Dear Home Ec 101,
How do you get stuck on hairspray off walls and a cheap linoleum bathroom floor?
Signed,
Tacky in Texas
Heather says:
Oh it’s the dreaded hairspray overspray!
The answer is deceptively simple. You’ll need hot water and elbow grease. Use an old rag and water as hot as you can stand it. This should work for semi-gloss paint and your linoleum. If you have flat pain, wipe carefully.
If you have wallpaper, use cool water and sponge gently.
If there is a heavy build up of hairspray make a past of baking soda and water, gently rub that into the stains and then wipe off. Follow this with clear water. As always, please test this in an inconspicuous spot. A last resort to try is diluted fabric softener, again test please. Dilute 1 part fabric softener with 2 parts water. Spray and then wipe. Never use this method on wallpaper, as it is probably one of the most effective wall paper removers I’ve ever used.
I
Tags: Bathroom · Spills and Stains
Hi,
I was baking a pecan pie for my sister-in-law when smoke suddenly started to fill the kitchen. When I looked in the oven, I noticed that some of the syrupy filling had spilled over onto the bottom of the oven, but the pie was done, so I took it out and didn’t think to even wipe up the sticky mess. It has since encrusted itself to the bottom of my oven and whenever I try to preheat the oven, it fills our home with smoke. In the oven’s user’s manual, it says not to run the self-clean cycle without cleaning up any spill-overs, because it’s a fire hazard. Their solution: clean up spillovers with a “warm, soapy cloth.” Well, a warm soapy cloth doesn’t do squat. It also states not to use abrasive cloths such as steel wool and not to use any oven cleaners. As a result, I’m on my third week with no oven and my poor husband even missed out on a birthday cake. I am desperate to use my oven again.
Any solutions?
Signed,
Crispy Critter
Heather says:
A razor blade will probably be your best bet to scrape away the sugar. Hardware stores typically carry these near the painting supplies and should run you in the neighborhood of three dollars. Sometimes they are called glass scrapers. Use this ONLY if you have smooth finish in your oven.
For those of you with what is referred to as a perpetually cleaning oven that has a rough finish, the sugar will eventually bake off, don’t leave the oven unattended until most of the residue is gone.
In the future place a baking sheet on the rack below any dishes likely to spill over. They are much easier to clean.
If you still find yourself with a spill, immediately and liberally soak the spill with salt. The residue should easily wipe away once the oven is cool.
Good luck!
Tags: Kitchen · Oven · Spills and Stains
Dear Home Ec 101,
Ladies, we have a self-cleaning oven. However, we like to roast meats in the oven after searing them on the stove, using a frying pan. Consequently, we have serious grease stains on the inside of the over door and the glass. The stains are very difficult to remove. Do you have an easy solution?
Signed,
~Greasy in Green Bay
Heather says:
What a timely reminder to clean my own oven glass. We cook our bacon in the oven, so as you can imagine my oven window was quite disgusting. I took pictures to demonstrate the cleaning process, but my ever-so-helpful-little-darlings* have broken the power supply for my laptop and I cannot access them.
I find it amusing that I can go months without mentioning a product and then suddenly I will mention it several posts in a row. Once again, I am recommending Bar Keepers Friend. The abrasive is mild enough that it can be used on glass without scratching. This is your everyday glass, not your computer monitors or camera lenses. Some may suggest placing a bowl of ammonia in the closed oven for several hours or using a product such as Easy Off. We have small children and pets in the house, so I prefer to not expose them to the fumes.*
The process is a little easier when the oven door is warm, but not hot. Use a fairly damp rag to wipe the glass. If the door is hot, water could seep into the double pane and fog your window, not to mention water conducts heat quite well and you could burn your hands. Sprinkle the glass with Bar Keepers Friend and go entertain yourself for a few minutes. I highly suggest perusing this site. Once the acid has had some time to work on the grease, use your damp rag to scrub the glass. You will need to keep changing the portion you are scrubbing with as it becomes dirty. Depending on how many eons you have allowed the grease to accumulate (are we talking sedimentary layers or just a thick film?), you may need to repeat the process. When the grease has been removed from the glass take a second damp rag and wipe up any lingering powder.
There you have it. A nice shiny oven window. Now, once again, you should be able to peek at your food and decide if it’s done without opening the door.
Enjoy.
*Yes my teeth ARE clenched, why do you ask?
**It couldn’t possibly be because I don’t have the energy to load everyone in the car and head to the store.
Submit your household questions to helpme@home-ec101.com
Tags: Kitchen · Oven · Spills and Stains
Dear Home Ec 101,
My husband nearly burnt our house down recently because he turned the stove on and forgot to take our plastic strainer out of it. The plastic is everywhere, now hard and stuck. I’m not exactly kitchen-smart, especially when it comes to the stove. (I’ve been known to mess up cup-a-soups by forgetting water.) The kitchen is mostly my husband’s domain, but he’s not even sure about what to do. We’ve thought about over cleaners, but aren’t sure how it would affect the chemicals in the plastic. We cannot use our oven at all until we figure out what to do, and I’m not sure how much fried food, microwaved food, and take-out we can have before we completely go insane. Please help!
Sincerely,
Messy Meltdown
Ivy says:
Oh, man. That’s seriously terrible. The good news is, we can most likely help you clean it up.
You need to get a bag of ice and a window scraper with a razor blade in it, like this:
Put the ice on the plastic area for several minutes. Ice makes the plastic brittle and easier to scrape off. Then get your window scraper and gently scrape the plastic off. If you have an outdoor fire pit, you can take the racks out there and burn the plastic off. I’m not going to lie and say this is going to be an easy process, because it’s not. The problem is being gentle enough not to damage the bottom plate of your oven, but scraping hard enough to get the plastic off. It’s going to take patience, but I have faith in you, you can do it!
Just be careful, you don’t want to hurt yourself or put scrapes on the bottom plate of your oven. There’s a chance you still may end up having to buy a new bottom plate, but that’s certainly better than having to buy a whole new oven, huh?
Good luck!
Tags: Appliances · Kitchen · Oven · Spills and Stains
Dear Home Ec 101,
Hello! My three year old son decided it would be fun to draw on our car upholstery with black pen.
In the past I have been able to use hairspray on crayon with wonderful success (couch and table cloth), but I have never attempted it on pen. Any tips or am I better of just leaving the unsightly mess? I’d hate to try something and have it look worse.
Thanks,
Inky in Indy
Ivy says:
Give a little kid a pen and they will create a masterpiece. Unfortunately, if they don’t have any paper on hand, they’ll draw on anything that happens to be around, whether it’s their own skin or your walls or your car upholstery.
Fortunately, cleaning it isn’t that bad. You’re going the right direction with thinking hairspray, but it is the alcohol in the hairspray that does the actual cleaning. So skip the middle man and get some rubbing alcohol.
First, blot the stain to get up any excess ink. Don’t rub. Nowhere in this process should you rub*- rubbing will cause the stain to spread, so blot only. Then put some alcohol on a rag and blot again with the alcohol. Keep alcoholing and blotting until the stain comes up.
I find it really amusing that we’re using rubbing alcohol to clean something that is blot-only, but perhaps that is only me. Good luck!
*If you have a very large ink blot, you may have to do a tiny bit of rubbing. Work from the outside of the blot inward to make the stain smaller.
Tags: Family Room · Furniture · Living Area · Spills and Stains
