I guess this week’s theme is all about how I don’t like to clean, huh?  Well, who does like to clean?  I really only get into it when I’m nesting or for about 30 minutes before guests are to arrive for a party.  Otherwise I could take it or leave it… cleaning it not fun in my book no matter how good it makes me feel after it is done.  So, I look for shortcuts.  Ways to cut cleaning time down and make it easier because I want to spend my time doing things other than cleaning.

Plus, with a new baby on the way, when am I going to have time for some of the less popular chores like cleaning the oven?  (Which I’m really bad at, by the way.  I am not going to tell you the last time I scrubbed it….)  I know some people swear by the self-cleaning option, but I don’t trust mine.  Last time I tried to do the self-cleaning I got nervous by the smell and smoke coming out.

That couldn’t have been a good thing… smoke coming out of the oven.  But getting down and in there to clean… ugh.  I can’t even find a good position to do it in.  It’s just full of awkward.  Okay, enough excuses and complaining, right? Let’s get on to my new found secret…

The Chef’s Planet Nonstick Ovenliner, an American made product, is a reversible reusable liner that you place on the bottom rack of your oven.  It catches crumbs, drips, spills, etc. and keeps them off the bottom of the oven.  Don’t worry, you don’t lose use of that rack! You can place baking dishes on top of the liner (just don’t put aluminum foil directly on it like those foil pans).

For us, the worst offenders are pizzas.  Pieces of cheese are bound to fall off at some point and cook on the floor of our oven.  Not too long ago we had an incident where some of the toppings slid off the pizza and landed on the bottom.  Talk about a charred, smoky mess.  I wish we’d had the liner then!  It’s pretty convenient and fits more ovens.  Ours needed a trim to fit right, but now I don’t have to worry so much about dishes bubbling over or crumbs escaping.

Before trimming to fit

Now, having the liner doesn’t mean no cleaning at all ever… but you should be able to reduce the need to scrub out your oven.  When the liner gets dirty just take it out and wash it.  It can even go in the dishwasher.  That is much easier and an acceptable shortcut in my book!  The hardest part? Remembering to put it in before I use the oven.  (You don’t have to remove it each time, I just kept forgetting to put it in!)

So if you do a lot of baking and cooking in your oven, you may want to consider one of these nonstick oven liners – they also have one for toaster ovens!

Messy Recipe Contest!

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Disclosure: I received an ovenliner to review; no other compensation was received.

About Darcy Zalewski

Darcy Zalewski is a work at home mom with a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in December of 2012. Thankfully she never fully grew up and still loves to play with toys. She shares her experiences and passions about birth and parenting on her blog, Tales From the Nursery. Never try to stand between her and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup though...

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