When it comes to household chores, deep cleaning the oven is easily my least favorite. The idea of spending hours scrubbing away months of accumulated grease and dried food is far from appealing.
That’s why I’m always on the lookout for easy hacks and tips to make oven cleaning a breeze — sparing me the time and manual labor. And despite my trusted arsenal of store-bought sprays and natural remedies like baking soda or vinegar, removing burnt-on grime from the back of the oven always required some elbow grease.
That was until I decided to put this viral hack to the test, just using one popular item from my fruit bowl. While I’ve seen this tip floating around on my socials, I wasn’t entirely convinced it could do a good job.
You simply cut lemons into a bowl of water before placing it inside the oven. Crank up the heat for some time before turning it off, and then let the steam do its work to dissolve grease — making cleaning a lot easier.
But can lemons really clean my oven? Here’s what happened when I put it to the test.
How to use lemons to clean your oven
There are so many things you didn’t know you could clean with a lemon, and it turns out the oven is one.
First, I sliced up the lemons and dropped them into a water-filled bowl, squeezing in extra juice for good measure. Next up, I preheated my oven at around 250°F before putting the bowl inside.
I set my oven timer for 30 minutes (you may need a bit longer for stubborn grime) —giving the fresh steam enough time to evaporate.
Once the time was up, I let the bowl sit inside for a further 60 minutes to let the steam work its full magic and loosen the caked-on residue.
Then, after the oven had completely cooled down, I removed the bowl, dipped my cloth into the warm lemon water, and used it to wipe away the loosened grease and grime.
To my surprise, residue and burnt-on grime lifted off in seconds, and the area was much easier to clean without all the frantic scrubbing. After rinsing my cloth with clean water, I managed to clean inside my greasy oven in just a few swipes. Impressive.
Granted, it may take you a little longer to clean if you have a larger (or dirtier) oven. In that case, you may need to combine this lemon hack with other oven cleaning methods or products.
However, if you just want a simple and fuss-free way to get rid of light grease and grime, steaming lemons works surprisingly well.
Best of all, it left my kitchen smelling beautifully fresh and zesty — which is always a huge bonus after cleaning.
In fact, you could even use lemons in your dishwasher to make your entire kitchen smell fresh. Here's how.
What other citrus-y based kitchen hacks do you know? Drop a line in the comments!
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