About a month ago, I posted about a nearly effortless way to clean the inside of your oven. But the oven itself isn’t the only thing that gets dirty after a while – the oven racks can also get caked with baked-on food and grease. So today I want to share a method for cleaning your oven racks that’s just as easy as the method for cleaning the oven itself! Follow the instructions from today’s post and last month’s post, and your oven is sure to be looking cleaner than even!
Related: How To Clean Your Oven The Smarter And Easier Way
Some time ago I ran across THIS little snippet of an idea while I was reading about the many uses for dryer sheets:
“An easy way to clean grill grates or oven racks is to line your bathtub with four used dryer sheets, set the grill or oven racks on top and fill the tub with warm water. Let sit overnight and then wipe clean . The power of the antistatic in dryer sheets helps to separate the food from the grates.”
I was definitely intrigued, so I did a little more research on it. Apparently the anti-static agents in the dryer sheets weaken the bond between the food and the rack, while the fabric softening agents soften the baked-on food. Makes sense! And I figured it was worth buying a cheap box of dryer sheets to try it out. :-)
How To Clean Oven Racks
You’ll need:
- Dryer sheets
- Dawn dish soap
- Scrub brush or sponge
Directions:
Place about 6 or 8 dryer sheets into your bathtub, and set your oven racks on top of the dryer sheets. Then turn on the hot water and fill the tub until the racks are covered by several inches of water.
For extra degreasing power, I added about 1/4 cup or so of Dawn dish soap at this point. You can choose to add it or not, it’s totally up to you. :-) (This step wasn’t listed in the original method I read about, but Dawn has never let me down before, and I figured it couldn’t hurt!)
Let the racks soak in the tub for at least a few hours, or preferably overnight.
When the waiting period is over, grab one of the dryer sheets from the tub and use it to “scrub” the oven racks. A lot of the “gunk” should slide right off!
For the extra tough stuff, you may want to use a scrubber or the back of a sponge.
Check out these “before” and “after” photos – what a difference! And THAT, my friends, is how I got my oven racks shiny and new again!
*Note: If your racks are rusted, don’t place them in the tub. Instead, toss them inside of a large garbage bag so that the rust doesn’t transfer to your bathtub.