by Rebecca Florido

Created on: November 08, 2009   Last Updated: November 09, 2009

I entered the kitchen with my dog trailing behind me. I slide 20 feet and the dog was scurrying to keep up on all fours. My boyfriend had decided to spray orange wood polish in the air thinking that it was air freshener in an attempt to hide the burnt popcorn smell from me. Our house now smelled like burnt food with a hint of orange and the floor was madly slippery.

The next day, when I wanted to microwave some leftover food, the stench from his endeavor was seeping through the closed microwave door antagonizing me to do something about it. I immediately grabbed a glass bowl and some white vinegar and filled the bowl to the top. I put the microwave on 20 Min's and within 2 Min's my house was smelling of pure vinegar. This was 10 times better than that burnt stench! Once this was complete I poured the rest of our lemon juice into a fresh bowl and put it on for about 8 Min's. Our house now smelled of vinegar and lemons.

The vinegar had cleaned the microwave excellently and the lemon juice took the vinegar smell out. Now when I use my microwave it smells like it had never had anything burnt in it.

If however you can not get rid of the smell I would suggest one other alternative before buying a new microwave. Take a two fresh lemons cut them in half and squeeze the juice in the bowl then place the lemons in the bowl with the juice. Turn your microwave on for 8 mins and in another bowl dump a small bottle of vanilla into then microwave for the same amount of time. This not only cleans out the burnt smell but it will make your house smell wonderful.

I hope that this little adventure of mine has helped someone else that may have had a similar experience. As it can be a hassle and be quite expensive to buy a brand new microwave. Always make sure to keep your receipts for products as these because sometimes you can return them if they are not too old, which relieves the pressure on your wallet. I wish everyone the best of luck in taking out that awful stench that haunts you every time you decide to microwave something that should smell wonderful when cooked.

Just remember it may be best to not allow children to microwave things as sometimes they forget they had something in there and 8 out of 10 times they will burn whatever they decided to cook.

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