Cooking in the Kitchen can be a very time-consuming process, especially since eating is necessary every single day. If you have a large family and are taking care of most of the cooking, you find that 4-6 hours in the kitchen is not unordinary. What this article will help you with is combining different time-saving kitchen organization ideas together, which will potentially shave off hours of work.
Time-saving Kitchen Ideas | Phoenix
Bulk Prep & Freezing Applicable Foods
Many of us have 3 meals a day and each meal can add on a considerable amount of time. A great way to minimize time in the kitchen is to bulk prep ingredients. For instance, let’s say there are certain vegetables that you eat regularly that needs to be prepped. You can make enough for 2+ nights, store them in the fridge and use them later!
Another way is to bulk freeze cooked foods such as stew, soups, sauces, and even rice or noodles! Freeze foods can last for months and is a great way to whip up a quick dinner.
Make Leftovers for Lunch
Sometimes, leftovers are not preferred but certain foods can still taste great reheated! What if your leftovers can serve as lunch? That is one meal down for the day! Whenever you’re cooking dinner, think ahead about which foods can be reheated and make more. You’ll thank yourself later.
Clean while Cooking
We all know that cleaning after cooking can take a while depending on how big your household is and how many pots, pans and utensils you used. It’s not uncommon to have to spend 30 minutes or so just cleaning. So why not clean while you cook? Waiting for the water to boil, or food to heat up? Do you find yourself standing around staring for 30 seconds or more? Clean something! You’ll find that after the meal is done, you will have very little left over.
Functional Kitchen Pantry Cabinets & Shelving
Without functional kitchen pantry organizers , it can be difficult to find the ingredients you’re looking for and the unnecessary time loss will increase little by little until a lot of time passes by. Your kitchen may need an upgrade to the pantry cabinets and shelves so that you’re spending your precious time on what really matters - feeding your family.
Categorizing Items Together
The way that you categorize your items together may be different from others, therefore, understanding your family’s lifestyle becomes very important. Do you have a particular routine? Are your kid’s meals very similar on a weekly basis? Do you eat a similar breakfast or lunch everyday or every week? Are there certain ingredients that you use frequently during dinners? Grouping them together can make gathering your ingredients much faster and with less hassle.
Use Spice & Ingredient Containers with Labels
If you have a good amount of raw ingredients or spices, you may want to consider getting a number of ingredient containers - plastic or glass depending on the ingredient - and put a label on them to find easier. There are many advantages to this such as, saving money through buying bulk spices or ingredients in packets or by the ounce, uniform look makes sorting easier and visually easy on the mind, and it makes storing a breeze.
Intuitive Kitchen Workflow
Creating an intuitive workflow in your kitchen can decrease your walking distance while in the kitchen. Have you ever found yourself going to the pantry too many times just to make a meal? Are your ingredients in many different locations? Work out how you can group certain ingredients together such as by breakfast, lunch & dinner and observe how much time and energy you can save.
Get Help From Others
Here’s a big one. We all know cleaning can take a considerable amount of time and the last thing the cook wants to do is clean up after everyone. Afterall, haven’t you done your fair share feeding the tummies of those sitting on the table? Of course! Have your kids help out which will teach them courteous skills that they will carry on in the future. If you have frequent guests, ask them if they would be able to help you a bit. Can they really get mad? Surely not, and if anything, they would be glad to!
Take Action
Now that you got some tips, start implementing some of the ideas right away and watch your time-saved increase. Out of all of the ideas above, having a functional kitchen pantry is at the top because without them, your ingredients will just be a mess.
If you’re in the Phoenix area, check out some our kitchen pantry designs or get a FREE in-home 3D personalized Kitchen Design from us! Our gift to you.