DIY Kitchen Hacks Everyone Needs To Try - The Delite

DIY Kitchen Hacks Everyone Needs To Try



Cooking can be a fulfilling process. It can relieve stress. It can be a creative endeavor. It can be a family bonding activity. Conversely, it can be a stress-inducing nightmare, particularly when you’re strapped for time and surrounded by chaos.

Here are some tips that’ll help streamline things so you’re working in a kitchen that’s clean, organized and optimized for turning out the best food in the least amount of time.

Fill A Frosting Bag More Easily


If you’ve ever struggled to get frosting or filling into a pastry bag so you can ice a cake or other pastry, this tip from Creations by Kara might help. Find a tall cup, fold a pastry bag into and over it, and then fill the bag bit by bit. The cup is a steady holder.

Use Paper And File Organizers To Maximize Storage


Folder and paper organizers aren’t just for the office. Aunt Peaches has multiple suggestions that will help out in the kitchen. Store paper bags in one organizer. Stick cutting boards and baking sheets between the slots in another. Stick an organizer in the freezer for extra shelf space.

Check How Fresh Eggs Are In Water


Not sure how fresh those eggs in your fridge are? Put them in water. If they float, they’re likely older. If they sink, they’re really fresh. The older eggs float higher because, as the egg ages, the air pocket inside the shell gets larger and larger, eventually leading the egg inside to dry up.

Crimp Pie Crust With Common Items


Do your pie crusts look less than stellar? King Arthur Flour suggests several ways to use common kitchen implements to make creative crimping patterns on your crusts. Sauce whiskers? Tongs? Measuring spoons? These are just a few of the items you might use besides your fingers or a fork.

Keep Your Bananas In A Bunch


There’s a lot of conflicting info out there about the best way to keep bananas from ripening too quickly. But one way to slow down your banana browning is to not separate your bananas from the bunch. Instead, keep them together to slow down the rate of ripening.

Turn Natural Peanut Butter Upside Down


Flip your lid, on your natural peanut butter that is. Storing organic and natural peanut butter upside down forces the oils to travel through the peanut butter again, as the oil naturally rises and separates out in warm temperatures. Flip your jar back the other way once the oil has migrated to the top again.

Freeze Soft Cheese Before Grating It


If you’re trying to grate soft cheeses, it’ll be a lot easier if you freeze them prior to grating. Freezing makes the cheese more solid and much easier to grip, plus it won’t tear apart as you’re grating.

Freeze Herbs In Olive Oil


Want to make your dinner process easier? Put fresh herbs in olive oil in an ice cube tray and freeze them. When you’re ready to cook dinner with a recipe calling for herbs and olive oil, pop a cube into your frying pan. You can also do this with extra wine or stock for easy portion-controlled cooking and a way to waste less. It’s a lot better than letting that carton of chicken stock or bottle of wine get old on your fridge door.

Keep Water From Boiling Over With A Wooden Spoon


Putting a wooden spoon on top of a pot in which you’re boiling water will keep it from boiling over as quickly. The spoon pops the water bubbles.

Hardboil A Bunch Of Eggs At Once


Pressure cooker to the rescue! You can hardboil up to a dozen eggs in your Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker quickly. And they come out perfectly hardboiled and easy to crack. This is a great tip for when you’re prep cooking for the week and want a bunch of hardboiled eggs on hand for snacks or lunches. Or if you’re throwing a party and need to make a lot of deviled eggs or prep for an Easter egg hunt.

Wax Paper For Clean Faucets


Did you know wax paper is great for creating glistening faucet surfaces? The wax creates a coating on chrome finishes that’ll protect from water spots.

Grate Your Butter For Easier Baking


Here’s a quicker way to handle a baking recipe that asks you to mix your butter into your flour mixture. Grate the stick of butter first and it’ll be a lot easier to mix it up with the other ingredients. Grating butter is also a way to reduce its melting or softening time when a recipe calls for it to be liquified or room temperature.

Use Cream of Tartar On A Toaster


Got a grimy toaster? Get that chrome exterior looking shiny again with a little bit of cream of tartar. The citric acid in it will break down gunk. Cream of tartar is also useful in cleaning lots of other things like pots and pans, dish scratches and coffee pots. And it can keep the color in your vegetables and fruit.

Use Salt And A Potato To Clean Cast Iron


You may have read that you shouldn’t use soap when cleaning cast iron appliances because it’ll remove the seasoning on the pan that keeps food from sticking to it too much. But here’s an interesting way to make sure you get all the gunk off your dirty cast iron. After you’ve gently scraped off as much of the food stuck on the pan, pour in some coarse salt and use a cut potato to scour away at the pan. This technique will safely remove stuck-on food. You can then re-season the cast iron by oiling and heating it up in an oven. But you only have to do this every now and then. Otherwise, just rub some oil on the pan after the salt and potato step.

