Say Goodbye To Burnt Smells — Here's The Right Way To Thoroughly Clean Your Toaster

It's a sad fact of life that many satisfyingly crunchy foods will produce lots of crumbs. Toast is no exception, and it's leaving behind crumbs even before you pull it out of the toaster. As time passes, the debris from your morning toast begins to build up in there, and like many kitchen appliances, it may not run properly if you're not cleaning it often enough. Cleaning a toaster properly has two steps: wiping down the exterior and cleaning buildup from the interior (unplug the toaster before you try either one).

Sanitizing the outside is straightforward. Just dampen a paper towel or washcloth with water and a touch of dish soap and wipe down the sides. For the interior, your best bet is to take a tiny brush (like a toothbrush or paintbrush) and scrub down the metal inside, dislodging any stuck bits of food. Then, empty the crumb tray. There are many people out there who don't know their toaster has a crumb tray, which is a small, removable plate that collects crumbs as they fall to the bottom. If your first thought is that you've had your toaster for years and it definitely does not have one, go take a moment to look again. It will be a small, thin compartment along the bottom edge of the back or side of the toaster, which can be pulled out.

Did you check your toaster? The tray was there, wasn't it? The easiest and safest way to remove crumbs from the toaster and avoid them burning up with each new bread slice or bagel is to simply dump the contents of the tray into the garbage. Even though most people likely wait longer, you'll start seeing a buildup of crumbs in there if it's left sitting longer than a week. After emptying, if you can remove the crumb tray entirely, wash it with soap and water until all the stuck-on debris is dislodged. Dry it thoroughly before you stick it back in. It's simple, but it's a crucial step when cleaning your toaster.

Removing and cleaning the crumb tray is often a better strategy than the more brute force method of turning the toaster upside down and shaking it to dump out the crumbs. You will remove some crumbs, but shaking with too much gusto can damage the toaster's inner workings and leave crumbs stuck in the nooks and crannies of the heating elements. There isn't a hard science to cleaning out a pop-up toaster; still, don't approach it so bluntly that you break anything.