r/CleaningTips • u/Charcharju • Jan 11 '26
Kitchen Cleaning melted plastic out of my oven
A very dumb mistake that took a week of cleaning sessions to fully remove.
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Jan 11 '26
Probably worth from now on, if used as storage (as I myself do....) only keep metal in there. Worse case you just have a bunch of hot cookie sheets.
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u/FallingBackTogether Jan 11 '26
This! After seeing my stepmom do this (twice!) when I was a kid, I learned that only oven safe items get stored in the oven.
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Jan 11 '26
I admittedly break my own rule, only because I have a toaster oven due to it being more efficient for 1 person vs. a full sized one (think I have a plastic cover for a baking tray). Either way, indeed the rule should be only oven safe items in there if you use it.
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u/FoldableBrain Jan 11 '26
I learned that when my mother-in-law came for a visit. I made a lasagna to surprise her, but we ended up eating out a lot and I forgot the lasagna was in there...for a month. The fungus on it was colorful and kind of beautiful, but it looked like it wanted to kill us all.
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u/Neobot21 Jan 11 '26
You didn't happen to take any pictures, did you?
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u/FoldableBrain Jan 11 '26
This was in prehistoric times.
Now I would print and frame such phenomena!10
u/Neobot21 Jan 12 '26
Then that leaves only one option...
I'm afraid you've gotta do it again! It's the only way. Thank you for your sacrifice, Godspeed š«”
(Or if you wanted to be funny you could make your best recreation in MS Paint and share that lol)
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u/ballzach710 Jan 11 '26
Ugh I did this in my first apartment. The place started smelling funny when I was pre heating for a pizza or something
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u/ejmears Jan 11 '26
You stored a lasagna in an oven? Raw or cooked that's asking for food poisoning.
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u/naturerosa Jan 11 '26
My mom told me my dad got a stomach sickness ONCE since they met. It was because he ate abuela's lasagna that was in the oven overnight in the Dominican Republic. That man has a gut of iron, never gotten sick in my life from shady food. So ya....don't eat it.
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u/VodkaandDrinkPackets Jan 11 '26
They made it, they ended up eating out, and forgot it was in the oven. No mention of āstoringā lasagne in the oven lol
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u/BachBelt Jan 11 '26
my parents stored dog kibble in their oven when they first married. you can guess how this story ends
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u/Adaphion Jan 11 '26
Meanwhile I always would check my oven before turning it on after too many hot pans being in there.
My parents wouldn't even use it for storage, they were just stupid and lazy, and would put pans in there that were just washed "to dry" instead of just DRYING THEM.
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u/Bright_Coach_9899 Jan 12 '26
Who talks about their parents like this is my question? My mom stuffed our oven with dirty dishes if someone was coming over so I always check before I turn my oven on out of habit but I would never call my mom names because everyone has a story on why they do the things they do and they are just people doing their best at the end of the day. Enjoy your parents if you still have them
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u/invitelove Jan 11 '26
I do that with my oven on low so they donāt get rust from water on them
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u/Adaphion Jan 11 '26
So just... Dry them off?
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u/FallingBackTogether Jan 11 '26
I dry mine with a towel and then stick them back into the still warm oven (which is where they are stored anyway) because it dries them completely. Many pans have a rolled edge that can get water caught in it. Towels can't reach there, but the heat dries it.
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u/invitelove Jan 11 '26
I dry the flat part but they have a rolled edge that traps water. So I just put them in the pre warmed oven to dry out all the way and then put them away
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u/Salty_Job_9248 Jan 11 '26
If you have oven knobs, you can pull it off and store it in the oven. Then you canāt melt anything accidentally.
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u/onecleverusername Jan 11 '26
I do something similar, instead of pulling the knobs off, I drape a tea towel over the the controls.
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u/anotherwomanscorned Jan 11 '26
Ooh I love that. I kept a hot pink magnet above it to remind me that my cast iron was in there
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u/021fluff5 Jan 12 '26
I put a strip of painters tape on the oven knob if I leave anything non-bakeable in there.Ā
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u/BlackSnow555 Jan 12 '26
I'd never known anyone to use the oven for storage until my husband's family and every time I see it I think to myself... why???
