This Is How Often You Should Clean Your Microwave

No matter how diligent you are when it comes to cleaning your home, it can feel like there’s always one area that gets forgotten. For many, that area is the inside of the microwave. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Keeping your microwave clean is important for a whole host of reasons, from helping it work properly to preventing hardened food from contaminating the meal you’re heating up. Instead of leaving the task until your microwave gets so grimy it’s almost impossible to do a good job, consider wiping it down regularly. But how often does that mean? We asked experts to weigh in.

How Often Should You Clean Your Microwave?

Your microwave-cleaning schedule depends on how often you use it. If you’re heating food in the microwave daily, aiming for a light clean once a week is a solid goal, according to Sarah McAllister, founder and CEO of GoCleanCo. 

“Ideally if you give it a wipe down once a week, it’s a quick task and not time-consuming at all to keep on top of,” she says. “Of course, if you’ve accidentally gotten something splattered all over the interior of your microwave, it’s best to deal with it right away before it hardens.”

If you’re using your microwave less often, Rosa Picosa, a cleaning expert with Fabuloso, recommends cleaning it monthly. “It doesn’t need to be prioritized every single time you do a quick clean of your kitchen or wipe down the counters,” she says. “But you should plan to include a good scrub-down of the microwave each time you deep clean your kitchen.”

Is It Bad if You Don’t Clean the Microwave Enough?

If you’re someone who doesn’t keep up with cleaning the microwave weekly or monthly, you’re not alone. “I would say that many people wait until it looks like a bomb went off in there—or a few times a year,” McAllister says. “You wouldn’t cook using a dirty pot, so why are you zapping your coffee in a dirty microwave?”

In other words, not cleaning your microwave regularly is pretty gross. “Besides giving you the ick, a dirty microwave creates nasty odors and can be a breeding ground for bacteria,” McAllister adds. “I just imagine the sludge on the roof of the microwave dripping into my leftovers and that’s enough for me to ruin my appetite.”

For Dana White, founder of A Slob Comes Clean, the ick factor may have a silver lining. “A big value in a regularly scheduled wipe-down is that it tends to make you a little more vigilant about covering food and preventing the mess in the first place,” she says. Splatter guards and covers to the rescue!

Microwave Cleaning Tips

Experts have a couple of methods for cleaning a microwave easily: namely with lemons or with vinegar. But the most important cleaner is steam.

McAllister suggests pouring one cup of water and one to two tablespoons of vinegar into a bowl or mug and microwaving the mixture for five minutes, then you can give everything a wipe-down with a damp cloth. “The steam will loosen everything up,” she says. “And the vinegar deodorizes your microwave so it will smell fresh.”

Picosa and White recommend a similar strategy, but with lemon juice instead of vinegar. Just slice a lemon in half, pop it in a microwave-safe dish with some water, then heat it up for about five minutes. “Leave the microwave door closed for a bit afterward to let the steam do its magic,” Picosa says. “When you open it up, you’ll notice the inside smells amazing, and it’s so much easier to wipe down.”

If there’s still gunk on the microwave walls after its steam bath, make a paste of baking soda and water. Use a sponge to spread and scrub the mixture over the tough spots, and they should come off. As for the exterior of the microwave, there are a range of specialty products that can get the job done, but for the finishing touch, our experts say to use a microfiber cloth to make it shine.