How to clean your oven properly

Remove the racks

The first step in cleaning your oven is to remove the racks. Depending on how dirty they are, you can clean these in the sink with warm soapy water and leave them to dry.

Alternatively, if you buy an oven cleaning kit, you'll get something that looks like a huge freezer bag to put the racks in, along with some cleaning solution, and leave those overnight.

While the racks are being cleaned, you can move on to the next step.

Clean the interior

To clean the interior surfaces, you should use a non-abrasive cleaner to help protect the oven. Oven cleaner solution generally comes in both spray and liquid form, but regardless of which you use, they're quite strong chemicals, so you should wear thick rubber gloves and a mask to prevent breathing this in.

You will also need a sponge or soft cloth for cleaning the oven door glass and exterior panels of your oven. If there are any stains on these parts of your oven, try using baking soda mixed with warm water before applying rubbing alcohol on top of them, though don't mix rubbing alcohol with baking soda.

Once you've cleaned your oven thoroughly, keeping it that way can feel like a challenge, but it's just about maintaining it from this point.

To keep your oven clean after a deep cleaning, give the exterior and interior a wipe-down after using, and clean any spills or oil splashes right away.

Remove the racks once weekly and clean them in the sink with warm soapy water before placing them back into the oven and allowing them to dry.

Keeping your oven as clean as possible helps it perform at its best.

And there you have it - a nice, clean oven. Now that you know how to do it yourself, why not try one of these tips? If this is a job you'd rather not take on yourself, you can hire a professional cleaning service to help.