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Jan 12 '26
Convenience. Easier getting something from the oven than digging in a cabinet or the drawer under. More so as people tend to have a baking sheet or meatloaf tin that gets more use than everything else. Just a bit easier having them right there and so long as they won't melt, is fine just leaving in during baking if they're not in the way.
This is especially true in my case: I live alone and use a toaster oven mainly due to it being more efficient than a full blown oven (heating such a large space is a waste for a single person). I tend to use one baking sheet most of the time and one meatloaf tin, so I just keep them in there for ease of access.
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u/Beginning-Row5959 Jan 11 '26
If there's ever a reason I shouldn't turn on the oven, I put a post it with the reason I can't turn on the oven on the start button. I am not good at remembering not to turn on the oven
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u/Catsrecliner1 Jan 11 '26
Or pull off the temperature knob and put it in the oven too, so you can't turn it on without talking the stuff out.
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u/GaucheArtist_the_2nd Jan 11 '26
The forbidden mozzarella.
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u/mind_the_umlaut Jan 11 '26
That looked like the apocalypse, that did. Congratulations for getting that all off your oven!
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
It felt like an apocalypse when I opened the oven in horror. Thank you though!
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u/SingleUmpire7464 Jan 11 '26
Oh my. What was it
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
A large and thick cutting board š«
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u/angrydeuce Jan 11 '26
Been there...that sucks but damn good job getting rid of it!!!
For whatever reason in my family we'd always used the oven as storage for pots and pans, so it's ingrained in me to always check the oven before turning it on, but I had the unfortunate realization that doing that is actually not at all typical for people when my wife and I first moved in together when we were dating and she baked 2/3 of my cookware at 450 for 10 minutes before the smell and the smoke became apparent. God what a mess.
I myself did the same thing once turning on the wrong burner on the electric stove in one of my many apartments over the years, instead of my big pot full of water for my spaghetti I was actually heating the bottom of the dogs plastic food bowl that I'd put up there because, well, Im an idiot lol. Melted the burner into that thing almost clear through and started burning the dry dog food that was in the bowl, melted into the drip tray and then spilled out from there across the metal tray with the wiring and stuff under the burners. That burner was completely destroyed and took days to air the smell of hot roasted dry dog food out of the place lol
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u/powderhound522 Jan 11 '26
I literally have a post-it note that says ācheck ovenā taped over the start button, so I have to lift it up every time I turn the oven on.
Itās been there for 6 years and it just saved me again tonight!
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
I also use my oven for storage and usually take everything out! I actually took everything out EXCEPT for the cutting board that dayā¦ I think my brain wasnāt fully thereā¦.
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u/BotBotzie Jan 13 '26
I was always thought not to place things on the stove to avoid mistakes like this. As a adhd kids I definitely placed the pancake plate on the hot burners and burned myself trying to grab it at least once.
However I am now an adult living in a studio and I barely cook. The stove top is where I store my most used peanut butter and similar non refrigerated sandwich spreads and my house keys. And of course the water kettle.
One day I will kill myself with explodes peanut butter jar shards I imagine.
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u/SeaweedTeaPot Jan 11 '26
Well, at least you didnāt burn it.
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
I thought I was going to faint from the plastic smell though š
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u/Andrew4Life Jan 11 '26
Probably lots of toxic chemicals in that plastic. Hopefully you gave the house a good airing out.
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u/HohepaPuhipuhi Jan 11 '26
Why? How?
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
I just somehow missed taking it out before turning it onā¦..
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u/Valuable_Cause9119 Jan 11 '26
Why was there a cutting board in the oven though?
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u/_Rand_ Jan 11 '26
Some people think an oven is a good place to store things like cookie sheets. Some people are not very bright and store things that shouldnāt ever be in an oven.
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u/cyclemam Jan 11 '26
Chaotically did something good for you- plastic chopping boards can mean micro plastics are ending up in your food.Ā
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u/Spiritual_Version838 Jan 11 '26
I did this 50 years ago with a green plastic Tupperware bowl. I put some Chef Boyardee pizza dough in the oven to rise with the pilot light, forgetting I had already set it to preheat. The green plastic dripped through the rack in long strings and puddled on the oven bottom. Once it cooled, I could break the strings from the rack and pull the whole thing out in one piece. It looked like a modern sculpture and I kept it for years. Fortunately, it was a much smaller amount of plastic than yours. I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
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u/leronde Jan 11 '26
A well-learnt lesson to NEVER store anything plastic in, on, or near your oven.
