Do you rather cook or clean, or are you stuck doing both? At Foost, we’re all about simple tips that makes healthy eating easy. Here are our top tips to help you keep your kitchen relatively tidy during your cooking adventures:
Start with a clean kitchen
If your sink is already filled with dirty dishes, pots and pans – things are bound to add up as you start whipping things up in the kitchen. Starting out with a clean kitchen is key and will make the experience all the more enjoyable for you and any kitchen helpers too! Think about clearing the dishes and bench tops and giving everything a wipe down before you start your culinary adventures.
Have an accessible bin
Having access to a bin or a dedicated bowl for fruit and veg scraps on the bench can help to keep rubbish to a minimum. You can try using a bench scraper to move any crumbs, scraps or other food bits into your bin too. Then, simply empty into your usual bin once you’re done or use the scraps to compost and feed your garden.
Cook when you’ve got time
This can be challenging, but when you’re not in a rush there’s less chance of leaving ingredients out, spills and other accidental messes. If you can, allow some extra time on top of the recipe estimate which will help you get on top of the tidying and cleaning up at the beginning, end and throughout.
Clean up as you go
Once you’re done with an ingredient – pop it back in the pantry or fridge. The same goes with any equipment, utensils or bowls you use, try rinsing and loading the dishwasher as you go. Cooking can be all the more enjoyable knowing that you don’t have to do too much cleaning up at the end of the night.
Teach kids to clean up
If your kids are helping out in the kitchen with you, teach them that cleaning up is part of cooking too. Also, teaching them that part of the end of the meal involves taking the dishes to the sink, putting the rubbish away and wiping down benches or tables with a cloth. It may take a few reminders, but soon enough these will soon become your child’s habits after a mealtime.
Get a dog
Your floor will soon be clean of any accidental crumbs or dropped scraps with a furry friend around!
Get a robot vacuum cleaner
A slightly less furry floor cleaning alternative, a robot vacuum cleaner will be sure to clean up any mess on the kitchen floor after cooking.
Remember, try not to be too concerned about getting messy in the kitchen, sometimes it’s all part and parcel of your culinary journey to transform a pantry and fridge of ingredients into a meal. Enjoy the time you spend in the kitchen and the colourful food you create – even if it doesn’t work out as planned!
