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Prepare yourselves for some hideousness.
Because I finally, after almost seven years, cleaned out my oven last weekend.

And I think I figured out why my smoke alarm kept going off.
Go figure.

I don’t even know what the charred remains were all over the bottom of my oven, because as far as I can remember nothing has ever bubbled over in there.
(My best guess is Heather’s Thanksgiving turkey from a few years back, but it’s better not to go into that whole story…)

I pinned this blog post some time back and have been guiltily skipping over it ever since.
Don’t judge.
I was in a state of denial.

Unfortunately, pictures don’t lie.

So it works like this:

Heat your oven up on the lowest setting.
Boil a pot of water, then turn off oven.
Fill a baking pan with ammonia and place on top rack.
Place the pot of boiling water on the lowest rack.
Try not to choke to death on the ammonia fumes and go to bed.
Wake up in the morning and wipe down the oven with the (diluted) ammonia.

I’m going to only call this experiment a partial success, but because of the sad state of my oven I think it would probably warrant a second cleaning before it was perfectly clean.

After several hours of gagging over the grossness, wishing I owned knee pads, and dumping countless pots of dirtied water out my back door, I am now the owner of a semi-clean oven.

Hey, I’m obviously not a perfectionist in this area.
I’ll take it.

I also read on Jillee’s blog that you can clean your oven racks by letting them soak in the tub overnight with a couple of dryer sheets thrown in the water.

I didn’t give it overnight, but they soaked for a few hours while I cleaned out the beast oven and let me tell ya, whoever came up with this idea was BRILLIANT! It worked like a charm, and the gunk (further proof that SOMETHING boiled over at some point) caked all over the racks easily wiped off.
Who knew that dryer sheets could work that miracle?

Of course, then I had to scrub my shower…

So my overall thoughts are that it works (and requires minimal scrubbing), but if your oven is way past due for a cleaning, it might take more than one session.

And yes, I will be doing it again. Soon.
I also promise that it won’t be another six years between cleanings.
I just feel the need to throw that out there.
{blush}

Parties I link to: Craft-O-Maniac, Lines Across My Face, Sew Can Do, Sew Chatty, C.R.A.F.T., Making the World Cuter, Skip to My Lou, The Southern Institute,  Chef In Training, Confessions of a Stay at Home Mom, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Vintage Wanna Bee, Sugar Bee Crafts, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Todays Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Mandy’s Recipe Box, My Girlish Whims, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Sew Much Ado, Ginger Snap Crafts, Southern Lovely, House of Hepworths,  The Crafty Blog Stalker,  Something Swanky, A Glimpse Inside, Delicate Construction, Tidy Mom, Thirty Handmade Days, Tatertots and Jello, Flamingo Toes, Six Sisters Stuff, Naptime Creations, Crazy for Crust