It had been unseasonably warm in Indiana the past couple of weeks. Nothing says warm weather fun like dinner on the grill. I opened my grill for the season and, holy cow, the grill was disgusting. I am lazy about cleaning my grill though so I wanted to share with you my lazy and easy way to clean your grill while you sleep. Yes, I said it…clean your grill while you sleep.
For this task you do need an oven with a self-cleaning cycle, a scrub brush, and a small handheld vacuum.
The first step is to simply put your grill grates in your oven on the racks. Both my oven and my grill were pretty disgusting so they both were in need of a little help for this grilling season.
Select the Clean cycle on your oven.
Once you start the Cleaning cycle on your oven, head to bed. There are a couple of things to note about what may occur in the night. First, it may get really, really hot. Be sure that you have your AC on. The second is that if your grill is as disgusting as mine, you will have one smoky house. If you are sleeping though, you might not notice it…unless it causes your fire alarms to go off. You have been warned.
When you roll out of bed, your oven will look like this. As you can see, the oven and the grill grates had a lot of gunk built up on them. All of that gunk has burnt off into ash and is now at the bottom of your oven. Don’t worry though, we will be able to get this clean, quickly and easily!
Pull your grill grates out of your oven first. Next, grab your vacuum (it can be a handheld quick vac or just attach the attachment on your vacuum) and let’s suck up all of the ash that is on the bottom of your oven. Using the vacuum will help this get clean quickly.
Rinse your grill grates off and use a scrub brush to brush off any of the ash that is lingering on your grill grates.
Finish your clean up by wiping down the interior of your oven with a damp paper towel.
Bask in your glory…part one and part two. It is worthy of two rounds of glory basking, I promise!
Tips for my friends without a self-cleaning oven:
If you do not have a self-cleaning oven, this task may require a little more effort on your part, but it can still be done easily. Upon removing any lava rocks in the bottom of the grill, spray the interior of the grill with a no-heat oven cleaner, shut the grill, and go about your day. The following day, hose down the interior of the grill and use a metal wire brush to remove any stuck on gunk from your grill.
Now that you know how to get your grill clean, it is time to use it! I decided to start a Pinterest Get Your Grill On board where I am sharing my MomAdvice grilling favorites as well as great grilling tips, tricks, and recipes for making the most of your grilling season.
Be sure to friend me on Pinterest and follow my Get Your Grill On board for some fun and unique ideas for ways to put that freshly cleaned grill to work.
What is your favorite food to throw on the grill? Have any tips or tricks for keeping that grill sparkly clean? I would love to hear them!
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I put a few cups of ammonion in a trash bags with the grates~tie bag~leave overnight~open in well ventilatd area~rinse the grates
All the ickyness will rinse off.
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We opened our grill this year and found a ton of green mold. Yuck! This is the first time we’ve used a grill cover and the grill was sitting on the ground (not the patio), thus it was in mud. And it was so warm this year that the mold grew. My wonderful husband took the whole thing apart and scrubbed it. He also made a landing pad for it of cement pavers. Hoping not to grow any more mold! Love your self cleaning tip though. I’ll have to remember that one.
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I love the multi-tasking since you will be cleaning your oven at the same time! Going to do this today since the smell is usually bad and before the weather warms up. Thanks!
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Great idea! I will definitely do this next weekend!
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Jaylo51 Reply:
March 31st, 2012 at 12:02 am
hmmm…. but my self cleaning oven says to take OUT all metal racks before running self cleaning setting. the amonia tip works… i have done that.
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Amy Reply:
March 31st, 2012 at 11:42 am
It is fine if the racks stay in. They. An handle the heat
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Pingback: http://momadvice.com/blog/2012/03/how-to-clean-your-grill-while-you-sleep « MomsFaves
Genius! Sometimes it is the most obvious solutions that we overlook. Definitely going to have to try this next summer.
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Awesome idea! I will definitely try this out. Thanks!
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