Clean Your Glass Stovetop With Toothpaste To Get Rid Of Pesky Burnt Food

If your current home doesn't have a glass stovetop, your next one probably will. Slowly but surely, it seems that gas stoves are becoming a thing of the past. The state of New York recently passed a budget that includes a ban on gas stoves in new buildings, and a similar federal ban has even been proposed. Fewer gas stoves mean more electric and induction cooktops, which come with their own pros and cons. For those homes built with glass stovetops, one of the biggest pains is cleaning them.

Since stovetops get extremely hot, stains tend to get seared into the surface, and you can't just wipe as you go because you must wait for the whole thing to cool off before you can tackle the task of tidying up. The dark, shiny nature of glass stovetops makes stains appear particularly prominent, creating a serious eyesore in the kitchen.

As glass stovetops become more common, a wide array of cleaning products have hit the market specifically designed to target these tricky surfaces, but one of the best has been quietly hiding in your bathroom all along. It turns out toothpaste is just as good at cleaning stovetops as it is at cleaning teeth. Simply scrub it on the stained surface (you can use a toothbrush for this part), wait 15 minutes, then wipe it off with a damp towel. That's all it takes, but you need the right kind of toothpaste.

There are a couple of things that make toothpaste a good household cleaning agent, or at least, most toothpastes. The first is that toothpaste is mildly abrasive. You can feel that your toothpaste is not perfectly smooth, but rather has very fine grains in it. The abrasives in toothpaste are typically made of calcium carbonate, silica gel, and aluminum oxides. They are very effective at removing caked-on debris from both your teeth and the surface of your stove while being gentle enough to not damage the tooth enamel or the glass of the stovetop itself.

The other ingredient that makes toothpaste good for household stains is baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate). Most stovetop stains involve some oil, which is tricky to get rid of because it doesn't dissolve in water. However, baking soda, being an alkali, actually breaks down grease stains so that they will dissolve in water and quickly wash away. Baking soda is also able to neutralize the pH level of both acidic and basic stains, and by doing so, it eliminates odors, adding to its cleaning power.

In addition to using toothpaste with baking soda, it's important that you only use plain white toothpaste on kitchen stains. Colored toothpastes and toothpastes with gel stripes contain a small amount of dye that can discolor surfaces. On top of that, gel is less abrasive than traditional toothpaste, making it less effective at removing caked-on food residue.

Toothpaste is surprisingly good at cleaning many household items, not just stovetops. It's effective on mirrors, sinks, faucets, linoleum, silverware, copper pots, and even sneakers. However, stick to white toothpaste with baking soda for the best results. If you prefer to brush your teeth with a different kind of toothpaste, say a gel or charcoal-based toothpaste, it seems silly to buy another tube just for the purpose of cleaning. After all, the whole point is to use something you already have on hand, right? Fortunately, you can apply the same principles that make toothpaste an effective stovetop cleaner to a couple of other everyday items almost certainly in your pantry: baking soda and vinegar.

We already explained some of the reasons that baking soda rates as a good cleaner, but it's also important to note that it is abrasive in its own right, meaning it can do pretty much all of the things toothpaste can do. To clean your stovetop with baking soda, start by spraying a little bit of white vinegar on the surface. Then, sprinkle baking soda on top. It will fizz up, just like your science fair volcano, and this bubbling reaction helps to penetrate stains. Lay a wet towel over the baking soda/vinegar mix and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then, remove the towel and wipe down the surface. You should have a sparkling stovetop in the end.