Astonish Pro Cleaning Paste ... in search of my inner domestic goddess

Health Warning: close this blog post down now if you have no interest in cleaning your oven door. If however, this is something close to your heart, I urge you to read on!

One of the real changes brought about through retirement is that I now have time to plan and cook good, nourishing and economical meals and that was one of the aspects of retirement I felt very positive about. What I hadn't bargained for is how I am now so much more conscious of my deficiencies as a housekeeper, and things that I used to walk past daily without a second glance, have now become "urgent things on my to do list."

One of these is the glass door of the cooker, which I've tried to clean using a variety of products, with not a great deal of success it has to be said.

Yesterday I happened into Wilkinsons to buy some freezer bags, and while I was in there drifted to the exciting realm of cleaning products. A product called Astonish Pro Cleaning Paste, £3 for a tub, came into my eyeline, claiming to remove grease from all kinds of surfaces including toughened glass. Not only that, it is not animal-tested and includes the natural antiseptic oils, tea tree and eucalyptus. This ticked all the boxes, so I bought not only the product, but some nice clean scouring pads and cloths for the job in hand, not really believing it would be strong enough to impact on this challenge.

Well, not only was there a scourer/sponge pad included in the box, but it absolutely works. I can't claim our oven door is totally pristine, but it is 80% better. I pinched myself, then googled the name of the product and found 7 reviews, all giving it 5 stars and praising it to the skies. One said that they'd had a professional round to clean their cooker and he was using this product and told her that this is what the professionals use.

I wish I'd done a Before picture to really show what it looked like before treatment, but I'd be embarrassed to share it! Here are some pictures of the second treatment in process and the product itself.

One of the reviewers said that she'd used it 3 or 4 times on her badly stained hob and it was now "as good as new" and I can well believe it.

If you already knew about this product, well why didn't you tell me about it? If not, give it a try. You don't even need to wear rubber gloves as it's totally non-caustic and non-abrasive, or seems to be so far!

My next blog won't be about cleaning, I promise!








PS: How to spend a cold February Saturday afternoon after you've cleaned the cooker door  - watching the first episode of The Night Manager with a small memento of Porto could be the solution!