Cleaning Your Kitchen After Cooking Can Be Daunting, But One Easy Tip Helps

Nothing is worse than cooking a delicious dinner, enjoying it, and then realizing that your kitchen is an absolute mess. No one wants to clean up after eating, especially since protein and carbohydrate-rich meals, like Philly cheesesteak sliders, can leave you feeling sleepy thanks to the amino acid tryptophan. Fortunately, you can make the chore easy on yourself by cleaning as you go.

Cleaning while cooking might seem like a handful, but it can actually make things more efficient by helping you maintain a more organized, hygienic workspace. This is especially important if you're making a dish with numerous ingredients that could otherwise clutter your counters and stress you out. By taking the time to keep your kitchen clutter-free, you can more easily multitask and find what you need without having to sift through dirty bowls and discarded packages.

Most importantly, cleaning as you go reduces the chance of cross-contamination, which can spread harmful bacteria to your food. For instance, a common cutting board mistake involves not sanitizing the surface after using it to cut meat. While bacteria can be destroyed by properly cooking meat or seafood, fruits and vegetables aren't as likely to be cooked thoroughly enough to make them safe if they end up contaminated. Thankfully, you can reduce this risk by cleaning your cutting boards and counters as you cook — a super easy habit to form. 

Cleaning while cooking can take some getting used to, but some tricks can simplify the process. Firstly, you should learn and embrace mise en place. Meaning "everything in its place" in French, this method is used by chefs worldwide, including Julia Child, whose cooking tips are indispensable. Essentially, it involves getting all of your tools, ingredients, and basic prep work ready before diving into cooking. After prep, you can quickly clean up what you no longer need and start cooking with a much more organized kitchen. 

As for dishes, having a sink of soapy water ready to go will allow you to wash dishes quickly between cooking tasks. Likewise, if you have a dishwasher, you should empty it beforehand so you can load the appliance as you cook. Another great idea to cut down on how much you have to clean is to reuse bowls and pans. Unless they've had meat or eggs in them, most dishes can be quickly wiped out and used for other cooking tasks. It's also helpful to keep a cleaning rag close to deal with spills as they happen, as opposed to after they've had time to dry. 

Another great tip involves using your wait times to clean. If you're waiting for water to boil or the oven timer to go off, take the opportunity to clean up scraps or dishes. Cleaning in bursts adds up, so you'll end up with much less to do by the time you're done making dinner!