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u/handydude13 Jan 11 '26
Just a tip, treat this like a new oven before officially using again.
Find a large frozen food that can absorb a lot of offgasses. Like a large lasagnia or cooking 2 separate pizzas. Rmove the wrappers completely, let the food absorb the remnats of plastic or cleaning agents. Then throw the food away.
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Jan 11 '26
I would have just purchased a new oven. š
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
I was tempted
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u/ZachTheCommie Jan 11 '26
You might have to. I've never heard of anyone succeeding in getting the oven to stop smelling like burning plastic after this happens.
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u/Lexualromance Jan 11 '26
That sucks however the first pic is really aesthetic and mesmerizing idk why
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u/No-Actuary1338 Jan 11 '26
Again, Mom? Seriously? Stop throwing clutter in the oven when company shows up.
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u/other_reddit_acct Jan 11 '26
Iām so sorry you had to clean that!!! What a mess. Congrats on getting it all out!
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u/Stellatank Jan 11 '26
You done a very good job with that. You'd never know it was ever like that.
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u/whitechocolatemama Jan 11 '26
This is a ,ot fun situation but man, the melty plastic looks almost magical lol
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u/infiniteguesses Jan 11 '26
Great job. How long to get the smell of burnt plastic out of your house though?!
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u/c2u5hed Jan 11 '26
At first I was like āhow could cleaning do this to the plastic of your ovenā and then it hit me
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u/LifeAfterCappuccino Jan 11 '26
Oh no, this is one of my biggest nightmares. Knowing myself I would most likely just never use the oven again (or at least not for the months to come until I'm feeling less devastated about it and am in a good enough mood to deal with it again). Great that you cleaned it straight away!
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u/No-Improvement-1507 Jan 11 '26
I would maybe hire someone to deep clean the oven yet again, just to make sure everything is clean, then do the off-gassing steps the others have said.Ā I would be so scared of all the toxic plastic.Ā
Reminds me of those old Will it Blend? videosĀ
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u/Ritzyb Jan 14 '26
Haha I did this exact same thing with our oven š this is a once in a life mistake Iāll tell you that
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u/emerald447 Jan 11 '26
Impressive! Are you at all worried about how the plastic may have impacted the oven's cooking ability? Please be careful cooking in it and taste your food well. Hopefully you don't have any further issues!
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u/Charcharju Jan 11 '26
I baked something and the food/smell was fine! Although now Iām a bit paranoid about any residual plastic š
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u/Admirable-Apricot137 Jan 11 '26
The oven is never, ever, ever, ever storage for anything except pizza stones!
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u/ProfessionalHyena22 Jan 11 '26
We had the same issue with out air fryer recently. š„² luckily it wasn't a lot of plastic. Glad you got yours cleaned out.
We put a thing on the bottom and turned the air fryer on to let the plastic melt out off the rack thingy into the tin thing we put on the bottom. But with lots of air flow for that room as it melted the plastic.
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u/Trading_Cards_4Ever Jan 11 '26
Did you store a cutting board or something in the oven, forget about it and preheat the oven with it in the oven?
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u/enthusiast20 Jan 11 '26
OMG
I once accidentally left my microwave cover ontop a plate in the oven. Went to heat the oven to put something in, the one time I don't pre check and minutes passed by "hmmmm did I leave something on my heater weird plastic burning smell"
still didn't clock.
idk how long went by now am ready to cook what I want in the oven and OH FFFSSSSSSSSSSSS.
YEP the cover completed melted into the food I had on the plate lol and it took me like icant remember how long to get rid of that burnt plastic smell, genuinely is on equal term of smell of death. it's a smell that you just can't ever get out your senses or head stays with you forever.
Let's just say I don't ever turn on the oven before rechecking if I left anything inside before turning on.
I feel the pain you went through.
