how to clean a microwave

Do you know how to clean a microwave oven? No, we mean thoroughly cleaning it without being concerned about any residue that might remain and end up in your food.

The truth is that there are several ways to clean it and to do so safely. Additionally, many of the techniques we’ll cover today will use products that may already be available at home.

So, let’s look at some of the different methods you wish to use.

Where You Need to Clean

Before we begin, we can clarify where you need to clean. Food will bubble and splash all over the place as it’s being heated. Grease and grime can cling onto any surface, and you need to get that stuff off to make sure your microwave oven remains hygienic and works to the best of its ability.

This means you need to take out the rotating plate from inside the microwave and clean it. It will help if you clean the inside of the microwave oven. Do not forget about it up there on the roof. Also, never ignore the microwave door. It’s surprising how much stuff gets stuck on there.

It would be best if you were prepared to scrub every surface, but you are about to see that trying to clean a microwave needn’t be a difficult task.

Cleaning a Microwave With Baking Soda

Baking soda should be one of your best friends if you want to get things clean without using any chemicals.

The thing about baking soda is that it is a slightly alkali product. This will help you get through any grease or grime on the surface of your microwave, which is why it is such a good product.

To use this on your microwave oven, you should be wearing your gloves and have a clean cloth ready. After that, this is what you need to do:

  1. Take everything out of your microwave to leave just the shell.
  2. Spread some baking soda around the microwave; you should be using at least a quarter of a cup.
  3. Get a damp sponge or wet paper towel. Then rub the baking soda into those greasy or dirty spots in the microwave interior.
  4. Clean away the baking soda remains by rinsing your cloth and wiping it away.

When cleaning a dirty microwave with baking soda, that’s all you need to do. It’s non-toxic, and it works exceptionally well.

Cleaning With Lemon Juice

Another widely used idea is to use lemon juice to clean a dirty microwave, and this idea also has a lot of promise.

Another bonus of using lemon juice is that it also acts as a form of antibacterial cleaner, and that’s beneficial to clean a microwave when you don’t want to use chemicals to get the same effect.

Something else to consider with this approach is that the smell of the lemon is quite strong. It will help mask some unpleasant odours lingering around inside your microwave.

To use this method, you need to take the following approach.

  1. Get a microwave-safe bowl.
  2. Half-fill the microwave-safe bowl with some water.
  3. Take a lemon, slice it in half, and squeeze some juice into the water.
  4. Put your microwave on for 3 minutes, using it at high power.
  5. Take out the bowl and wipe down the surfaces with a damp cloth.

At this point, the inside of your microwave oven should smell a whole lot better, and it’s all thanks to the lemon juice.

Cleaning With White Vinegar

white vinegar

If lemon is excellent in cleaning and removing the odour, vinegar plus water solution is also a revelation when upkeeping a smelly microwave. Cleaning with vinegar and water solution is something people have been doing on several items and surfaces for decades. So go ahead and add this solution to your list of how to clean a microwave.

You should also know that white vinegar has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, which will keep you from having bacterial growth inside your microwave oven. This will help you maintain a squeaky-clean microwave.

To clean your microwave with vinegar, you need to do the following.

  1. Take a microwave-safe bowl, and pour two cups of water and two tablespoons of vinegar.
  2. Run your microwave for three minutes on a high setting.
  3. Carefully remove the bowl.
  4. Take a cloth or a wet sponge and wipe away the grease and dirt that the vinegar and water solution has loosened.

This is certainly an effective way of cleaning your microwave. However, if the idea of the smell of vinegar is something you don’t prefer, you can add a couple of drops of essential oil to the water solution at the outset to offset that.

Cleaning With Washing up Liquid

You can clean your microwave oven with a washing-up liquid. You needn’t worry about it causing any problems on the inside and the outside. It will be completely safe even if you do this to achieve a deep clean.

The best approach to use in this instance is as follows.

a man wiping the inside of the equipment with a sponge
  1. Remove everything from inside your microwave.
  2. Mix some washing-up liquid with warm water, and get those suds going.
  3. Use a sponge and some elbow grease to remove the dirt and grease. Start from the microwave door to the inside of your microwave.
  4. Rinse the cloth and make sure you get rid of any leftover residue, but don’t soak everywhere.

The soapy water will cut through those stains on both the inside and outside of the microwave. The key here is to wipe everything because you don’t want a clean microwave with some dish soap left inside.

That’s all you need to do with washing up liquid, and there’s no doubt that it can be a useful method.

Any Other Methods?

So are there some other methods you want to consider removing those tough stains? Some microwave steam commercial cleaners are out there that will help get some of the stains off, and they will do so in a few minutes only. However, they won’t work that well for the harder stains. They also often contain many chemicals that some people aren’t comfortable with, especially as a microwave is where you prepare food for your family.

You can also use a steam cleaner. You need some paper towels to wipe up the water it produces if you do.

What’s the Best Approach?

It’s really difficult to say what the best approach how to clean a microwave will be as it depends on the main issue with your microwave. For example, if you have a smelly microwave, using lemon or vinegar and water will cut through those smells and do a pretty good job.

However, washing up liquid can work wonders with baking soda if you want to remove food marks left behind.

How Often Should You Clean?

Apart from learning the proper methods of cleaning a microwave oven, you should also know how often you should do it. Please remember that cleaning the outside of your microwave can be done often. However, you should also regularly clean the inside.

Keep the inside clean by wiping it down with a sponge regularly. Do this, mainly when food particles are stuck in the innermost part of the microwave, and do it before they have a chance to set. Doing so will make it easier to stay on top of things, with you only needing to do a deep clean once every couple of weeks. However, this depends on how often you use the microwave oven. The more you use it, let’s say daily, the more often you have to clean it for better upkeep.

Cleaning Your Microwave Is Essential and Beneficial

This concludes our article on cleaning this basic kitchen equipment. You could employ several methods, and you will surely find the best way for your individual needs or requirements.

Keep in mind that cleaning your microwave oven is both essential and beneficial. Bits of food pop and explode when heating something, and if it’s not covered up, they will go everywhere. Also, that stuff can lead to bacteria, plus it just looks horrible. More than that, cleaning your microwave oven is a nice thing to do to have a healthy meal prepared too.

Now that you learned how to clean a microwave to make it look brand new and smell fresh, it’s all up to you to get started on the chore.

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