 One thing that makes your kitchen look crusty, rusty, and straight up gross is that sneaky, hidden area just above your cooktop, which absorbs all the smoking grease from your cooking. Now this was never really dirty for me until I got into cooking with cast iron. And now my exhaust filter looks like I pulled it straight out the back of a greasy ol' chip wagon. So let's talk about how to deal with your overhead exhaust and filter once and for all. Now just understand quickly what this thing actually does. A fan spins around to suck smoky greasy air from your cooking and then shoots it out of the side of your house, onroop that smoke carries with it greasy little particles which get stopped in this metal filter so that the grease doesn't gum up your exhaust fan. Instead it just builds up in and around the filter. Mine is actually so greasy that you can see suspended grease drips directly in this filter. It is embarrassing and disgusting. So to keep this at bay, what you have to do is remove the grease every now and then, let's say twice a year for the average cook. And if you are all about frying, you would probably want to do this more often to help manage the build up. There are many ways to accomplish getting the grease off these grates. So I'm going to demonstrate one which I think is pretty awesome and then I will talk about a couple of other alternatives that you can try if you like. So what I'll show you is how to use oxyclean and hot water to clean the grease. Now if you have a degreasing product handy or an enzyme cleaner, that would work well too. Heck you can even use dish soap which is designed specifically to cut grease but I figured we'll do it with oxyclean because why not? Variety is the spice of life. So to get things started, fill up a bucket with hot water like boiling hot water. And then add in a few scoops of oxyclean or degreaser or whatever you choose to use and then dunk the filter in there. Now leave it in there for about 10 to 30 minutes depending on how gross it is. And if you need to, once you pull it out, you can scrub it with a bristle brush, rinse it and once it's dried, you can replace it. There are a couple other methods you can try as I mentioned. First of all, if you have a steam cleaner, feel free to lay a towel down, put the grates on top and then blast steam directly onto the filter. You'll see that the grease literally falls off and directly onto the towel. It is a little bit messy and is a little bit gross but it is very effective. The other thing you can try is taking a cookie sheet or a boiler tray, putting about 10 pieces of newspaper which is cut specifically to size and then placing one filter onto the newspaper. Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees. We don't want to go too high because we don't want to set your house on fire. But what will happen is when you leave that in for 30 to 60 minutes, the grease will start to melt off the filter and fall directly onto the newspaper which will absorb the grease and then you can throw it out. While you're soaking or baking the filters, feel free to give the innards of your exhaust fan a nice cleaning too. Use a heavy duty degreaser or an enzyme cleaner, allow it to soak in for a while like 15 minutes. Let that break down the grease and then scrub it while with a sponge or a scrub brush, rinse it and then dry it. Now if you have a super stubborn grease built up on the exterior of your hood, put a little bit of mineral oil over that grease stain and then wipe it off with the paper towel. Then you soak it in water to wipe that residue off. I don't know why it works, but it works. So you're welcome. Some people on the internet say that they put their filters in the dishwasher and they come out sparkling. My take is it's not best to put the filters in the dishwasher although it can work. The odors in the grease will cling to the lining of your dishwasher and also get caught in the drain which is just a disaster waiting to happen. The upside, your dishwasher might smell like french fries. Now yes, you could go out and buy a new one but rather than tossing this filter into the garbage, at least try one of the methods that we talked about to see if you can salvage it and not add something else to a landfill. See a painful, hideous job made yet again a little easier for you by your friends at Clean My Space. The common question of this week is when was the last time you cleaned your filter and just how gross is it? Go look now and then come back and let me know in the comment box down below. You've seen mine. Now I want to know about yours. There's a button down there that lets me know you care so click it if you liked this video and if you haven't done so already click this button right here to subscribe and begin your journey to a cleaner life. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time. You