Monday, April 20, 2009

Melanie's Microwave Clean

So you know when you come home from vacation and how much it stinks to be back home (except the look on your child's face when you come through the door after not having seen her for three days; that's awesome!)? You know how all you want to do is get everything put away like that -snap, and everything is put away- ? You know how your house is never clean enough after you get home from vacation?

ME TOO!

So this morning I woke up and cleaned. Okay, Monday is my regular Big Clean Day anyway, but it felt especially good today. I was going about my regular Big Clean Day routine when I happened upon -dun dun dun- the microwave. You know the place, the one that gathers cooked on food and splatters and spills but never gets cleaned up because you can just close the door and wipe the surface clean and it looks great. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Let me just tell you that after a couple weeks of leftover lasagna my microwave was looking pretty neglected. So it was time to tackle it.

I really, really do not like to clean the microwave. It's awkward, it's gross, it's so time consuming,
and as soon as you clean the thing it gets used again and we're back to square one.

CLEANING EPIPHANY!


Let's make this task easier, huh? I remembered a few years back watching a Good Morning America spot where they had this lady on just giving easy tips for cleaning things. One of them was to put a cup of water in the microwave for a few minutes and let the cup steam in there and do most of the job for you. So, I decided to take it one step further. Without much further ado, I'll introduce:

MELANIE'S MICROWAVE CLEAN
1. Heat one mug (yes the kind used for delicious hot chocolate drinking) in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.
2. Let stand for 2 minutes more in a closed microwave (steaming process).
3. Wipe down the microwave (don't scrub it or try to remove any baked on ground beef, just a quick swipe will do).
4. Heat one more mug of 1/2 water and 1/2 lemon juice in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.
5. Let stand for 2 minutes more in a closed microwave (steaming process).
6. Do a final wipe down of the microwave.

Everything should come off pretty easily and now your microwave smells lemony fresh. It was so easy I almost felt bad for the little grimy baked on meats that didn't even have a chance to put up a fight.


6 comments:

Lindsay Quinney said...

I too hate cleaning the microwave. But i have heard of putting water in there first. However, instead of lemon juice i have always used baking soda in the water. It works wonderfully. Lemon juice does smell much better though.

The Lambert Family said...

You have inspired me. I just may take a minute to clean mine tommorrow. It is NASTY!!!!!!!

The Lambert Family said...

P.S. Leah and Elise have the same birthday. How cool is that?

Snell Family said...

The water/lemon mixture is one of my favorite cleaning tips. I don't always put lemon in it but I love how easy everything wipes off.

Katy said...

I am totally gonna do that to my microwave tonight after work! Thanks for the tip.

Did you end up going to Players, hope you liked it

Carl and Steph said...

oh, so smart! You should post more details of your cleaning obsession, I mean skills. Some of us dread cleaning so much that it's gross everywhere and takes FOREVER to get the job done.