Recently the trend of spicy macaroni and cheese has hit the shelves and couldn’t be more popular at my house.
And with everyone at home from the recent crisis, it seems like around here, macaroni and cheese is the only thing that kids want to eat.
And since the Mac n cheese comes in individual servings that you just add water to and microwave, it makes it a super easy way to keep the kids fed with something that they want anyway. Plus they can fix it themselves.
But this trend recently led to an event in my house that was funny to everyone because of what happened and who it happened to,
but it left a lingering burnt smell in the kitchen and in the microwave for weeks.
Table of Contents
REMOVE BURNT SMELL FROM MICROWAVE
What happened?
My daughter decided to fix her some instant macaroni and cheese and forgot to put the water in it before she put it in the microwave.
It burned and smoked up the whole house. The smell was repugnant and lingered in the kitchen for about 3 days.
The smell in the microwave seemed to be permanent.
Now, I have smelled some burnt stuff in the microwave, and up till now I would have said that popcorn is the worst thing you can burn in the microwave, but I don’t believe that anymore.
The smell of burnt macaroni in the microwave, specifically macaroni that is dusted with the cheese flavoring without any water, is by far the worst smell I have ever encountered, burning something in the microwave.
The smell was so bad that my instant reaction was that we were going to just have to buy a new microwave. it really seemed that there was no getting the smell out.
But I did a little research on the internet and decided to try a few do-it-yourself solutions.
I tried boiling a glass of water with vinegar in it. No dice.
I tried washing the inside with vinegar. Still didn’t do the trick.
I scrubbed the inside with vinegar and baking soda. Nope.
The burnt smell was still there and continued for a few weeks.
I’d love to say that I kept with it and eventually found the miraculous cure for getting the smell out of burnt macaroni out of the microwave, but that’s not the case.
I blew it off.
But every time I used the microwave, the smell reminded that I was probably going to have to buy a new microwave soon.
It took someone else to come along and tackle the burnt smell problem to finally get rid of it.
My other older daughter in an uncommon move decided to clean the kitchen. She was in a mood to deep clean the house.
This is a person who has been attempting to clean her room going on years now.
But there she was , scrubbing and mopping and washing and wiping. Odd.
About this time, I decided to heat up my coffee in the microwave and realize that the smell was completely gone from the burnt macaroni incident.
I asked her how she got the burnt smell out of the microwave and she pulled out a little travel bottle of a concoction she had whipped up.
What was it?
Clean Microwave with Lemon
What is the best way to get the burnt smell out of a microwave?
Vinegar, Lemon Juice and Water
Specifically: 1/2 cup of water, 3/4 cup vinegar and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Both lemon juice and vinegar have a high pH and strong acid content making their alkalinity especially potent at removing stains and odors.
“Lemon” turns out to be the magic ingredient that I was missing.
Honestly I would not have believed it if I did not see it for myself since I’d already tried my own version of do-it-yourself cleaner that I had found on the internet.
But it was the real deal and I can’t deny that that simple recipe cleans the odor out of the microwave so well.
Now I’m on the Lemon train.
And I’ve been discovering a lot of things that lemon is good for.
It turns out lemon is actually very good for a multitude of cleaning duties.
1. Polishing Silverware with Lemon
The acidity of lemons makes it very effective at polishing and shining silverware. It also has a load of antibacterial properties that help leave your silverware safer as well.
Along the same lines, It is also excellent for shining up your chrome. Add a little salt to the lemon juice for extra strength and some grit to get down deep.
2. Clean Coffee maker and Coffee pot with Lemon
Vinegar, lemon juice, and water, will get all the coffee stain buildup out of the coffee maker by running the DIY cleaner through a couple of cycles.
The coffee pot may need to soak a bit in it. But the result will be a brand new shiny looking coffee pot when it’s cleaned up with care.
3. Use Lemon as Flea Repellent
As it turns out, fleas are repelled by the smell of lemon and vinegar. According to Hunker, boiling lemons, water, and instead of adding vinegar, add a bit of Rosemary.
This solution can be sprayed right onto your dog, put under their collar, or sprayed directly on your couch or rug, wherever your pets are hanging out and transporting fleas to.
4. Get Rid of Ants and Roaches with Lemon
Ants and roaches are also repelled by the smell of lemon and vinegar. The solution can be sprayed all along the baseboards and window seals to help ward off the nasty insects.
That’s only a few uses you can get out of using vinegar, water, and lemon around the house.
Clothes whitening, dandruff, even as an all-natural anti toxin that will help clean out your gut, it seems the uses of vinegar and lemon are endless.
But like anything else you see on the internet, make sure you do your due diligence and do a trial run before you go hog wild taking another person’s advice.
After all, if it were an over the counter cleaner, the directions would tell you to try it on a spot that you can hide before you spray it all over everything.
