Are you a messy cook?

[Madeyoulook]

I’m a nightmare. There is only me and a teenager for tea tonight and the kitchen (tiny) is a complete mess.

I’ve used the air fryer, the oven, the microwave, one ring on the hob and the kettle!

I’ve got everything out everywhere. I’ve also got to wash a saucepan, a casserole dish, a gravy dish, three bowls, the air fryer tray, a plate, two glasses and multiple utensils. Then scrape the leftovers into the caddy and put it out for bin day tomorrow, empty and fill the dishwasher and wipe all the surfaces.

Is that messy or normal?

It’s only 5.30 and I’m exhausted!

How on earth do you you use all those? Are you cooking a banquet?

I cooked a roast chicken yesterday with fewer bits and bobs.

Good luck with the washing up!

PS: If you have a dishwasher I have no sympathy.

Are you married to me?

No. I’ve just spent hours making a lasagne, veg peelings in a bowl as I went then straight in the green bin, tins rinsed and in the blue bin, utensils in the dishwasher as I went. I can’t work well in a shit tip and as I’m tidying up anyway I’d rather do it as I go than deal with a mess afterwards.

I cook and bake a lot, make all our bread etc, I’m in the kitchen quite a bit and have a toddler “helping” but it’s possible to be productive in a tidy way and saves work later.

"Wash/clear up as you go along" was inculcated in to us in Home Economics at school (and home) It does make life so much easier

No, I clear up as I go along and only use what's essential.

If I'm making a big or fancy meal there'll be a lot of washing up for DH to do but the kitchen won't be messy.

Yes clearing up as you go along is the only way but you have to be very organised. I wouldn’t stop to scrape the peelings or rinse out the cans as I would be on to the next thing and trying to get everything ready at the same time.

See, I do both of those things. And rinse out the stuff I'm finished with and put them in the dishwasher. And wipe up spills, and fat spatters, and so on.

I spent too many years clearing up after my mother and her "a food bomb just landed here" kitchens to do otherwise.

I had a lodger who cooked like this, she made lovely food but the clear up after made me want to cry. The last straw was when she cooked in the middle of the night and I happened to need a glass of water at 2am, saw the bombsite of a kitchen and saw red. She was still awake so I ensured she cleaned her mess before I woke up 4 hours later. I am not a messy cook, at least compared to that.

Yes I’m a messy cook!

I’m terrible! I use almost every dish/utensil in the house and every available area of counter space every time I cook!

I don’t get how you used so many appliances. I’ve just made dinner for a veggie and two omnis and I used the microwave and the air fryer oven.

It takes seconds to wash a tin and chuck it in the recycling. When I peel and chop an onion I stick the peels in a bowl I put next to the chopping board so the board only has ingredients to be used on it and there’s no chance of skin going in the food or stuff falling on the floor. Takes much less time than picking up hands full of stuff later on.

Crack on as you are it works for you. If it doesn’t then there are different ways, efficiency makes you more productive not less.

No, I’m a very tidy cook and clean up as I go along. My daughters are both horrendously messy and I find it quite hard not to tidy around them when they are cooking when home. Onion skin and pepper carcass on the side instead of in the mess jug. Nightmare. Our son is exceptionally tidy as a cook though. Odd.

Nope I clean as I go. So if I'm making cottage pie, the only thing left to wash as it goes in the oven is the dish it's in

I used to be. I soon learnt to clean as I cook ,makes the process so much easier!

I rarely cook but when I do I use everything in the kitchen and it's a shambles. I'm autistic and pursuing an ADHD diagnosis too so this probably explains it for me!

I usually start with good intentions, chopping everything and measuring ingredients into tidy bowls, but, by the end I have usually used every item of cutlery in the kitchen (particularly teaspoons) and there's some element of panic having been involved.

I’d say I’m quite tidy as is DH. He used to be messy but when DC1 was tiny he ‘helpfully’ made dinner and the kitchen was a wreck. I burst into hormonal tears and said it wasn’t helpful to cook dinner when I’d have to spend hours washing up and he’s really improved since. And I can blame hormones at the time

Yes. One thing that has helped is having a ‘rubbish bowl’ so I get a large bowl out on the side and put all my veg peelings, packets etc anything that needs throwing away in it

When I'm working (see user name 😁) I'm organised, tidy, efficient and in control. When I'm at home it's like a disaster zone DP constantly asks how I manage to do my job and I don't know myself... but our kitchen at home is tiny, hardly any work surface and I have way too much stuff in there...

veg peelings in a bowl as I went then straight in the green bin, tins rinsed and in the blue bin, utensils in the dishwasher as I went.

This is how I operate too. I made double lots of chicken curry, tomato and mushroom sauce and a ragu (big ones) on Saturday for dd and ds to take back to university. Byt the time everything was simmering, the only thing needing to be done was turn on the dishwasher and wipe down the counters.

I have a really a small kitchen and cook from scratch most days. I don't start cooking until the surfaces are clear. Strange logic, but if it's tidy when I start, it's tidy when I finish! If I try to cook in a mess I end up in chaos.

Yes this is very true. Starting with any kind of mess guarantees a scene of destruction by the end.

If I’m cooking an elaborate meal - yes. Purely because there are lots of things to do at the same
time and there is no time to clean up everything as I go along.

Everyday cooking - I aim to have to as little to do after dinner as possible. So basically I’m being as clean and organised as possible because I’m lazy. I want to be able to chill after we have our tea, not have a mountain of mess to deal with.

I agree that simple things really make a difference: veg peelings in a bowl, rubbish in appropriate bins straight away, wipe any mess as I go along.