Make your kitchen more efficient

There’s nothing worse than when you’re about to begin cooking and then you realise you have no idea where that certain knife is, where your favourite spice is, or even which ingredients need to be used up first. Moments like this are when you realise a better organised kitchen really could come in handy. We already gave you our hacks on cleaning a kitchen in five minutes, and now we’d like to present you with on tips on how to make your kitchen more efficient:

Label everything

This is a great way to keep your kitchen as organised as possible. You also don’t need a fancy label maker either – why not use masking tape? As well as writing the contents on the label, it’s also important to write the date you packaged the container so you can ensure you eat it before it goes off. Have a big clear-out of your fridge, pantry, and cupboards and then begin with the labelling!

Waste no food

Oops, cut too much veg and now you don’t know what to do with it? Simply freeze it or throw it on a pizza for dinner the next day. Just prepared something that uses egg yolks and don’t know what to do with the whites? Instead of throwing them, save them to make a meringue for dessert. Do you know that it’s actually possible to freeze bananas? It’s a handy thing to know in case you see them slowly withering and know you’ll won’t be able to whip something up in time. Alternatively, why not try out some of these tasty recipes that minimise food waste so you won’t even have to worry about what to do with the scraps.

Declutter your surfaces

Yes, those cookbooks stacked along the counter do make you look like a seasoned chef, but do they really need to be there? If your worktops are cluttered and you have no room to work in, you’ll just get stressed out and frustrated. You can give yourself more space by erecting a book holder for your reading materials and installing hooks to hang utensils on, so they don’t have to all be shoved in an already-too-full jar in the corner. This means that when you’re ready to start cooking, you’ve just got the essentials in front of you and lots of room to spread out.

Organise the storage space

Make sure that your most-used items are at the front of the cupboard or fridge so you can access them easily. There’s no point putting your favourite cup to the back of the cupboard if you use it twice a day. When it comes to food storage, it makes sense to put the food at the front with the earliest best before date on it.

Another option you have for more efficient storage space is to use a lazy susan! Many kitchens have unused corner spaces. If you’re not sure what to do with this spare space, fit a lazy susan in there! These simple cabinet inserts are usually made of wood or plastic and consist of one rod that sits in the centre of a few circular shaped shelves that go all the way around so you can turn them until the item you want is in front of you.

Make the most of your cabinet doors

The cupboards might be full to bursting, but have you ever thought of using the interior of the cabinet doors? This vertical space could be used for sticking a shopping list or recipes, or why not install little hooks so you can fit measuring spoons and cups on there? Alternatively, why not attach little clasps that you can push your spice jars into, so they stay affixed to the door? What a great way to make the rest of the kitchen look less cluttered. Still not convinced? Here’s some more ways to make the most of your kitchen cabinet doors.