The Best Cleaning Hack
Happy Monday!
I hope you had a great weekend.
This weekend was one of my best lockdown weekends. It was so relaxing, I feel like I just had a week-long vacation. We went for a walk on Saturday morning but then the sky went dark and grey the rest of the weekend it was pouring rain. It was the best weather to just chill and do nothing. I read, worked on my puzzle, and Tj and watched Younger. Pretty much the same things we’ve been doing all lockdown but for some reason, this weekend was extra refreshing.
Maybe it’s because last week I tackled a chore I’ve been putting off for all quarantine - I finally cleaned the oven.
If I have never recommended a book you liked or inspired you to read more, I hope one thing you take away from Megan Away is this cleaning tip!
When we moved out of our last apartment, I tested a lot of different cleaning techniques and I found a new trick to clean the oven. I was so impressed I meant to write about it back then but then I never got around to it. And since I didn’t remember how easy the trick was, I’ve been putting off cleaning the oven. When I finally decided to just get it done, I couldn’t believe how easy it was.
Ready for the magic ingredient?
All you need is a dishwasher tablet.
That’s it!
First I used an old cloth with a bit of warm water to wet the oven door. Then I simply wet the bottom of the dishwasher tablet and scrubbed away. It worked so fast! I used it to clean some spots inside the oven as well. If you try this trick, note that the tablet will fall apart, but that’s ok. When I was done I just used a wet cloth to wipe it all up and just like that it was spotless.
To clean my oven racks I tried two techniques:
To clean the bottom tray, I took it out and left it in the shower overnight (we don’t have a bathtub, but that would have been a lot easier. I have read online that the trays might scratch your bathtub, so I recommend a laundry sink or a rubber bin). I added a dishwasher tablet, boiling water from the kettle, and a few dryer sheets. Then I covered it in tin foil and left it overnight. The next morning I gave it a rinse and everything wiped off easy peasy.
For the middle rack, I was feeling a bit lazy. I didn’t want to go down to storage to get a bin that would fit the rack to do the same soaking technique I first tried, so instead, I just filled my sink with hot water and a dishwasher tablet. I left the rack in there for about 20 minutes total. After about 10 minutes I rotated it so that the half that was sticking out of the water was submerged. Then I gave it a quick wipe with a sponge and it was sparkling!
Afterward, I cleaned out the kitchen sink and it was soooo clean. It has never looked better. I couldn’t believe it! Years ago my mom went out of town and I got in trouble when she got home because the sink drain was dirty. I had never thought of scrubbing the sink. I thought it was gross enough just to clean out the food leftover in the plug. Well nowadays, I always scrub my sink but it has never looked this good. I've used bleach and strong cleaning chemicals, but the dishwasher tablet worked the best.
We were so impressed with this cleaning hack, we tried it in the shower too. Tj rubbed the tile grout with the dishwasher tabled and then used a cleaning brush to scrub it in, and it looks brand new.
This article has some great tips for cleaning with a dishwasher tablet, including how to:
Clean the garbage can
Clean the toilet
Remove tea/coffee stains from mugs/teapots
Clean outdoor furniture
Clean the washing machine
If you are putting off any annoying chores like cleaning the oven, try this cleaning hack and let me know how it goes!