Cleaning with Oil Paste

Alright - so I set out today to do some heavy cleaning.  My house has been slightly neglected (read - VERY neglected) over the past few months while I try to figure out how to be a mom, student, wife, friend, business owner...etc. You know the feeling, right?

Anyway, the home we live in is a foreclosure. Or, it was, we own it now.  There have been several neglected projects that we keep meaning to do, but something else always comes up.  After a long weekend of cleaning and reorganizing the garage and storage space, I finally decided enough was enough, and set out to tackle some of those jobs I've been avoiding...namely - cleaning the kitchen cabinet faces from years worth of grime.

My mother used to make a paste of baking soda and water to clean surfaces like this, and I tried that.  No go.  The cabinets were covered with oil and grease from who knows how long ago and it just wasn't budging to my satisfaction.

It was time to get creative.

I remember from 8th grade science that oils will will help clean up other oils.  Think about it - water will run off of oil, not penetrating or getting through the icky sticky barrier.  Even with an abrasive substance mixed in, it still won't fully remove the residue.  In order to penetrate and get down to the base of the issue, you need to mix a like substance with it so it won't simply glide over the top of the molecule...

clear as mud?

I thought so.

Anyway, I created a paste of Borax and vegetable oil... (I was out of baking soda, and I like Borax better for tough jobs...)

Next I schmeeered it on the cabinet face...scrubbed and voila!  Clean! (sorry, no photos of this, apparently they didn't turn out. :( )

The dangerous part....I couldn't stop cleaning with it!  I cleaned the surface of my flat top stove...

(Note I only cleaned half so you could see the difference...)

Then....My stainless steel pans...

Last...the textured handles on my refrigerator....

(admittedly not a great photo, but if you look close you see the one on the left is

free of hand prints and grime! yay!)

Yes, I'm seriously happy about this new found cleaning paste.  I do believe I will be cleaning baseboards next.  This house has serious dirt to remove.  I'm even considering using this to clean the oil spots out in the driveway...I'll let you know if it works.

Happy Cleaning!

UPDATE!

So I decided to try it out on the oil stains in the driveway...and.....it totally worked!  I don't know what else this paste will clean, I just know I'm absolutely in love with it.