It used to be, when I unloaded the dishwasher, I would grab a handful of the tableware and put them in the drawer, rinse lather repeat.
One day, it dawned on me, that the entire basket that holds the table ware can come out. Since then, I take out the basket, and place it on the counter above the tableware drawer. It saves a lot of time this way, and I get to play tableware solitaire a lot faster this way.
What tricks have you been introduced to, or found out on your own, that speed up routine chores?
Kitchen scissors - -just a pair of scissors, two actually, kept in the kitchen. Don’t know how I lived without them for so many years. And I didn’t even do it on purpose. I just happened to start keeping the scissors in a bucket on the kitchen counter because they kept disappearing. And then I started using them for opening bags, boxes, etc/ Much more efficient than how I used to just try to pry things open, taking more time, energy and splitting the bags half the time. Simplest thing - -a pair of scissors.
Even better is to get a pair of kitchen scissors. They come apart and you can throw them in the dishwasher to clean them.
They work great if you have to cut something foodwise. For example when we have crab, I clean it all at the kitchen sink with these scissors. I cut up each leg and then snap it–easy as pie. I had some thin flank steaks I cooked the other day for tacos, I was cutting them slowly with a knife, when it occured to me to use the scissors. In minutes I was completely done.
Real kitchen scissors are great for butterflying a whole chicken – cut out the backbone, spread-eagle that puppy (pressing down on the breastbone to crack it and make the thing lie flat), then roast. Cooks more quickly than the conventional method and is a snap to prepare.
Awesome idea, with the silverware! I’m gonna do it.
Similar to the scissors – for years I moved my container of straight pins from the cutting table to the sewing machine to the quilting frame. If I was working on more than one project, I’d have to go get the damn pins from wherever I last used it. Then it hit me – I can have more than one container of pins! :smack:
Better still IMO is that you can then turn the basket on its side on the bench and pour out all the cutlery into a loose pile. Then you can easily pick out all the forks, then the spoons, etc, and put all items of a type in a single handful into the correct slot in the cutlery drawer.
Put the roll of garbage bags at the bottom of the trash can, so, when you fill up a bag, the roll’s right there, for easy refilling.
I buy those cafe/restaurant/office style coffee stirrer straws for the kitchen for stirring coffee, tea or whatever, rather than dirtying a spoon. I also bought diner-style sugar dispensers, rather than using a sugar bowl the likes of which I grew up with.
We have a Pur water dispenser in the fridge, the kind with a tap. We keep a constant supply of paper cups staked next to it in the fridge.
Open-ended, hook-style toilet paper holders. WTF did these take so long to catch on? What could be more simpler and easier to use?
Keeping a set of cheapo screwdrivers, hammers, pliers and flashlight in a convenient place, rather than having to root around in the tool-box in the basement (or garage) for a quick repair or adjustment.
I do that with those little cuplets of coffee cream. We don’t drink enough coffee to justify having a pack of cream in the fridge; it will just go bad. Now I have those little plastic portion cups of cream, in my china milk jug. Whe I serve coffee, I just put the sugar bowl and the milk jug with cream capsules on the table.
I do my make-up in the hallway, instead of the bathroom. No fogged up mirrors, no hogging the sink at morning bathroom rush hour.
I make all my family’s socks a separate load of laundry. We walk around the house in socks a lot, and have three pets, so the socks usually have lots and lots of hair on the soles. If I throw them in with the rest of the laundry, they rub those hairs all over my sweaters.
After becoming a Food Network fan recently; I went out and bought myself one of those spice bowls to keep my salt in.
Now, when I need salt for cooking, I just grab a pinch and throw it in. It sure beats trying to shake out an estimated amount from the container the salt was sold in.
I put my pepper grinder in a small ramekin when not in use, to catch the loose pepper that comes out of the bottom. I have a bowl of kosher salt, too, SHAKES.
One of my favorite purchases was two small lazy susans for my spice cabinet. Helps to find those hidden spices!
