As you would have guessed from the title in this post, I’ll be sharing my best kitchen hacks with you – they will hopefully help you to save time and money.
Cleaning
- Invest in a Susi’s Scrubbers Kitchen Scrubber. This can act as a replacement for two of your kitchen staple cleaning products, one for your washing up and another for your kitchen surfaces. They will have a longer life than your sponges and cloths, will remove all tough grime whilst still being gentle on your surfaces, and without clinging onto gross smells.
- Prevent your sink from getting clogged by regularly pouring boiling water down the plughole, this will ensure the pipe is cleaned out to avoid a build-up of excess food and oils. For an extra deep clean, put a spoon of baking soda down first, it works as a great cleaning agent and can also help to prevent odours.
- Soak your silverware in lemon juice. This will help to wipe away water spots and any rust that may be forming. Also, to prevent rust from occurring ensure your cutlery is completely dry before it is put away – this may seem obvious, but it can be easily forgotten.
- Keep your refrigerator smelling fresh and cover mixed odours from other foods by placing half a cut lemon on a small dish on the bottom shelf of your fridge. Keep the lemon in the fridge for two days, and the fresh smell can last up to a week.
- Clean your fruit and vegetables without harsh chemicals by using a Susi’s Scrubber. No product is required, simply place the food in the middle of the scrubber, place it under running water and rub the food between the material for clean fruit and veg in no time.
Of course, using a different scrubber to the one you clean with. Luckily Susi’s Scrubbers come in a range of colours, so it will easy to identify which one is which.
- Get your sink to glimmer by cleaning it with flour. This may seem slightly strange, but it works. First, ensure your sink is clean from debris and dry, then sprinkle the entire sink with flour, you are then ready to grab your scrubber and get scrubbing away. After giving your sink a good scrub for a few minutes, wash the excess flour away and your sink will be sparkling.
- Avoid cross-contamination in your kitchen, by having two allocated chopping boards. One for raw meats and one for your fruit and veg.
Storage
- Labelling is a great way to organise your kitchen. Whether you just label your existing draws or go a step further and get baskets for groups of food and use stick-on labels for each of them. There is nothing better than an organised kitchen, a big variety of kitchen labels can be found on Amazon.
- Reduce paper clutter in your kitchen, by downloading recipes and cookbooks onto your tablet. Get a sturdy stand and you can cook along with ease; you will also have unlimited access to recipes and can even catch up on some tv while you are preparing dinner.
- Use draw inserts to organise your drawers, this way you will easily be able to see what you have and where it is. This is a must for cutlery – no more scrambling for what you need.
- Short on space in your kitchen? Hang some hooks up on your wall, where you can hang your larger utensils. You can also hang your scrubber, which is designed with a handy hook.
- Make the most of your kitchen space, especially if you have a small kitchen by utilising shelf space. If you have large shelves put a wire shelf inside to make your one shelf into two.
Another, way to make the most of your cupboards is to attach a magazine holder to the back of your cupboard doors, you can then use this for extra storage. I like to use it for storing cling film, foil and food bags as this makes them easier to access.
This also works well for storing chopping boards, as they are thin so you can fit them all into this one space.
Food
- Onions – There are many myths that are supposed to reduce the tears when you cut up an onion, one I found which truly does seem to work is keeping the onions chilled in the refrigerator before cutting them. Fun fact: if you’re a contact lens wearer you’ll find you never have tears when you cut an onion, this is because the lens acts as a barrier.
- Remove stems easily and quickly from your fruit by pushing a straw from the bottom of the fruit through to the stem. A metal straw works best for doing this as it is sturdier.
- Use a paper bag to help ripen up your vegetables and fruit quicker. Paper bags can be found at your local grocery store.
- Most fruit and vegetables have a longer life in the fridge, aside from tomatoes that last longer at room temperature.
- Use a spiralizer instead of a regular peeler for your veggies, this works perfectly for a salad or if you are hosting a dinner party, it makes for picture-ready veggies – that are sure to impress your guests.
- Use an ice cream scoop to remove seeds from fruit or vegetables, this is a quick and less messy process than using your hands or a regular spoon due to the sharp edges and deeper surface of the scoop.
- Short on time in the evenings? Most of us are. Save time on making lunch by making double the amount of dinner and putting the leftovers in a Tupperware and taking it for lunch the next day. If you have a microwave at work you could even warm it up, this works best for rice and pasta dishes.
- Give your crystallised honey a new lease of life, by placing the bottle of honey in a bowl of hot water for ten minutes. Where it will return to its usual gooey consistency.
I hope my kitchen hacks help you, do you have any more hacks that I have not mentioned? I would love to hear them!