Clean Strawberries With Vinegar


Want to make your strawberries last longer? Bathe them in a water and vinegar bath before storing them in the fridge. It’ll get germs and dirt off the berries and consequently allow them to keep longer before they start to rot.

Use Common Household Ingredients To Unclog A Drain


A slow-draining sink, bathtub or shower is frustrating. Not only do you have to wait for the water to drain, but you’re left with a residue to clean up. Who wants that?

If you don’t want to use harsh chemicals to unclog your drain — or don’t have any on hand — you can follow the following DIY remedy: First, boil water and pour it down the drain. Then, pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain (some DIYers recommend mixing in a 1/4 cup of salt) followed by 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then flush again with hot water from the tap. Voila!

Use Tofu For Perfect Mousse


Tofu and dessert aren’t a natural match in many people’s minds. But you can make a healthier alternative to your classic chocolate mousse by using silken tofu, chocolate and maple syrup.

Use Lazy Susans In Deep Pantry Cabinets


Bins are great for deep shelves in pantries to keep things organized and accessible. But one of the best ways to use those spots in your cabinets that can otherwise hide pantry items is to put lazy susans in there. Spinning organization means you’ll be able to quickly see what’s in those awkward back corners.

Use A Tension Rod Under The Sink


Hang cleaning bottles from a tension rod underneath your kitchen sink to free up space and keep bottles visible.

Put Bread On Edges Of Cut Cake To Keep It Fresh


Cake tends to dry out once you cut it, leaving the ends exposed to air. If you don’t have a cake dome or storage container handy, stick some slices of bread on the cut ends of the cake using toothpicks. The bread will dry up but keep the cake covered and moist.

Heat Leftovers More Effectively


Microwaves are great for heating up food, but oftentimes they reheat unevenly. If the food you’re trying to heat up can be shaped (a.k.a. not soup), form it into a ring with a hole in the middle. It’ll reheat faster and more evenly so you’re not left with hot and cold spots.

LPT: When heating leftovers, space out a circle in the middle, it will heat up much more evenly. from r/LifeProTips

Clean Your Blender By Blending Soapy Water In It


Right after you’ve used your blender (or food processor), scrape out any big chunks and fill it again with soapy water. Hit blend and the soapy water will get your appliance clean. Rinse and dry.

Use A Shower Caddy In Your Pantry


A shower caddy attached to an over-the-door hook is a great space saver in small pantries. Load it up with whatever you like, but spices are one great use for it. You can also attach a caddy to the inside of a cabinet or pantry door with strong sticky hooks.

We were having trouble finding a spice rack narrow enough to fit in our cabinet, and discovered a $20 shower caddy fit perfectly. from r/lifehacks

Use Non-Stick Spray On Your Measuring Cups And Spoons


If you hate it when you can’t get all the honey off of a tablespoon or the peanut butter out of a measuring cup, spray your measuring spoons and cups first before putting sticky ingredients in them. The cooking spray should make them slide right out and into your bowl of ingredients.

Use A Towel Bar As A Pot Rack


Attach a towel bar to the side of a cabinet and then use S-hooks to attach pots and other items to the towel bar. This is a great way to maximize your kitchen storage when you’re tight on space. It also keeps your items more easily at hand.

Use Orange Peels Or Marshmallows To Keep Your Brown Sugar Soft


Brown sugar tends to dry out quickly. Keep it soft by putting a slice of orange peel or a marshmallow in with the sugar. Both will add moisture to the brown sugar, and both are good scents with which to infuse the sugar if any of the smell transfers over. A slice of bread is another option.

Better Juice Lemons and Limes With Your Microwave


Your microwave can actually help you get a little bit more juice from lemons and limes. Before even slicing these sour fruits, place them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds on warm. The microwave will heat them from the inside out, bursting the juice capsules within the fruit, and allowing you to get more juice from the fruit upon squeezing it.

Organize Bottles In Your Fridge With A Six-Pack


If your smaller bottles constantly fall over inside your refrigerator door, you may want to try this one out. A six-pack bottle holder can easily take care of that problem. Not to mention that it generally helps with organization within your fridge. It was going into your recycling bin anyway, so you might as well get it to work for you a little bit longer.

Use A Pool Noodle Inside Your Silverware Drawer


Silverware holders can get a little annoying when it comes to keeping things organized. This is especially true for those held in oddly-sized drawers. Closing the drawer can cause the silverware to move around and ruin your system. But, if you use a pool noodle, you can cicumvent this issue. Putting a part of a pool noodle in the drawer behind the holder will absorb most of the shock from closing it.

