36+ Kitchen Tips and Hacks You Need to Know
Save Time, Money, and Effort with these Kitchen Tips!
Let’s face it, if you are trying to prepare 3 good meals a day for your family, you spend A LOT of time in the kitchen planning, prepping, making, serving, and cleaning up after enjoying a meal. As your children get older, they can help out with more of the tasks, but there is still a lot to do!
I am always on the lookout for ways to cut down time, keep things organized, and help to cut costs on the grocery budget. Over the past few years, we’ve been sharing some of those things with you, but I wanted to put them all in one place that you can reference quickly.
Here are some of our own kitchen tips, tricks, and hacks, and also some FAB ideas that we’ve rounded up for you. Check them all out below. Plus, see a BONUS tip we actually use for organizing your own fridge, along with other expert tips on organizing your own pantry and fridge.
In this post, you can find:
- Food Prep Tips
- My Favorite Kitchen Gadgets
- The Easiest Way To Shred Chicken
- Creative Ways to Use Cupcake Liners
- Less Mess Snacks
- My Slow Cooker Secret Hack
- How To Always Have Fresh Garlic
- My Secret To Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
- How to Better Organize Your Kitchen
- Ways to Save on Groceries
- Kitchen DIY Products
- My Key to Meal Planning
- Cold Lunch Ideas
Food Prep Tips
Quick and Easy Slicing
Use a fruit and vegetable slicer to quickly slice strawberries! My kids and I use this as the fastest way to slice strawberries. It is perfect for fruit salad, strawberry shortcake, infused water, and so much more!
This fruit and vegetable slicer is awesome. It’s VERY effective, quick, and gets the job done the first time! I love that you can use it for many different fruits and vegetables. You can even use the slicing cup as a measuring cup.
Plus, it is dishwasher safe and helps you avoid getting a messy counter or cutting board. Even kids can use this cool kitchen gadget, and they have fun doing it. You don’t have to worry about them cutting their little fingers in the process of helping.
Other Useful Kitchen Gadgets
Lemon Press
I love my lemon press. I use it quite often. I know you can squeeze lemons and limes with your hands, but you get so much more juice if you use a good press.
I recommend having a lemon press only and using it for all of your citruses. Lemon, lime and some oranges too. Here is a great one!
Avocado Slicer and Pitter
Love this tool! I use it when I make guacamole, cucumber avocado salad or when I slice avocado for burgers, sandwiches or salads. My friends love this tool when they see it and all say I need to get one of those!
This is the Avocado Slicer that I have. I love that it works as a slicer and a pitter!
Vegetable Peeler
I got this peeler for my wedding almost 15 years ago and it is the best peeler I have ever used! I have acquired others since so I can have more than one person peeling in the kitchen. This one has remained the favorite. I love that it is made in the USA and has a Lifetime Warranty!
Herb Scissors
I had my eye on herb scissors for a long time. I finally tried them out and I love them. I love to add cilantro to so many things and these scissors make it so easy. They easily sell for $20 in kitchen stores so I love that they are so cheap on Amazon.
The Easy Way to Shred Chicken
My family eats a lot of chicken because I’m able to get it for such a great deal with Zaycon (we now use Savory Butcher)! After cooking the chicken this trick for shredding it in your Kitchenaid mixer helps to save tons of time because it’s done in seconds instead of standing over the hot bowl with forks to separate and shred the chicken by hand.
See how easy it is to do: Shredding Chicken in a Kitchenaid Mixer.
Tips and Tricks with Cupcake Liners
Cupcake liners come in handy for more than just cupcakes!
1. Catch popsicle drips: Cut a slit in the bottom of a cupcake liner and slide it up the popsicle stick to create a disposable drip-catcher.
2. Cover open drinks: Top glasses or soda cans with cupcake liners to keep bugs out of drinks at a picnic. Poke a hole in the paper to make room for a straw.
3. Decorate a mason jar: Giving a gift in a mason jar? Dress up your present by covering the jar lid with a cupcake liner and securing with a pretty ribbon or string.
