With the holidays come lots of food preparation, guests, and clean up. Usually those three things equal being stuck in the kitchen and missing all the holiday fun. Today I’d like to share my favorite time-saving clean up tricks for the kitchen. They’re great for the holidays, but if you use them year ’round you’ll find that they will save time and energy anytime.
Start clean up with soapy water in the sink – rinsing and soaking dishes is much easier this way.
Rinse dishes and stack like dishes with like dishes – this makes loading the dishwasher a lot easier.
Keep silverware in a strainer while washing dishes (in or out of the sink) – no knives hiding in the sink or disposal.
I keep a dish scrubber under the sink to give it a good scrub every night. The scrubber can go in the dishwasher to be sanitized and the sink in always clean.
What do you do that helps keep you out of the kitchen at the holidays? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Find out more about cleaning & homekeeping at Becky’s blog – http://cleanmama.blogspot.com
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15 comments
15 comments on “Time-saving clean up tricks for the kitchen…”
Very useful tip- thanks. When I was in high school, I worked on a restaurant. It was a big no-no to put knives in the sink; in case anyone would put their hand in the soapy water and cut themselves. We always had a large glass next to the sink to soak knives.
When loading the dishwter, put like silverware into the same pocket of the dishwasher caddy. For instance, all the forks in one pocket, spoons in another, knives in another. That way it’s easier to put silverware away once it’s clean.
I’m 18 and I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now to make my chores easier for myself, I’m glad I’ve met someone who does the same. Everyone in my family just calls me crazy and says I’m organizing obsessed. You’ve made my day, thanks 🙂
You shouldn’t put like silverware together in the same bin. They may, especially spoons, “nest” and not get clean.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-reviews/appliances/dishwasher-reviews/dishwasher-tips-0306
Thanks for the tips! I was wondering where you got your brush holder in the first pic of the sink?
I have those scrubber brushes and have never thought of putting them in the dishwasher for a good clean. Great tip thanks.
The tips about not putting knives in the sink I learned the hard way when I sliced my hand open one time on a really sharp knife. Never again!
Great tips! Knifes also last longer if you don’t just throw them in the sink! Especially if they have wood handles. Also, don’t expect everyone else to wash the dishes when you have lots of family for Christmas, LOL! Just sayin’. This has been my downfall this year.
My granny taught me to wash all pots and pans immediately after putting the food into dishes on the table. Those will be out of the way. Wash dishes as soon as you get done eating so you don’t have to soak anything. The longer you wait, the harder the job will be. For me it helps that my kitchen sink is in front of a window. Letting the sun shine in on me or watching birds play gives you a sense of happiness! Enjoy washing your dishes and it won’t be too bad.
I usually start with a sink of hot, soapy water, too. I have Bobby Flay cookware that cannot go into the dishwasher, so those and any of my chef knives get popped right into the sink where just soaking for a few minutes does most of the work. We have a very good dishwasher that only requires scraping off the big chunks — absolutely no rinsing is required. That always seems like such a waste of time to have to rinse everything before putting it in the dishwasher, so I’m grateful I don’t need to do that!
I still don’t understand why you have to rinse dishes before you put them in the DISH WASHER. I have never owned a dishwasher, so there must be a reason behind this that i am not getting?
I think it must depend on the dishwasher, but I scrape my dishes into the garbage disposal. I’ve read that dishwasher soap needs a little residue on the dishes to really work. That said, you do have to get the worst of the food residue off or the dishwasher might clog. It’s not a garbage disposal, just a washing machine. Would you put mud-encrusted pants in your clothes washer or try to get the worst of the mud off first? Same idea.
Heya just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know
a few of the images aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but
I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results. Many thanks, to you!
Yes, thank you. The blog is not compatible with IE. If you can switch to Mozilla or something else, you shouldn’t have any problems
I have tried disinfecting our dish brush in the dishwasher, and it just ends up with bits of food stuck in it, worse than when it went in! But I guess that wouldn’t happen if we also washed our dishes in soapy water before putting them in the dishwasher.