Glass Stove top Cleaner

We moved into a house a few months ago that had a glass stove top. I thought it looked so nice! But I quickly discovered that I do not like glass stove tops. They burn water!! I still have not quite figured out how they do it. But any time I boil something and it boils over, the water burns onto the stove and is so hard to get off. Not to mention anything else that drops on a burner. And even when nothing is spilled, after using a burner just a few times there is always a black ring around it. Needless to say I will never buy a glass stove top.
They have special cleaner that works okay, I guess. I was still scrubbing my hardest even with the cleaner. And it cost $5 for a tiny bottle!! I am just not okay with that. My husband tried a very entertaining method. He turned all the burners on high, poured water on the entire stove, and used a metal spatula to scrap the burn stuff off while it was still hot. Not a bad approach but not something I want to do every other day or so.


So I thought, "What would Grandma do?"

Of course! Baking Soda!!


So to test it I waited until it got pretty ugly (doesn't take long when you are teaching a 13 year old boy to cook) and tried it out. I poured a bunch on the stove, got a scratchy sponge and scrubbed. It took seconds!! My husband was so impressed at the minimal effort I was putting into scrubbing that he took the sponge to try it out himself. To which I had no objections. When a man volunteers to clean, don't question it.

Anyway here are the before and afters....

Why waste the money? Baking soda is pennies per ounce. And it is so useful for so many things. The same night I cleaned the stove, I noticed our white sink was not so white any more. I hate the smell of bleach so I tried baking soda. I looks new! I also use baking soda to clean our toilets, to treat grease stains in our laundry, and to deodorize tennis shoes. The list of uses is endless! You can save so much on different cleaners. And even though we don't have young children in our house just yet, I love that we don't have to keep so many chemicals around.

What do you use baking soda for?

Cleaning Schedule

Okay, so is it possible to keep a home clean in just fifteen minutes a day? I don't think I ever really consider my house 'clean.' There are three levels of dirty in my house; presentable, acceptable, and terrifying. Cleaning around all these boys is about as effective as brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. And this isn't the best plan of attack if you haven't cleaned in four dust bunny generations. But yes it is possible to get a list of weekly chores done in 15 - 20 min a day (depending on the size of your house and how fast you clean). That and a few minutes here and there throughout the day to maintain your clean home and you're done! Don't knock it til you try it! So here is my schedule. I should add the 30 minutes A DAY that I spend closing the kitchen cabinets. Every time I walk in the kitchen one or more are wide open. But I am assuming you don't have that issue. And I may be exaggerating a bit.

This is what works for our family.

Feel free to let me know what you think!! =)