Keep Your Dish Towel In Place


A lot of people hang up their dish towels on the over handle. It seems like a logical place to keep them. However, they’re constantly falling off. However, there is an easy way to stop this. Just attach some velcro strips to the towel after folding it over the oven handle. You can then just put the strips together so that the towel won’t fall off.

Use File Holders To Organize Your Kitchen


If you have some file holders in your house that aren’t holding any files, you can use them in your kitchen tell help with organization. Fill it up with the clutter that ordinarily blocks your cupboard doors and you should be golden. Just put them in the order that works best for you.

Organize Kitchen Cabinet With Another File Holder


While file holders can organize your cleaning supplies, these organizers can help your keep your baking sheets in order. Just put each sheet in one of the holder’s sections. It’ll make things much easier for you to take out a sheet when you need one.

Do-It-Yourself Plastic Bag Holder


You can use plastic bags for a variety of things, but a lot of it is storage and waste disposal. So, you might as well make something to hold those plastic bags. An empty, large tissue box makes the perfect holder, and they can be dispensed just like tissues.

Keep Your Produce Off The Counter


If you’re worried about the state of your counter and want to keep your produce clean, this is a fairly simple and inexpensive way to do it. Assuming your fridge is full or the items in question don’t or shouldn’t be refrigerated, you can try putting them in suspended baskets. Getting your own baskets would be fairly cheap, and you can hang them on your walls or doors for safe-keeping.

A Good Place To Hide Your Money


A lot of people hide their cash in inobvious places. Well, here’s one example for you. Wash and dry out a tin can. If you can fasten a lid onto it, even better. It’ll be a great place to hide some emergency cash if you ever need it. Who besides you would go looking for cash in the kitchen anyway?

Make Your Own Spice Rack


Ordinarily, you’d expect making a spice rack to have at least some construction involved, even if you could do it yourself. However, all this requires is two crates you can get off of Etsy. Those vintage, wooden crates you’ve probably been seeing around are perfect for acting as holders for your spices. And they’re dirt cheap too!

Using Cutting Boards To Store Cutlery


Now everything you need for chopping up some vegetables is in the same place. Get a small pouch to attach to your cutting boards, something removable, then hang them up on a hook or something like that. They’ll be nice racks for you to put any cutlery in before you need to use any of them again.

Use Magnets For Additional Storage


If you’re looking for an interesting way to increase your storage space, try magnets. You can use them to hang up spices or even hold knives instead of using a knife block. Just make sure that the magnet you’re using is strong enough to hold them securely.

Make Freezer Shelves With Magazine Holders


Magazine holders can hold so much more than magazines. In your freezer they make for a useful way to organize things in the freezer. It’s especially useful considering the size and lack of separation most freezers tend to have. Not to mention, they can help protect flatter items.

Position Your Cutting Board Over The Sink


There are some cutting boards that are designed to be fastened over the sink. You save cupboard space as well as increasing the ease of cleanup after you’re done with the board. It can even hide dirty dishes if you have guests over.

Label Your Foods


How often do you go through multiple containers in your cabinet looking for a particular food or spice? Well, using a proper labeling system can probably help reduce that time by a pretty fair amount. Don’t just label the products, themselves, either. Try labeling sections of your cabinets so if you do have to look for something, you only have to check a certain part of your pantry.

Hang Pots And Pans From The Ceiling


What better way to ensure that you’re saving space in your kitchen than by using the most obvious, empty space in it: the ceiling! Hanging up a ceiling rack frees up space and you’ll still be able to easily grasp your pots and pans. Just make sure they’re high enough you won’t bump your head on them.

Store Lids With A Curtain Rod


Curtain rods are actually perfect for storing certain types of lids. They perfectly balance on them. You might have to install one yourself if your house doesn’t already have one, but the process, itself, isn’t particularly difficult.

Use Below-Shelf Organizers In Your Fridge


Below-shelf organizers are best used for produce in the fridge. And, of course, they also help you take full advantage of the fridge’s interior. There won’t be any wasted space while you have these.

Store Garlic And Onions In A Bamboo Steamer


Garlic, onions, and even shallots, can be well-stored in a bamboo steamer if you already have one. These produce need to be stored in well-ventilated locations, so a bamboo steamer works well.

Keep Your Sponge Clean


The urge to just put your sponge on the counter or leave it in the sink after cleaning the dishes may strike you, but don’t do it. That invites mold and mildew to build up. Instead, place your sponge upright and attach a clip to it. That prevents the water from sitting in the sponge and helps it air dry faster.

Get Your Kitchen Smelling Good


If your kitchen’s starting to smell a little funky, you won’t have to worry about it for too long with this. Put two caps of full of vanilla extract into an oven proof dish and place it in the oven for an hour at 300 degrees. The smell will soon encompass the kitchen and it will be much better than whatever the kitchen smelled like before. Alternatively, you can use other essential oils like lemon, based on your preferences.