Simple, practical tricks to make cooking faster and life easier.
I’ll be honest — I used to spend almost half my day inside the kitchen. Cooking, cleaning, prepping, looking for ingredients, scrubbing stubborn stains — you name it. It’s not that I hated it, but it felt like the whole day disappeared between making breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner. And then one day, I asked myself, “Is there a smarter way to do this?” The answer was yes — and since then, I’ve been saving at least 1 hour daily without cutting corners or compromising on meals.
These kitchen hacks are my secret sauce — simple tricks that have made a huge difference in my daily life. If you’re a homemaker juggling everything from groceries to guest visits, these tips might just become your best friends too.
Let’s start with my favorite game-changer: prep smarter, not harder.
Every night, once dinner is done and I’m winding down, I take 10 minutes to prep for the next day. I soak what’s needed (like green gram, chana, or dal), chop a few veggies for morning upma or lunch curry, and sometimes boil potatoes or tomatoes in bulk. This alone saves me 30–40 minutes the next day. No mad chopping rush at 7 a.m.!
If I know I’m going to be super busy the next day, I make sure I have one meal semi-prepped. Like, I make extra curry base (onion-tomato-ginger-garlic masala) and freeze it in small containers. Or I make chapati dough and refrigerate it. That way, even if I’m tired or moody, I don’t end up skipping meals or ordering junk.
Another major timesaver: organize your fridge and pantry like a lazy person. I don’t mean messy — I mean, make everything super easy to grab. I store all breakfast ingredients in one place: oats, poha, muesli, chia seeds — one shelf. All masalas in labeled containers. I even keep boiled dal, grated coconut, chopped coriander, and ginger in small boxes for quick access. No more pulling everything out and making a mess.
Let’s talk about tools. No, you don’t need fancy appliances. But a few smart tools make life so much easier. My absolute favorites:
A small electric chopper (for onions, carrots, even nuts)
Pressure cooker (I use it for rice, dal, khichdi, everything)
2-in-1 dosa tawa with grill on one side
A sharp peeler and knife (trust me, blunt knives waste so much time)
A small blender jar just for chutneys and masala pastes
Sometimes, I also cook using one-pot tricks. Like vegetable pulao, khichdi, pasta, or sambar with mixed veggies — it cuts cooking and cleaning time in half. I use minimal utensils and always try to choose dishes that don’t need 5 different sides. For example, lemon rice + curd + papad = done.
Want to know my lazy genius move? I use cook-serve utensils. Stainless steel kadais or borosil bowls that can go straight from stove to dining table. It saves time and dishes. And I always keep a big serving tray handy — it helps avoid multiple trips back and forth.
Another trick I swear by: cleaning as you cook. I used to let everything pile up, and by the time I finished cooking, the mountain of dishes drained my energy. Now, I wash the chopping board, knives, and mixing bowls while the curry simmers. I wipe spills instantly and soak any tough stains right away. It feels less heavy that way.
Let’s not forget leftover hacks. I never let food go to waste. Leftover sabzi becomes sandwich stuffing or paratha filling. Rice becomes lemon rice or curd rice. That small bowl of dal? Mix it with roti dough or use it as a soup base. No cooking, just reinventing.
Oh, and here’s something fun I did that actually worked — I created a weekly meal plan. Don’t imagine a super detailed chart. Mine’s very basic. Monday: rice + dal + curry. Tuesday: roti + paneer. Wednesday: khichdi. Thursday: dosa. You get the idea. It helps me stock the right things and reduces the stress of “What should I make today?”
To help myself stick to this routine, I keep a small “Kitchen Command Zone”. Basically, a whiteboard or sticky note with:
What’s soaked
What’s prepped
Any leftover I should use today
Small grocery items I ran out of
It’s silly-sounding but saves me so much brain space.
Let’s be real — we homemakers are already doing a hundred things at once. We don’t need to spend more time in the kitchen than necessary. Cooking should be joyful, not a time trap. With a bit of planning, smart tools, and tiny changes, I now enjoy my kitchen time instead of rushing through it.
If you’re feeling drained by your daily kitchen routine, try even one or two of these hacks. It may not feel like a big change at first, but over a week, you’ll start noticing how your day feels lighter and smoother.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not about cooking less — it’s about cooking smart.