4. Keep craft projects organized: Divide items like googly eyes or sequins into cupcake liners to keep crafting materials neat and accessible while you work.
5. Prevent wax drips: Place tea lights in cupcake liners to protect surfaces from melting wax.
Less Mess Kid Snacks
Photo credit: Multiples-Mom
We love to get deals on apple sauce, but when the to-go containers are not on sale this is a fab trick to know. Cut a straw in half then poke the straw through an unopened applesauce cup and drink through the straw.
This trick also works great for yogurt cups! It cuts down on the mess, travels easily, and the kids think it’s fun too!
Slow Cooker Liners
If you are not using Crock Pot Liners it is so time to start. These babies are worth every penny. Here are some benefits:
- They really make cleaning up a breeze
- They can double as a storage bag for leftovers
- You’ll have way fewer dishes to wash
- They keep food from scalding on the sides of the pan and drying out.
Fresh Minced Garlic
I used to buy the big canister of this minced garlic from Costco. It was very convenient, but the garlic did not taste as fresh and would usually go bad before I could use the whole canister.
I got this great idea at a pampered chef freezer meal party. Buy the bag of fresh garlic from Costco and put it in the freezer. When you need garlic just pull out a pre-peeled clove and slice it in a garlic press. No need to thaw, no need to peel, easy to press.
The Secret to Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
This little egg has made boiling eggs so easy. If you want them hard, soft, or medium you can get them perfect every time. Check out my tutorial on how to boil the perfect egg.
Kitchen Organization
Foil and Plastic Wrap Organization
Photo Credit: askannamoseley
Keep your foil, plastic wrap, and wax paper organized inside your pantry door! All you need are some self-adhesive hooks and a measuring tape. You could use some plastic hooks like these, or go for a nicer look with these.
Here is another great way to store the plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or sandwich bags that you use in your kitchen. Here is the under rack basket. Here is another wall mount version that would be great on the inside of the pantry door.
Make Drawers Last Longer and Look Better
Line the cupboards and drawers with adhesive peel and stick to cut down on wear and tear to the cupboards & drawers.
I have this damask print in my kitchen. I love it. But, I searched Amazon for the best deal and found these. They have lots of really cute prints and you get more for your money.
Basket Storage
Use baskets to store small appliances or kitchen accessories that have a lot of parts. I store my hand blender and whisks in a basket in the cupboard so the cord isn’t all over the place and the whisks are always with the hand blender…no more hunting down the whisks!
I also have an immersion blender that has cups, a whisk, motor, and several rotary blades, so storing these in a basket inside the drawer or cupboard is a space and sanity saver! PS Find out why I love my immersion blender.
I also stash all of my soup mixes, spice packets, dressing packets etc. in a small basket so they’re not lying on the shelf in the pantry taking up extra space. These are the baskets I use. They work perfect and are very sturdy!
Easy Apron Storage
I like to hang all of my flirty aprons in my pantry on a hook. This gets them off the floor, out of the way and keeps them nice. You will just need to install a simple wall hook to pull this off.
Snack Storage
You can really free up your pantry space if you get rid of all those boxes of snack foods for the kids. You can nicely organize all the snacks in this shoe holder. SO cool!
What makes this even better, is that you can get the organizer for cheap on Amazon.
Other ways to use the shoe organizer:
- Coat Closet or Mudroom Organization (great to store hats and gloves!)
- Camping organization (keep those kitchen tools for camping all together and easy to access!)
- Toy organization (great for barbies and small plush toys!
- Garden Tool organization
- School and art supplies organization
- Cleaning supplies
Saving on your Grocery Bill
Re-grow Green Onions
There are a few veggies that you can actually re-grow right in your kitchen. Green onions are one of the foods that you can regrow.
Green onions are not really expensive, but you can save about $10 a month by regrowing them. Plus, it is really easy to do:
How to Regrow Green Onions
- Trim down to about 2″ above the bulb
- Fill a container with about 1″ of water. (Pictured is a bowl, but I have also used a canning jar so that it can easily sit next to the window.)
