Margaret’s Top 4 Tips for Raw Kitchen Efficiency
– by Margaret Marean
We all know that little things here and there, accumulated over time, can add up to whole lot in the long run!
So when it comes to organizing your kitchen for optimum efficiency, don’t be surprised how these 4 simple but helpful kitchen organization tips can easily end up saving you a whole lot of time — and money, too!
1. Label Your Fridge Shelves
I have really found this to be the #1 way to stop wasting produce, which saves money!
Label your shelves so you know what is on hand. Following this tip also enables me to quickly evaluate what I’ll have to purchase when it’s time to go grocery shopping. It also helps make food preparation faster!
Leave a couple of shelves unlabelled for overflow, such as greens and prepared foods.
Some of our family members are completely raw while others eat some cooked food, so it also helps for the cooked food eaters to be able to find the leftovers easily.
2. Have Extra Measuring Utensils!
Have extra measuring cups and spoons on hand, and leave the appropriate ones in containers where you almost always use that specific amount. Since I always use 1 tablespoon of maca, I leave a tablespoon in the bag. I almost always use 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, so I leave an 1/8 cup measuring cup in the chia container.
It may sound like a little thing to do, but implementing this tip means you won’t have to wash the spoon/cup after each use, or look for the appropriate measuring utensil each time. I also highly recommend getting colored measuring spoons and cups so you can easily identify which one you need. It sounds small, but there’s no doubt that it’ll save you time whenever you use them. It all adds up.
3. Keep Frequently Prepared Recipes Easily Accessible
Put a few of your most frequently used and simple recipes on the back of a kitchen cupboard door. Rather than rifling through your recipe books or using up counter space, you need only to open the cupboard door to refer to them!
On the back of my cupboard door I have recipes for 3 of our favourite salad dressings, zucchini hummus, a couple of raw soups, raw cheese, and chia pudding. Putting this tip to use also means there’s no excuse for other family members claim they don’t know how to make these!
Another recipe tip is to keep your favourite recipes in a binder. When I am using a recipe, I take it out of the binder and stick it on the fridge with a magnet. That way the recipe is at eye level, doesn’t take up counter space and doesn’t get dirty!
4. Streamline Your Kitchen According To Tasks
Set your kitchen up so that you can do everything related to a task in that area. For example, I have my sprouts in a cupboard near the sink and the water filter, and I use the area under that cupboard to grow my soil sprouts! As another example, I keep my juicer near the fridge, and the cutting boards and knives near a bowl of the lemons and ginger that I always use when preparing green juices! This definitely saves on time, too.
On their own, each of these tips might seem pretty minor when it comes to their time-saving ability. But combined, you’ll undoubtedly find these 4 tips will greatly increase the efficiency of your kitchen, saving you a ton of time along the way!
And I’m sure we could all benefit from a little extra time. …Wouldn’t you say? 😉