I saw it on Pinterest & I tried it!

The other day I was spending some quality time on Pinterest (yes, totally justifying the time sucking wormhole that is Pinterest - and I love it!) when I stumbled across this cleaning tip. It caught my eye immediately because I have been living with a disgusting mess on my stove for years. Yes, years. When we bought our house in 2006, I was excited to host our first Thanksgiving dinner for our family. In the process of cooking dinner, the milk I was heating boiled over. Since I was in the middle of cooking dinner I couldn't very well turn everything off, wait for the grill to cool down and then scrub everything down. What I didn't realize is that burned milk is a pain in the rear to get off!

Can we all give a collective "EWWWWW...!"

Over the years I have tried any number of cleaning products "guaranteed" to cut through even the toughtest grease and stains. All to no avail. So when I saw this, I thought I might as well give it a try. I didn't have anything else to lose at this point, right?

I happened to have some Ammonia in the house (leftover from the previous owner, who passed away in her 90's, bless her heart) so I pulled it out at following the instructions, stuck the blackened mess of a grill in a Ziploc bag, added 3 tablespoons of ammonia and sealed it up. After only 10 minutes I was already seeing some change in the color or the ammonia (see how it's slightly discolored in the top left corner of the bag?):

The blog post suggested leaving the bag for 12 hours, but I wasn't able to do that, since dinner had to be made. But I did give it 9 hours. Then I took it out and scrubbed it with some regular dish soap and water.

Here is the final result:

Literally "squeaky clean"! 

I couldn't believe it! It actually worked! I still have a small spot that needs to be cleaned, but considering what I started with, I was more than pleased. What was great was other than dealing with the ammonia smell when the bag was opened (they aren't kidding that it smells like cat urine - phew!), it was very hands off. Perfect for me since I work full time and don't have the time to scrub for hours at a time (which I have done before trying to get all this junk off!).

By the way, the bag at the top of this picture shows what the ammonia looked like in the end. Wow...gross!

I know that I have been missing in action for quite a while and I am very sorry for that. I've been around, just so incredibly busy this fall. I hope that things have settled a bit now so I can start blogging again. I have been missing it...I must have sat down a dozen time to start a post and something or another always interrupted me. Story of my life lately - my poor craft table has sat untouched for weeks now. I have been doing some knitting and crocheting though and will have to put together a "catch-up post" so you can see some of the things I have been making.

One of the things I have been excited about is I finally broke down and got a smartphone. So I am now also regularly on Twitter (@livelymind) and Instagram (@littlecreativenest) which I am having way too much fun with, so feel free to catch up with me there as well. :)

Has your fall been super busy as well? Does it feel overwhelming? How are you dealing with it?