Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day 4

This day is a tad late. Day 4 was Thursday. Thursday was exhausting. I got home at...8:30 and was asleep before 9:30. No, this was not on purpose. It was really quite pathetic. I didn't even make it halfway through Grey's Anatomy. 

The 31 Days task for Day 4 is to clean your oven and microwave. It's also to invite a friend over without worrying how your house looks...just to make your house a more inviting space. I did, in fact, invite someone over, but she was more exhausted than I was, so a TV date was not in order. I realized that the Day 5 task was to clean out my cabinets which we did this summer and I decided to combine these things for today (Saturday). Well, the oven cleaning took FOREVER. I'm going to eventually show you some before/after photos, but for now, let me just say, disgusting. I decided to go green with this whole oven cleaning catastrophe. I'm pleased with my results, though some kind of chemical, eye-burning, birth-defect inducing cleaner could've been faster and/or easier. 

First, I put baking soda everywhere. I made it into a paste with some water and started a-scrubbin'. It worked well enough. Then, I realized we should take the door off...this is where the ridiculous starts. Now there's a door laying in the kitchen floor. OK. Easy enough to fix later. Then, I realize that it would be easier to clean the top of the oven without the heating elements. We take out the heating elements. Keep in mind, I started this project after 4 p.m. I had a meeting from 8:30-3:30 today. So, we're taking out heating elements and I'm scrubbing away. Hot water, baking soda, scrub, wipe, repeat. There are still some troubling spots. Baking soda is liberally thrown in there, vinegar is sprayed on...volcanic action ensues. At some point, we break for dinner. During this time, I decided to watch the 31 Day Videos. Seriously, she makes it look so easy. Apparently, normal people clean stoves/ovens more often than we do. Chris pulled out the range for me. It was awesome. Almost. You should see what was under/behind it. First, they didn't move it when they laid down our bubbling up floating laminate floor. Second, ew. I mean, this was foul (you'll see later). So, I wiped down the sides of my oven, cleaned the sides of the counters where they ran into the oven, wiped the top of the wall, and Chris vacuumed the floor and used a wet Swiffer cloth on it. Fabulous. While he was gone to dinner, I took the knobs off the stove top (didn't know you could do that until he showed me) and also soaked them in a bowl of baking soda & vinegar. That worked like a charm. **The power was off for all of these adventures.** 

Since I don't want to bore you and I have lots of disgusting photos, let me just say that our stove top was foul. I mean, it was really disgusting. Something was in there and I honestly couldn't tell you what it is/was/ever-had-potential-to-be. Gross. 


36 rounds of baking soda + vinegar + hot, hot water + Green Works All-Purpose + wiping + drying= fabulous looking range.
My sweet husband reaching vinegar for me after pulling out the range, taking off the door, and smelling the disgusting scent of baking soda paste for hours. He's a champ.

Yup. That's in my front burner. What. the. what.

This is the side of my cabinet. I had no idea. So gross.

Before: Left side. Seriously. Disgusting. Yes. That purple was the color of my paint cabinets before this summer. This is why I wish things were a little more flush and/or sealed in my kitchen. So gross.
After: Left side!
Before: Right side: Holy gross.

After: Right side! SO beautiful! So much water on the floor!



Before: Yes. That's a papery thing from in between dishes, a piece of trim that wasn't appropriately applied, dirt, hair bands, a metal beer bottle cap, a leaf, and a soda can tab. Wait, what's that? THE FLOORING ISN"T COMPLETE?! Yes. Correct. It's not complete. I don't know why. It's ridiculous. I can't even talk about it.




After! I'm still mad about the lack of complete flooring. Can't. even. go. there.
I realize that it sitll looks yucky...and doesn't have a broiler element. Yes, it broke. Yes, I'm frustrated. Yes, I got Panera for dinner. Trust me, this is way cleaner. Why they make ovens that look (and feel) rough & dirty, even when clean, is beyond me.




Gorgeous! Hooray! Beautiful Martha Stewart from my wonderful brother-in-law, too!

All done! The pots/pans drawer really is white, it just looks almond. That doesn't make it much more attractive, but it helps. Also, yes, those are pans in the floor in the reflection.

These are hanging out with some baking soda paste on them. They will be put back tomorrow.
The aftermath.

Please don't stop being my friends/followers/guests for dinner now that you've seen this. I promise it's a million times better AND won't get THIS awful ever. again. On to the next day!



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3 comments:

  1. This makes me want to come eat there because I know its way cleaner than mine! I'm afraid to look at my own - how's that for gross.

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  2. hahaha 2 places that I can agree on being "afraid" to check out.... 1. the sides/underneath/behind my stove 2. underneath my refrigerator

    I vow to attempt cleaning these at some point... until further notice ;) hahah

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  3. I left all those things under there the last time I was over. 5 years ago. My bad. Glad you finally found them.

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