Moving & Cleaning & Supersensitive

[carefoundry]

Hello all,

I would love to hear about your experiences de-glutening a previously glutened living space!

In about two years, I'll be moving into a new residence where I will have a stove and oven finally! The only problem is whoever lived there previously probably has used gluten all over the apartment. How would you go about cleaning up such a place, especially the sink, fridge, stovetop, and most importantly, the oven?

Most of the time when I clean at home, I use baking soda and water to scour off residue and a combination of cleaning spray, castille soap, dishwashing detergent, and bleach to clean and disinfect. But if something is really caked on, like burned stuff in the oven, and if I don't want to replace the oven rack because it belongs to the owner, how would I go about cleaning it?

Should I try burning gluten off until it's blackened and ashes so I can wipe it off? Should I just use a lot of elbow grease and go over surfaces multiple times so I have a better chance of getting everything? Should I cover cabinet surfaces with contact paper to protect myself?

I appreciate all your views on this. Thank you for your help!

[cavernio]

I think burning stuff in the oven would work well. If it's charcoal it won't be gluten anymore, plus that's an easy way to clean the oven anyways.

...

I haven't clean my own oven since being dxed...done almost everything else. Washed the oven mitts and towels but not the oven racks or the inside of the rest of the oven.

[cap6]

Oh I hear you!! We recently sold our home and are traveling in our RV for the summer but will be moving into a new place in October...... and I don't look forward to deglutening a new home. Sigh! My home was totally gluten free and now... to move into a new place....... I know the place won't be a disaster but none the less the thought of someone's gluten gives me the shivers! lol

We have decided to hire professional cleaners to come in and clean the kitchen (and bathrooms since I have a germ thing lol ) and then I will go in after and give it another good scrub to where i feel safe. We figure that the professionals can get the first layer of "gluten" and then I won't have crumbs to deal with. You know those little buggers that get stuck in kitchen drawers!

For a basic cleaner I use either a 50/50 vinegar mix or Simple Green. A good scrub/oven cleaner should be ok in the oven. Once clean the racks should be ok as you aren't likely to cook anything directly on the racks but in a pan that is on the rack.

And, ok, I'll admit it..... I have an old toothbrush that I use in cracks and crevices to get the "ugs" out!

[Juliebove]

Our stove looked like someone roasted a pig in it and not in a pan! I flat out refused to even try to clean it. I just bought a new one. Not an expensive one. Took me a few years to get a new fridge.

I would think the biggest problem would be cupboards and drawers. I recently lined some of mine with that stuff that has sort of a foam texture with an open weave. That might work for you because it would slightly elevate your food and dishes from whatever residue might still be there.

[bigbird16]

My new home's kitchen when I moved in last year was vile, almost as bad as the bathroom; neither looked like they'd ever been cleaned. It was a foreclosure, and I'm lucky the worst thing was the nastiness. The entire kitchen was sticky with orange grease, with an especially thick circle of it above the stove. The cabinets had expired cans of food as well as crumbs of who knows what. They stored their flour in a deep drawer. I opened the drawer and was assaulted by a little puff of flour. The drawer was white with flour film.

For the oven, I burned off what I could. Using heavy duty scratchy sponges, I scrubbed the racks and the stovetop pieces. I ran the stovetop stuff through the dishwasher twice to get the rest of the gunge off. I vacuumed all of the cupboards and drawers, hosed everything down with a water and dishwashing liquid solution to work on the grease and dampen any remaining crumbs or flour and keep them out of the air, wiped, soaked, scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed until everything was unsticky, spritzed with a hydrogen peroxide solution to kill germs, wiped, then collapsed for a nap. Then came the soy sauce stains all over the carpets and doors. At least I hope it was just soy sauce.

[dilettantesteph]

We'll be facing this tomorrow when we go get my daughter started in her new apartment for University. If it is too bad I'll be looking to pay someone else to do it. I really hope that the previous tenant, a young male university student was conscientious about cleaning the place before he left. Fortunately, her symptoms aren't terribly debilitating. If I get glutened, there won't be anyone to drive us back home. I may need to leave all the cleaning to her. Good excuse, eh?

[cap6]

After reading some of the replies...,. I'm still voiting for the professional cleaners to get the crumbs! Sounds like a lot of hard work. !! In our former home after I was diagnosed and deglutenized the kitchen I lines the drawers with paper towels. Made me feel clean and if they became dirty it was easy to throw away and replace without alot of scrubbing.

[dilettantesteph]

We arrived to the new apartment at 8 pm after driving all day. The previous tenant had left it pretty messy. We found out later that the landlord had tried to call him to clean it, but the phone was disconnected. Despite having three weeks before we needed it, somehow it didn't occur to him to clean it himself!!! We tried to call him. He knew we were coming and didn't pick up. Fancy that.

We could have gotten a hotel, but it was last minute on a Saturday night and probably wouldn't have been easy. We elected to clean it up. We all have dust allergies as well as gluten intolerance. There was dust, spilled beer, beer bottles, what smelled like pancake residue and the whole place smelled like urine. I wish that I had known of a cleaning service that we could have called. We didn't have an internet connection or even a phone book. We all got a bit sick, from gluten, dust or a combination. Things got better after a few days, but that was a rough trip. I'm glad it's over.