This Foolproof Cleaning Method Will Leave Your Oven Racks Spotless

Ovens are a pain to clean, but there are ways to make the process easier for your time and energy. Burnt-on bits of frozen pizza and salted caramel chocolate chip cookies might take more than the traditional dish soap and water routine. If your oven racks are starting to get crusty, remove them from the appliance to wash them — they're removable for a reason. Clear a space in a (clean) sink or bathtub to get to work.

One of the best chemical cleaners in your house is a dishwasher pod, and you can use this power to make your oven racks shiny again. Dishwasher pods are stronger cleaners than dish soap, as they're designed to degrease and kill all sorts of bacteria on your dishware. Fill the sink with hot water and a couple of crushed dishwasher pods or tablets before submerging the racks. Pull them out after an hour or so, and you'll be able to wipe away food residue without resistance — that's something your oven's self-cleaning feature can't beat!

The dishwasher pod hack works for oven racks, stovetop burner grates, baking racks, and any other metal grated surface. When trying out any oven cleaning hacks, it's important to wear gloves to protect your hands. Dishwasher pods, being the cleaning powerhouses they are, can irritate your skin with chemical burns. After soaking your baking equipment in the cleaning solution, you can scrub any stubborn grime with a dual-sided sponge like the Scrub Mommy. The abrasive side degrades any leftover burnt bits, and the soft side wipes it away for good.

If you don't keep dishwasher pods around or you're worried about pets and kids using the sink while the racks soak, there's another way to clean them that requires a little more elbow grease on your end. The Pink Stuff is a mildly abrasive cleaning paste that can get rid of stuck-on grease and burnt food, and all you need to apply it is a wad of aluminum foil — just rinse and dry to complete. By regularly cleaning the oven racks, you can help prevent super stubborn grime from forming in the first place, making it easier every time.