Buzz
Living in an apartment with an electric stove, my culinary expertise is minimal. Add my natural clumsiness, and it's no surprise that cooking disasters occur frequently. Sometimes, I'm not quick enough to clean up the messes as thoroughly as I should.
Enter my long-neglected drip pans. Every now and then, during moments of seasonal cleaning motivation, I remove them from the stove to give them a good scrub. However, after several attempts to clean one particularly grimy drip pan, an objective voice stepped in and advised me to stop.
“Oh, that’s rust,” she said, glancing over my shoulder at the stubborn drip pan. “That’s beyond cleaning now.”
I must have looked genuinely overwhelmed by what to do next, so she uttered the magic words: “You can just buy replacements.”
It was precisely what I needed to hear, especially knowing that I was just a few months away from leaving this apartment and not feeling too hopeful about getting my security deposit back.
If this situation seems familiar, I have some fantastic news: A brand-new set of drip pans will cost you under $15. They're readily available at big-box and hardware stores, as well as online. Before you make a purchase, make sure to check the brand of your range and how many of each size you'll need (a helpful tip: small burners generally need six-inch pans, and large burners need eight-inch ones). If you're unsure, bring one of your pans to the store with you.
My stove has three small burners and one large one, so I bought a set containing three small pans and two large ones. Perhaps drip pan manufacturers know that the large burner is where all the action happens, and you might need a spare.
Simply swapping in a fresh set of drip pans has made my stove top look brand new after years of neglect. This is one instance where no cleaning hack could have saved my kitchen, but a small investment quickly solved the problem. Just get yourself some new drip pans, take a moment to admire your stove, and then remember to clean up your messes promptly.
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