- Set the green onions in the container and allow it to regrow in a sunny area!
- Regrowth can take a little bit to get going, so you may want to regrow several bulbs at the same time.
- Make sure to freshen the water every few days.
- To enjoy the green onions you can just trim off what is needed and stick it back in the water for even more regrowth!!
Re-grow Lettuce
Lettuce is also another great fresh produce to keep on hand! Save by regrowing this instead of throwing the end away when you’ve used up a head of lettuce. Here’s how to Regrow Lettuce on your windowsill!
- Cut off the leaves that you will use
- Trim the bottom of your head of lettuce (I have been regrowing green leaf.)
- Set in a cup filled with a small amount of water and then set by a window, and watch it grow!
- It takes a bit to get it going, so if you want to enjoy a plentiful salad right away, I suggest regrowing 2 or 3 heads at a time.
Savings Without Coupons
Saving on the grocery budget starts in the kitchen, but saving at the grocery store is KEY to staying within your budget. Here’s how I am saving without using coupons!
Do it Yourself Kitchen Tips
Homemade Fruit and Veggie Wash
With only three ingredients, this Homemade Veggie Wash is SO easy to make & use! It actually helps preserve the life of your produce. This saves you money because your produce is less likely to go bad and have to be thrown out.
Make Your Dishwasher Detergent
Make your own Dishwasher Detergent and save TONS! This saves my family so much money! We often run the dishwasher two times a day, so being able to run the load for pennies each time adds up fast!
Grab the ingredients and have the kids help you out with this for a fresh and easy way to clean dishes. Check out the whole tutorial How to Make Your Own Dishwasher Detergent.
Cleaning Gas Stove Grills
If you have a gas stove you know how hard it can be to clean when food overflows and then gets baked on. This cool cleaning technique can make them sparkle again and it is surprisingly very easy. Check out our tutorial on How to Clean your Grill
Easy Trick to Cleaning Your Oven:
Many of my friends and myself included are afraid of using the self-cleaning feature on the oven. Are you one of those? If so you are going to love this method, all you need is ammonia. It is really easy and works wonders. Check out the full tutorial on How to Clean Your Oven.
How to Clean Stainless Steel
I love it when the stainless steel in my kitchen looks shiny and clean. This cleaner is easy to make and gets the job done every time. All you need is vinegar, a spray bottle, and a microfiber cloth. PS I love these microfiber cloths. See our tutorial for Cleaning Stainless Steel.
Make a Simple Granite Cleaner
You just need Dawn, rubbing alcohol and an essential oil to make this awesome granite cleaner. You probably already have all of those things in your house. Check out the details to make a diy granite cleaner.
Trick to Cleaning Your Stainless Steel Sink
To clean your stainless steel sink all you need is lemon, baking soda, and water. Super simple. Check out the full tutorial: How to Clean a Stainless Steel Sink.
Meal Planning
Freezer Meals
I LOVE Freezer Meals! Having meals on hand and ready to make is an easy way to save time, money, and energy. We can help you get started on freezer meal cooking and also inspire you with delicious meal ideas!
Prepear App
I’m in LOVE with the Prepear app!! It has become my main method of meal planning because it makes the process so EASY! I basically have my entire weekly meal plan done in less than 20 minutes with this app.
If you want to learn more about how it works, check out my full Prepear review.
Cold Lunch Inspiration
These Cold Lunch Ideas are also a HUGE money (and time) saver! These ideas are even great for my hubby and sending him to work with lunch from home rather than eating out each day – the savings from that alone adds up FAST!
So those are our fabulous hacks! I bet you are pretty clever around your kitchen too. What kitchen hacks do you have? Share with us in the comments, we would love to hear about it!
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Kitchen sink cleaning is awesome and effective. lemon, vinegar, baking soda is so effective to clean the sink. I always these things. Thank you for the post.