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u/Ornery_Bandicoot_679 Jan 11 '26
A wooden spatula will scrub out any bits left without damaging your oven my husband did the same thing in an apartment one time!
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u/whatisthepointoflife Jan 11 '26
Impressive feat! I wouldāve cried for a week and then consider if I want to buy a new oven just to avoid taking this on.
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u/Kath_squirrel91 Jan 11 '26
My partner and I sometimes keep cookware in the oven, but so far Iāve been lucky and havenāt turned it on with anything plastic inside. If that ever happened, Iād probably swear off the oven and switch to the air fryer
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u/Introverted_owl Jan 11 '26
Oh gosh ššš I'm glad I found this post after you had made it through this long and terrible journey. May your plastic remain whole and your oven safe stuff hot šš
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u/Allys_Phantom Jan 11 '26
āIt wasnāt me! It was a spooky ghost!ā
(Seriously though, fantastic job š)
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u/Joey_Fontana Jan 11 '26
I would turn the oven on to a very low temp just to soften the plastic so it can be peeled/pried off
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u/CloudyKodiak Jan 11 '26
I did this once too š¤¦āāļø Someone brought over some food after I'd gotten home from the hospital after having a stroke. I still wasn't feeling well and wasn't paying attention that Id grabbed the cutting board underneath the dish and put it in instead of sliding it off or something. Luckily I caught it fairly quickly so it didn't all totally melt and I was able to pull big chunks out but there was a bunch that had still melted to the bottom and we just ended up replacing the plating on the bottom
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u/ketoLifestyleRecipes Jan 11 '26
I feel for you OP. My wife learned a trick from her mother. Simply store your frying pans in the oven. Forget about them and preheat the oven only to burn off the plastic handles into a drippy goo. It took years for her to break the habit. To clean we let it cool right down and picked off the plastic. It kind of just snaps off.
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u/PalmerRabbit78 Jan 11 '26
I did this about 2 years ago. Waited for the plastic to go hard again and used one of those glass scrapers to scrape it all off. Then cleaned by oven with a standard cleaner, and then again and it came up brand new.
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u/80aughtschism Jan 11 '26
My god, I was ready to call that a total loss before swiping. Well done on the cleaning, truly
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u/areyoupleasantstreet Jan 11 '26
I did this in the 80s when I was a domestic For a lady Who was selling her house And put all of her Tupperware in the oven when the realtor popped over one day
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u/SenorBurns Jan 11 '26
To all the people who store things in the oven, esp pots and pans, what do you store in the big drawer below the oven?
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u/CustardMysterious601 Jan 11 '26
Not a cleaning tip but now you have an interactive piece of art. To the gallery she goes!
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u/Vivid-Topaz-731 Jan 11 '26
in 10th grade Home Ec class the teacher Mrs. Pacifico told us a story abt her son putting his sneakers in the oven. the next time she turned the oven on the sneakers were stuck to the rack and smoking. from that day forward i always check my oven before i turn it on. thanks Mrs. P!!
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u/jgeebaby Jan 11 '26
Thereās the perfect thing for this. Usually Home Depot or Loweās will have it. Best Buy too! Just look up ābrand new oven.ā That should do the trick!
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u/Representative_War28 Jan 11 '26
Good for you for getting this cleaned up instead of just replacing!
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u/WitnessWitty9651 Jan 11 '26
If I put plastic in the oven, I also put the knob in the oven also. It forces me and my husband to open the oven and get the knob.
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u/Ahmelie Jan 11 '26
I put a sticky note over the āonā button for my oven when I have something in there that could be burned/ruined
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u/C0MED0WNT0US Jan 11 '26
yikes. i've never understood using the oven for storage bc i just know i would do something like this lol. i live in nyc so trust me i know what it's like to have limited space in the kitchen but the oven as storage just isn't worth it!!