I put the sugar into the cup before pouring the coffee. The action of pouring dissolves the sugar-no need for a spoon other than the one that lives in the sugar jar.
Even better, do as I used to when I was single: just dump everything into a drawer without bothering to divide it up. You know how long it takes to pick a fork out of a mixed-up mess? About half a second. A hell of a lot less than it takes to laboriously sort everything out from the dishwasher. Now, to convince my wife…
We have two sources of silverware - a chest on the dry sink for our matched silverware, and a drawer for the random things we picked up over the years. To speed sorting I now put the good stuff in different dishwasher baskets than the random stuff. The random stuff gets thrown in any which way, and the good stuff can be taken to the chest and quickly sorted. I started this process by sorting forks from spoons from knives in the dishwasher, but this was way too much trouble.
My wife thought I was nuts, but now has to admit it does make things go much faster.
Another chore made easier: before we go to the supermarket, we rewrite the shopping list in the order things appear in the store. Much less of the “whoops, forgot the chips, need to go back for them” this way. It also lets us skip aisles we don’t need anything from, and reduces unintended purchases.
If you shop at Publix they provide a list that has pre-arranged areas that match where they keep their stuff. It’s also a good way to remind you of things to check before heading to the grocery store. If you live near a Publix but don’t shop there you can still stop in and snag some for shopping at Sweet Bay or Winn Dixie or whichever you have.
I already have been doing most of the stuff mentioned here for years. I wish I’d known everyone didn’t. We also used to save on diaper costs by running the kids through a load of the dishwasher on cool setting, but HHS made us stop.
Just kidding!
I use only white, 100% cotton linens. From beds to towels to dishcloths to napkins, it’s all one bleach load and I’m done. I use cloth napkins for every day, but just fold them up. I keep 10 nicely folded ironed napkins in the back of a drawer in case company comes.
About every five years I throw away all my socks. I buy10-12 pairs each of black and navy blue, and a couple dozen pairs of white sweat sox. No matching, no searching, more than enough for a week, and within the color sets all exactly alike. (I’d dress on the Einstein method if I could . . .)
I never bake anything without also sticking in a few potatoes. Then I heat them in the microwave before serving.
When loading leftovers into a ziplock bag, turn it inside out, wear it like a glove, and just scoop things out of the bowl. then pull the ziplock rightside out over your hand. Doesn’t work for soup of course. . .
When I load utensils in the dishwasher, I try to keep same-sized spoons apart as much as possible, by loading a spoon in each “compartment” of the utensil tray, all the while loading the other utensils among them. By the time I get back to the first compartment, there are enough other utensils for the spoons to not “spoon” together. This keeps them from staying dirty through the wash.
I do believe this is actually illegal. Somewhere. Like in MY house.
Will have to look into the Kitchen Scissors. They sound like fun and easier to clean.
Plastic bags from the grocery store. I use them as “gloves” when picking up a wet paper towel -type mess or “dogs got into the trash” mess. I stick my hand in, grab what needs picking up and pull it inside the bag and it’s done. If it’s more than one handful, I have a second bag with me and just stuff it with my “gloved” hand and then that goes in last. ETA: The used bag goes in, not my actual hand…
I see you beat me to the punch. I read from the Powers That Study Such Things (ie. I have no clue where I heard this) but sorting silverware in the dishwasher should be discouraged to avoid “nesting”.
I do this too, but only with the spoons. I load each compartment with just knives or just forks, and the spoons are interspersed in with them, to prevent ‘spooning’ of course. Makes it really easy to pick up a handful of one type of utensil and put it away. Then you’re left with just the spoons!
That’s brilliant. I’m doing this next time I take out the trash!
There is a drawback to this. If the holder is not attached properly and comes loose, then it swings downward and the toilet paper slides off. Kids are rough on such things. It is annoying having to replace holders that have swiveled out of their proper orientation and are hanging loose in the wall. I’ve switched back to the old style when replacing them. Two points of attachment are stronger than one and even if it’s a little loose, the toilet paper still stays on.
