Baking Soda
Pinterest told me to try baking soda and/or a mixture of baking soda and vinegar and while I do use that to clean the inside of the oven glass I was worried about using it on the black surface of the stovetop-a quick google search warned it could damage the finish. I decided against it.
Mineral Oil
It sounds counterintuitive to clean oil with another oil but I thought it was worth a try! I found this tip on The Manly Housekeeper and was skeptical at first. For the lighter stubborn oil stains on the stove display the mineral oil really worked! The deeper caked on stovetop splatters that were caked on didn't have as much success-but this will be my go to method from now on for maintenance cleaning! Yay for small successes!
Magic Eraser
Finally, I broke out my magic eraser and started to work on the stubborn stains the mineral oil didn't help-look how much it removed even after I had tried ALL of those other cleaning methods!! It totally disintegrated my Magic Eraser (affiliate link) in the process but my stove actually looks shiny and new again!
Do you have any other cleaning methods to degrease a stove I didn't try? Let me know in the comments!
Rachel says
As a bacon lover and frequent cooker of said meat, I have to admit grease stains are a common occurrence in our kitchen. Since we are renting I want to make sure to get any stains cleaned off before our lease is up, so thank you for sharing the tip. I'll have to give it a try!
Christol says
For that stovetop grime that has been baked on all week (hubby cooks while I'm at work) I use Eco-TSP by Dynamic. I get it at the paint store. I use it straight out of the bottle, spread it over all the baked on stuff and let it sit for 10 minutes, then I get out the magic eraser. I recommend you wear gloves... love the results.
Melissa says
I'll have to try it out Christol, thanks for the tip!
kim Snow says
Baking soda and peroxide....leave it to soak....comes off like a breeze.
Tammy Coltrane says
Hi, have you tried a cleaner called awesome that is sold at the dollar tree store ? It is a spray that works really well .
Anna says
Hi. I actually just listened to an Ask A Clean Person podcast yesterday that talked about cleaning kitchen grease last night. The host, Jolie Kerr, recommends using diluted ammonia (or Simple Green if you're anti-ammonia for some reason). I haven't tried it yet, but that's going to be the starting point for my next kitchen cleaning! (I need to re-listen, but I think she mentioned 1/4 c ammonia per gallon water.) Good to know about the mineral oil tip too - thanks!!