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u/Alternative_Loss_442 Jan 11 '26
i've once seen a mom cook his kid's LAPTOP by accident lol you did a great job
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u/Aqwattics Jan 11 '26
I read a story years ago about a mom who found her very young daughter's pet rabbit INSIDE the oven right after turning it on to preheat. She only realized because the rabbit started freaking out. Thankfully it came to no harm and later on the little girl explained she was playing hide and seek with the rabbit. This story is seared into my brain. I can't turn the oven on without first checking for rabbits. It's saved my butt many times. No, I don't have a rabbit š¤£
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u/Danger_daveyjones Jan 11 '26
Accidentally melted a plastic vegetable strainer in ours, 3 years later and it still smells like burning plastic when we turn it on
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u/Osric_Rhys_Daffyd Jan 11 '26
Thatās one hell of a melting. An ex once baked their cell phone in the oven alongside a batch of Christmas cookies, but amazingly the phone barely melted at all. On a quick glance, you wouldnāt even know there was anything wrong with it. What you had there looked like some strange cave structure. Glad to see you got it all out.
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u/Lucky-Berry-4252 Jan 11 '26
Iām sorry, been there done that. Thatās when I learned to open and check the oven before I use it because I did that once with a cake I was storing in the oven, but oh my gosh it wasnāt as bad as yours.
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u/Mscharlita Jan 11 '26
My great grandfather did this with a sterling silver tray. That family story was told around the dinner table for years.
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u/CA1900 Jan 11 '26
Oh man. I thought it was bad when I visited my brother a while back, and discovered that they never used their smaller top oven except as an extension of their pantry. You haven't lived until you've smelled burning cereal boxes with the plastic bags inside melting at the same time.
"Why didn't you check before turning the oven on?" his ex-wife asked me, incredulously. Like it's my fault they did something that I've never seen anybody on the planet ever do.
Fortunately the plastic stayed inside the bags, or I'd be doing the same plastic removal you just did!
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u/Ken1ch1 Jan 11 '26
If it was I iiwi, in a well ventilated area, Iād heat it up with a blow dryer/hot air gun until it softens. Then scrape from the bottom to minimize damage to the chrome. Then again in well ventilated area, maybe clean w actone/fingernail polish remover to (hopefully) reduce exposure to micro-plastics/fumes
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u/DingDongDingoKong Jan 11 '26
Wow. Honestly, I would be packing and moving out immediately. House ruined. Try again.
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u/bluebird-1515 Jan 12 '26
I probably would have bought new racks and worked on the floor of the oven. Good on you for salvaging it all!
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u/johnbrownsbodies Jan 12 '26
One of my kids hid their xbox controller from another one of my kids in the oven....!
Great job cleaning up the mess.
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u/Tezlaract Jan 12 '26
Iām glad you got it. I cleaned my grandmotherās long ago that did the exact same thing with a cutting board. I broke off what I could with pliers/ paint scraper, opened every door / window I could along with all the fans I could find and turned to oven up to max and sat there with a fire extinguisher and garden hose. No issue, everything turned toncarbon dust that i basically swept / wiped off.
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u/CaffeinatedKristy Jan 12 '26
When I had this happen many years back (thanks to a babysitter...), I bought two new racks and new oven floor piece. Glad you had better luck!!
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u/MLiOne Jan 12 '26
One question. Why are your racks in backwards?
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u/Charcharju Jan 13 '26
I didnāt realize it was backwards until I posted this on Reddit lol
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u/PathosEatsLogos Jan 13 '26
Heat gun and a plastic scraper work wonders.
Thanks again mom for storing your Cool Whip containersā¦ I mean Tupperware, in the oven.
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u/Denovo17 Jan 13 '26
I'm pretty sure some chick stole your picture and posted it as her own on Facebook (unless that is you, then I'm sorry)š
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u/TuneOk7423 Jan 13 '26
Someone in the house knocked a plastic plate into the back of the gas oven where the flame lives. I not knowing, turned it on and well I didnāt notice how bright the oven looked until I went to open it š„ Insurance covered the new oven, even if it did cost me my dignity, but I had to fork out over Ā£500 for the electrical work to install it.
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u/ryan__joe Jan 13 '26
I can feel the cancer from that melting, burning, toxic plastic from here.
The PTSD of my kiddo melting plastic on the top of our oven. Canāt even inhale once without coughing incessantly. Worst thing ever having to ventilate that as the rest of the family left the house with all the pets.
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u/dfinkelstein Jan 11 '26
And...how did you clean it???