The Instagram Hack for Cleaning Oven Doors That I Wanted to Love (but Didn’t)

We all have those parts of our kitchens we just don’t clean as often as we should (or ever). For me, it’s my oven. Mostly because it’s such a big job; there are so many different parts that require different tools and timeframes! In different spurts I’ve tackled the stovetop (relatively easy), the inside of the oven (easy but lots of down time), the metal racks (easy but not fun), and the inside of the oven door (kinda messy but fun?). And even after all of that, my oven still looked dirty. Standing in the kitchen, looking at the oven door, it just … didn’t sparkle.

Then, during a mindless scroll through Instagram, I realized the problem was that it was dirty between the glass panels of my oven. I realized this because I was looking at a microfiber cleaning wand that could be finagled between the panels from the underside of the door. I redirected my Instagramming to Amazon and looked for the tool. It was less than $25, had lots of high ratings, and solved a kitchen problem that had clearly been bugging me for a while. I was sold. 

According to the Instagrammer (and her photo), using the wand is easy. Apparently, if you pull out your oven drawer, you’ll find air vents, which allow you to get underneath the door and between the glass. When my wand arrived (two days later), I tried pushing the wand into the door. I did get the wand in, but once it was lodged between the glass I could hardly move it — not quite conducive to dusting. After seeing gleeful commenters happy with the oven-cleaning hack, I assumed it was just my oven that lacked an effective secret passageway. But I was wrong! It wasn’t just mine!

First, I texted my friend across the street, who couldn’t help because instead of a drawer, she has a wood cabinet beneath her oven door. Shucks. Then, I asked another neighbor, who said she’d try. Luckily, the dust wand fit a bit easier between her oven glass, but she had trouble finagling it, too. Here are her thoughts: “I got it to fit in, but it’s not as easy as the post makes it sound because you have to really move it around to get past parts of the oven.”

I’m sure this works for certain ovens. Sadly, just not the ones I tried it on. But! But I’m willing to give it a try again should we ever upgrade our kitchen. And I would say that it’s worth trying on your oven because, even if you can’t use the wand to dust between your oven door, the wand is still pretty useful. Because it’s flat, you can use it in pretty much any hard-to-reach, narrow area. I’ve been using it clean under the oven and fridge and am wildly impressed.