How to Clean Your Crock Pot

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Authentic Simplicity! Years ago, I bought the crock pot you see here (the 5qt programmable one by Rival) at a yard sale for next to nothing. When I bought it, it was a lovely crisp white color and looked as if it had never been used. The lady who sold it to me exclaimed that she was so glad to be rid of it because, and I quote, “I got so tired of scrubbing that thing!”. I smiled and nodded because it seemed like the polite thing to do, but inside my head I was thinking, “What in the world is your problem, lady?! Just wipe it down when you’re done with it; what’s the big deal, anyway?”

Fast forward to the point in time where I actually used the crock pot… and then I understood. For whatever reason, this particular crock pot is hard to clean. Let me rephrase: this particular crock pot is almost impossible to clean. I can soak it for days and nothing happens besides the passing of time. I can scrub at it until I’m blue in the face and nothing happens except my face is blue. I’ve since heard from others that they suffer similar struggles with their crock pots, too, so it is not a unique situation to this specific one.

There have been times when I honestly just gave up on my crock pot ever being clean. Besides the whole issue of sanitization, the crock pot worked great! I loved that it could be programmed and that it automatically switched to “warm” when it was done cooking. It was the perfect size for my family, and it was quite reliable.

But it was dirty.

Just between you and me, if it weren’t for the fact that I occasionally blog about food and therefore occasionally have to take pictures of my crock pot… I might never have renewed my interest in trying to get it really and truly clean. Honestly? The only thing that compelled me to search for a solution was the fact that I had to take pictures of the durned thing and show them to the entire world. Just bein’ authentic here.

So off I went in search of a solution. I tried a few different remedies that worked to one extent or another, like filling it with water and turning it on and letting it sit for a while. That was kind of a pain, though, and not super effective. It wasn’t until I experimented one day with oxygen bleach that I hit upon an actual, effectual method for cleaning my crock pot!

How to Clean Your Crock Pot

Since I already used oxygen bleach in my dishwasher , the container was handy right there under the sink and accessed easily enough. I just sprinkled some on the bottom of the pot and then filled it with hot water, adding a squirt or two of dish soap while I was at it. I let it sit for a few hours, and when I came back to it, pretty much all I had to do was wipe it down.

Now my crock pot routine is simple, and my crock pot is always clean (the inside of it anyway - I haven’t figured out how to soak the outside of it yet!). Here’s my simple method:

• As soon as I’ve emptied the crock pot, I put it in the sink.
• I generously sprinkle oxygen bleach (I like to get mine from Tropical Traditions) in the crock pot.
• I fill the pot with hot water while squirting in a little bit of dish soap.
• I let it sit for a while (a few hours, all day, all night, whatever works best for me at the moment).
• When I come back to it, I wipe it down. Sometimes a little scrubbing is still required, and for the really stubborn stains, I’ll have to repeat the process. But most of the time, it’s just a matter of wiping and rinsing.

You can see why oxygen bleach is rapidly becoming my favorite household cleaning ingredient, right up there with vinegar and baking soda! Not only do I use it to clean my crock pots, I use it in my homemade dishwasher detergent, and I use it to get rid of stains in my carpet! Just today, I used my carpet cleaning mixture to also clean my tile floor in the kitchen, and my DH used it last week to clean the tiles in the bathroom. It’s an all-purpose, super-effective cleaner that is safe and natural. I highly recommend Tropical Traditions oxygen bleach, Oxy-Boost, or BioKleen.