I’ll Cook if You Cleanup – My Top 10 Kitchen Cleanup Hacks

I love to cook, but I absolutely dread cleaning up my kitchen after I cook. Luckily I’ve found some ways to make cleaning up my kitchen easier. Here’s my top 10 kitchen cleanup hacks:

1. Start with an empty dishwasher and put dirty pots, pans and utensils in the dishwasher as you go.
2. Channel your inner Rachel Ray and use a garbage bowl. Toss any vegetable peels, package wrapping, used paper towels, etc. into the bowl as you cook. By using a garbage bowl, you will only have to make one trip to the garbage bin.
3. I used to use flour to make my cutting board and rolling pin non-stick. Now I use vegetable spray. I lightly spray my board and pin with vegetable spray and it works great. No more cleaning up flour from the board and counter.
4. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or foil before baking. Simply remove the food from the pan and throw away the parchment paper or foil. (If parchment paper is not torn or crumbled around the edges, it can be reused. If foil is still in good shape, save it for another use.)

5. A handheld vacuum can be your best friend in the kitchen. A quick sweep will pick up all those pesky little crumbs quickly. Whenever I break a glass in my kitchen I always dread pulling out my big vacuum to sweep up the pieces of glass. Now I use my handheld vacuum to sweep the area throughly. Then I take a piece of bread and carefully press around on the floor where the glass broke. The bread picks up any pieces that are not visible to the naked eye.

6. Keep a spray bottle of white distilled vinegar mixed with water next to your kitchen sink (1 part vinegar to 4 parts water). I use vinegar water spray to clean my glass stove top. (Always consult your stove instruction booklet before using any cleaning solutions on your stove.) Combine 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt to remove calcium deposits on faucets and fixtures. Use vinegar to clean your glass coffee pot.

7. It seems I always have “a little of this” and “a little of that” left over from my cooking. I keep a variety of mason jars on hand for storing little bits of things in the refrigerator. Perfect for a little salad dressing, lemon juice, egg whites or whatever I have just a little bit of. I keep a Sharpie marker in my kitchen drawer to mark the name of the item and the date on the top of the jar.

8. Seems like I am always running out of something, so I keep an ongoing grocery list on my iPhone notes. I always have my iPhone with me, so I just add whatever I’ve run out of to my list as soon as I run out of that item. When I go to the grocery store I know I will have my list handy because it is always right there on my phone.

9. Do you have a baking sheet with burnt food on it? I cover the surface of the pan with paper towels, then I squirt some dish washing liquid over the paper towels and gently spray water to soak the paper towels. Let the pan sit with the paper towel covering for a couple of hours then rub the paper towels over the surface of the pan and discard the paper towels. The pan should be clean or pretty close to it.

10. Clean out your spice cabinet regularly. Check the expiration dates on the cans and jars. Toss the expired spices. If you have room, alphabetize your spice rack so you can easily find the spice you are looking for.