Three Time-Saving Kitchen Tips

When we moved into our new home in March, I vowed I would spend more time in our kitchen.  I was so excited because we would have so much more room to work with than in our small apartment.  I’ve definitely kept that vow, and our kitchen is constantly hopping now.  We’re eating healthier, which requires more food prep.  My husband also loves to grill out on the weekends and somehow manages to use a whole lot of pots and pans.  I can live with that if it means getting to eat some of his amazing steaks!  Ultimately, we have made our kitchen work for us with a system that keeps us organized and flowing.  Here are three time-saving kitchen tips I use daily to maintain some order and save a little time when cooking and cleaning.

Quality Counts

Is there anything worse than trying to bag up your garbage and it starts leaking?  Or how about if your bag just falls through entirely?  Yuck!  I can tell you from experience it’s not fun to clean up.  That’s why I use Hefty Ultra Strong trash bags to handle our garbage.  These bags have active tear resistance technology for better puncture resistance and Arm & Hammer odor neutralizers.   There are also great new scents to help keep those garbage odors at bay.  My personal favorite is the Lavender & Sweet Vanilla Scent, but if you prefer your garbage bags unscented, there’s that option as well.

But the best part?  Hefty Ultra Strong trash bags offer excellent quality at a new, lower price.  You can also earn $1.00 cash back via Ibotta after purchasing one box of Hefty trash bags.  Saving money is my next favorite thing along with saving time!

Clean As You Go

I’d definitely choose cleaning over cooking any day.  I love to clean and I love the satisfaction of leaving a clean kitchen area at the end of the day.  To save time, I clean as I go while cooking or doing food prep.  I load the dishwasher with whatever utensils and dishes I use to prepare our meals while food is cooking and wash up pots and pans as soon as I can.  I love sitting down to meals with my family, but a mountain of dishes waiting for me when we finish eating just isn’t any fun.  Cleaning up as I go along saves me so much time at the end of our meals because usually all I have to do is load the dishwasher and maybe wash up another pot.

Set Your Kitchen Up to Flow

Because we had so much more counter space and cabinets to work with in our new home, it took me some time and some trial and error to set up our kitchen to flow just right for the way we work.  I made sure to have cooking utensils nearby the stove where they are used the most.  I have drawers near the stove for oven mitts and kitchen towels and make sure our utensils are also nearby as well.  Our pots and pans are in a lower cabinet right next to the stove and our dishes and glasses are in a cabinet near the dishwasher.  It’s a system that works for us, but it took a couple of times of actually preparing meals and cleaning up to see where things needed to be.  Small appliances we use daily, like our coffee maker, are on the counter, but anything we don’t use very often is stored away.  We still have room to improve when it comes to organizing the pantry area and some of the cabinets, but I’m getting there.

Be sure to grab your savings for Hefty Ultra Strong garbage bags and I’d love for you to leave me a comment below telling me how you save time in your own kitchen.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.