It’s pretty easy to clean your stove top or microwave in a way that’s not a health or environmental concern.  However, a regular oven can be a real problem.  Most of us have generally turned to caustic chemicals.  If you’ve ever used too much and spent an afternoon feeling light headed, or found that all the food baked in your oven tasted like oven cleaner, you know what a problem these products are.

There are lots of harmful substances in regular cleaners.  They start out in plastic and steel cans, and contain substances like diethylener glycol monobutyl ether - a VOC that’s not good for the waterways, monoethanolamine or MEA - a toxin harmful to fish, butane - yet another fossil fuel, and sodium hydroxide - lye or caustic soda.  This is a very caustic chemical that must be used with care, and is hard on the eyes and skin.  It also alters pH levels in waterways.  In small amounts and with the right usage, lye isn’t so bad, but there’s a lot of it in oven cleaner.

Of course, if you want to avoid environmentally harmful products, you’re still going to need to clean your oven.  There are a number of readymade green oven cleaners made using citrus oil and other plant based solvents, and surfactants derived from corn, soybeans, or coconut.  They’re usually packaged in a refillable spray pack, which allows you to avoid tossing a can.

If you’d prefer to use inexpensive homemade products, think about coating surfaces in the oven with baking soda and water paste.  Let the substance stand overnight, then scrub it off.  You can also use baking soda’s slightly harsher cousin - washing soda.  It’s sodium carbonate instead of bicarbonate, occurs in nature, and is better for jobs that baking soda can’t handle.  However, you may want to wear gloves.

A borax and liquid soap mixture dissolved in warm water and sprayed on can work, too.  Let it rest for a while, then scrub it off.  Just remember that borax has its own concerns, so don’t use too much.  A baked on mess can be dealt with using tea tree oil or citrus oils, and vinegar soaks will also help dissolve difficult areas.

Just remember that you’ll usually need to scrub harder than you would with a commercial cleaning agent.  However, the need for gloves is minimal, you don’t need to worry about ventilation as much, and cleaning your oven with these products won’t give you a headache.  For many people, that’s worth a little extra effort.

You can also reduce your need to clean the oven as often.  Use lower temperatures when possible, and cover items when cooking to keep splatters down.  Place a sheet of foil on the bottom of the oven under the heating element to catch spills, but be sure it doesn’t touch the element.  You can also periodically wipe the oven down with a vinegar soaked cloth to keep grease from building up quite as fast.  Prevention is always better when it comes to cleaning, and it’s true for ovens, too.