Make sure the oven is cool and remove the racks from the oven. Place these in a bathtub to soak in hot water and squirt some dish soap in there. Hint: place a towel on the bottom so they don’t scratch the surface. I also put the grates from the gas stovetop in the soapy water to clean, too.

Pick up any food debris at the bottom of the oven. Mix baking soda with a few drops of lemon essential oil or lemon juice until it becomes a spreadable paste. Spread the baking soda paste out on the bottom of the dirty oven floor and around the sides of the oven as needed. Make sure to concentrate on the areas that are the worst. Don't forget the heating elements.

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and spray it on the baking soda until it fizzes and bubbles.

Let the baking soda and vinegar sit for a few hours or overnight for stubborn stains. Since this happened to me at dinner time, I let this sit overnight and cleaned it out in the morning. You can close the glass door while it soaks.

While the reaction is happening inside the oven, use a scrub brush or a scouring pad on the racks and grates in the tub to try to clean anything off of them. Then take them out and place them on a towel to allow them to dry.

After the mixture in the oven has had time to set, use a scrub brush and a little elbow grease on the stubborn spots and work on the grime stuck to the bottom. For me, this didn’t take a lot of hard scrubbing, just time to get the entire thing.

Use a damp cloth or damp sponge with warm water, or a wet-dry vacuum to remove the baking soda and vinegar from the oven. I used a wet rag and had a large bowl right there to dump the bits in and keep going.

I had to clean the rag out a few times, but I didn’t feel like getting the vacuum from the garage and then having to clean that out later.

If the oven is really bad, you may have to do this once more. If not, go ahead and replace the racks and marvel at your clean oven!