How to Easily Clean a Dirty Microwave

When you open a microwave and see the sides and bottom crusted with bake left over foods everywhere, and then you think twice about warning your food inside. A microwave really should never look like this. Not only is the microwave an unsightly look, it is also covered in old burnt food and germs.

It would be best to keep the microwave clean, so this doesn't happen. The best way to keep the microwave clean is to clean after every use. However if you microwave has some harden cooked on foods this "How To" will help to clean the microwave.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cup (can use a bowl if you don't have a microwave safe cup)
• Water
• Vinegar
• Sponge or Dish Rag
• Hot Pads

1. Fill the cup with a half cup of water and a half cup of vinegar. You can double this to one cup water and one cup vinegar for larger or very badly stained with foods microwaves.

2. Place the cup in the microwave for 3 minutes. The water should boil. If the water doesn't boil, put in for another 3 minutes.
   
   The microwave time may need adjusted depending on your microwave wattage.

3. Remove the cup carefully. The cup will be hot. Save the cup incase you want to repeat this step again. You may want to use hot pads to remove the cup.

4. Wipe out the microwave with a sponge or dish rag. If some foods are still too hard, repeat the steps again. If the microwave is all clean carefully dump out the water and vinegar, Be careful as the water and vinegar will be very hot.
   
   The microwave should easily wipe out because the water and vinegar broken up all of cooked on foods.

Tips & Warnings

• The cup will be very hot coming out of the microwave.

[godfather25]

on 10/17/2009 Great article on cleaning a dirty microwave.

[sanderdoe]

on 10/17/2009 I just got finished cleaning my microwave. My son had exploded spaghetti in it! I used just water as I had not heard of using vinegar. I let the bowl of water sit and steam for 5 or 10 minutes before cleaning and that seem to help. I will try vinegar next time! 5* & R

[femwriter]

on 10/17/2009 What a helpful article on how to Easily Clean a Dirty Microwave, thanks for sharing. It truly deserves a 5* rating and recommendation!

[racheltexas]

on 10/16/2009 Great tips!

[norealid]

on 10/16/2009 That vinegar is magic stuff. I never thought of using it on the microwave. 5*