The Unexpected Appliance That's Making Your Kitchen Smell Funky

There are two types of people in this world: those who clean their oven regularly and those who pretend it doesn't exist beyond heating food. The latter may have a funky smell in their kitchen. From the stink of your kitchen drawers to the smelly unpleasantness of your trash can, nothing in your kitchen is immune to getting stinky, including your oven. There are several reasons for a stinky oven, and most of them revolve around food. When you bake something, there's a chance for food to spill over and wind up on the bottom of the oven. There, on the bottom, it gets baked again and again, and whatever it used to be is replaced by burnt black bits that make your kitchen smell like it's burning every time you use the oven. 

The same goes for food that gets stuck to the oven rack or any grease spills. What's more unsettling is that all of these can not only make whatever you're heating up taste or smell off, but they're also fire hazards. How often you should clean your oven can vary greatly per household. Someone who bakes once or twice a month won't need to clean their oven nearly as much as someone who bakes multiple times a week. However, if something spills over, it should be cleaned as soon as the oven is cool enough to prevent buildup and burnt smells. Life is a little easier for those with a self-cleaning oven; just turn on the self-clean feature and then wipe away the excess debris when it's done and completely cooled. If you don't own an oven with a self-cleaning feature, it's still easy to clean your oven if you know how to do it correctly.

It's essential to wipe down any spillage as soon as it occurs to maintain your oven's cleanliness. Additionally, you should deep clean your oven every three months or so, depending on its frequency of use. There are a few ways you can do this without a self-cleaning feature. First, when your oven is nice and cool, gently scrape away any loose food debris and discard it until what remains is the grime that has been baked onto the surface. Then use a mixture of baking soda, white vinegar, and lime juice to make a cleaning solution and start scrubbing with a sponge. You can also choose to use oven cleaner for this part, if you prefer. Whichever method you choose, depending on the level of dirt in your oven, you may need to clean it multiple times.

Once you've got a clean interior, you can take things a step further by deodorizing it. You'll find that, in this case, the fresh ingredient you need for your oven is an orange peel. Place an orange peel — just the peel — on a baking sheet and bake for about an hour to not only deodorize the inside of your oven, but to make your home smell fresh and clean. You can achieve a similar experience by combining a teaspoon of vanilla with water and using a rag to wipe down the oven walls with the mixture. The next time you use your oven, the vanilla scent will make your whole house smell much more pleasant than any burnt food.