Take a Weekend and De-Clutter
OK, so every good plan has to have a starting point. And in this case, it means decluttering your entire kitchen and starting again from scratch. Depending on the size of your kitchen, a day or two over the weekend is all you really need, so set aside some time, get out the cleaning equipment, and invest in a few tough plastic bags and durable boxes to categorize the items you should throw away, donate or plan to keep. The first task is to empty all your cupboards, drawers and remove everything from the surfaces of your units. Don’t forget your pantry, either. Next, arrange all your pots and pans, cutlery, and kitchen gadgets into different categories. You’ll need to create a category for regular use, medium use, and rarely used. If you rarely use a gadget--you may look for an alternative storage location like the basement or the attic since those items may not need your valuable kitchen space! Look through all your food, too, checking for anything that might have gone out of date and is taking up valuable space on the shelves.
Deep Clean the Kitchen while it is Empty!
You don’t have to give your kitchen a deep clean, but it is advisable. Let’s be honest - the kitchen is never this empty, so it’s an ideal opportunity, and getting down with the dirt now is going to save you plenty of time in the future. A little bit of elbow grease and some excellent cleaning products is all you need to turn your kitchen from a dingy nightmare into a super clean, good-as-new dream.
Look at Minimalist Design Ideas
Next, if you want to save time in your kitchen, always think ‘minimal.’ This kind of thinking worlds in two ways. First of all, a minimal design - you can browse here for some inspiration - is super simple and quick to clean. And secondly, being minimal with your regular kitchen utensils will help you keep on top of the dishes. For example, by allotting each family member with a single cup, player, bowl, knife, fork, etc., there are fewer things to get dirty. Obviously, this will cut down on your cleaning time by a significant amount and stop dishes piling up by the side of the sink.
Everything else? Well, kitchen and dining equipment that is only used every now and again or when guests come round can be stored well out of the way, saving you the time you normally spend scrabbling around cupboards for items you use every day. Also--search for the best microwave carts and make sure your storage areas offer loads of organized space and even perform double duties!
Create Well-Organized Pantry Spaces
If you have a pantry - or cupboards - for your food, make sure that you create some kind of order for them. Small storage boxes are ideal for grouping similar products together - your herbs in one, pasta in another, baking products in another, for example. Again, any products you use daily or weekly should be within easy reach, while anything that doesn’t get used a lot should be well out of the way at the back of your cupboards. Finally, it’s also a good idea to create a list of everything you keep in the pantry. A good, updated list will mean you won’t have to look through your cupboards every time you need to go shopping - and it’s the same principle for the fridge and freezer. I use dry erase boards for this so that I can make notes and grocery shopping reminders!
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Organize and Catalog the Fridge and Freezer.
How many times have you been looking for frozen produce, only to discover after 5-10 minutes of searching that you have actually run out? Keeping a list of items in your fridge and freezer is a sensible, time-saving solution to ensure you never waste a second looking for something that isn’t there. Not only that, but you will also save a little money on your energy bills. Every time you open the fridge or freezer, the device has to work a lot harder to keep it cool. It might not be much, but when you consider how many times you would normally search for freezer items over the course of a year, it’s a lot more than you might think.
Create a Kid-Friendly Kitchen
Lots of parents are scared stiff of their kids playing with cooking gear in the kitchen, and, therefore, spend a huge amount of time ensuring the little ones are safe. However, with a little clever thinking, you can save a considerable amount of time. Make sure that all your dangerous equipment - mixers, chopper, kettles and sharp knives - are stored well out of harm’s way. Once that is done, you’ll find that you are much more relaxed about your kids being in the kitchen, and as a result, you will work faster--and include the kids in more hands-on cooking with kids projects!
Make Sunday a Meal Prep Day
In households all over the country, both parents have to work to earn the money that helps them make ends meet. And often, this results in a rather haphazard approach to meals, particularly throughout the week. So, if you want to free up as much time as possible - and still provide healthy meals for your kids - you’ll need to do some planning. The weekends are ideal for making a meal schedule for the rest of the week, and you can easily batch cook a few options, split them up into portions, and freeze the rest for a later date. It’s a lot cheaper to cook in big batches, too - just make sure you bag and date all products to be frozen and consume it before that date runs out.
As you can see, there is plenty you can do to free up time in the kitchen when you are a busy parent. Life can be tough when you are juggling running a home with childcare and, perhaps, a job. And the reality is that the kitchen is often the biggest time drain. If you have any further ideas on how to save time in the kitchen, please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
