How to Make Dinner Without Making a Mess

If you’re familiar with the joy of cooking, you’re probably equally acquainted with the pain of cleaning up. But a messy kitchen doesn’t have to haunt you as you sit down to enjoy your food. Keeping the kitchen clean while cooking is an art; when mastered, it brings a new level of enjoyment to making meals at home.

To combat a cumulative mess, I’ve developed a manifesto for cleaning while cooking that makes all the difference. A few small, isolated messes are manageable, but let them pile up into one massive and amorphous mess, and the kitchen starts to feel like a monkey on your back.

Here are the rules and practices for making dinner without making a mess.

1. Designate a garbage bowl 

I learned this one years ago from TV chef Rachael Ray, and it’s as useful today as it was then. Either bring the main compost bin or garbage can nearer to the action or designate a large bowl to place on the counter to use as a temporary bin for onion skins and celery ends. If the trash or compost is closer, you’ll use it more frequently and be less likely to let the nasty stuff pile up. 

Automatic kitchen composters such as the Lomi and Mill will process your food waste into usable garden fuel or animal feed. They both cost a few hundred dollars, but go a long way in keeping your kitchen free of odors and organic waste out of the landfill.

2. Go easy on the heat

Some recipes require high pan-surface heat to get a sear or develop a quick crust without overcooking the inside. But a lot of foods don’t. Be careful not to crank the range up too high for scrambled eggs, meatballs or chicken thighs, or you’ll end up with scorched pans that require soaking and scrubbing.

If you do burn the pan, don’t panic. Use these pantry staples to clean any stain from steel cookware in minutes. Here’s how to clean a scorched cast-iron skillet.

3. Get yourself a splatter guard 

The best way to clean a mess in the kitchen is to prevent it from happening in the first place. One of the biggest sources of a dirty post-cooking kitchen is when grease pops and splatters across that pristine stovetop. A splatter guard will lessen the damage by keeping cooking oil and food in the pan. I recommend the sturdy silicone SplatterDom (read our full SplatterDom review) because it sits on the rim of the pan and allows you to keep both of your hands free for cooking. It’s also adjustable to fit two pan sizes and has a removable lid. 

4. Clean as you go 

Cleaning as you cook is one habit you’ll have to train yourself to incorporate, but it makes an enormous difference. A few well-timed wipes with a wet sponge or rag — along with loading dishes, cutting boards, pans and containers into the dishwasher as you cook — will make a huge impact on the final state of the kitchen.

If you find yourself looking at an oven timer or clock between recipe steps, find something small to clean or unused ingredients to put away.

5. Put foil between the stove and counter

The miniscule space in between the stove and the counter is truly the devil’s playground. Cleaning crumbs and other bits of food from that crevice is nearly impossible without moving the stove, so your best bet is to prevent them from falling down there in the first place. A small piece of aluminum foil will keep that cursed space free from future mouse food. 

6. Soak pots and pans right away

Washing scorched pots and pans with caked-on food is often the most time-consuming part of kitchen cleanup. While you may not be able to avoid that step altogether, the sooner you can get those pans covered with soap and soaking in water, the easier they will be to clean. 

While you don’t want to douse scalding hot pans with cold water for fear of warping the metal, you can certainly get that soak going while the pan is still warm and before the food really sets. 

7. Try dish spray instead of liquid soap 

For best results, switch from liquid soap to a dish spray such as Dawn Powerwash. Dish spray allows you to quickly coat the entire surface of a dirty pan with one or two spritzes of grease-fighting mist. Here’s my full review of Dawn Powerwash.

8. Use a nonstick Dutch oven 

Some pieces of cookware are superior for cooking without making a mess, and an enameled Dutch oven is up there. For one, most Dutch ovens have high walls and a lid, so you’re less likely to have grease, liquid and food splatters. Quality Dutch ovens also have a naturally nonstick enamel coating that rarely needs scrubbing. 

While enameled cast iron isn’t quite as nonstick as Teflon-coated cookware, it’s darn close. Unlike stainless steel or nonenameled cast iron, even seemingly stuck-on food lifts fairly easily from this versatile cookware material. At worst, a short soak with soap and water almost always does the trick.

These are the best Dutch ovens for 2024, from pricey French heirloom pots to budget-friendly models.

8. Load the dishwasher properly 

Despite what your partner said in a recent post-dinner spat, there is a right way (and wrong way) to load the dishwasher. If you follow this simple guide for arranging plates, bowls, glasses and silverware, you’ll maximize space and have cleaner dishes afterwards. And if your dishwasher isn’t working well or smells weird, it’s probably because the filter needs cleaning.

9. When grilling, use grill mats for flaky food

Seasoned grillers know the agony and ecstasy that come with firing up the Traeger or Weber at mealtime. While grilling outside keeps the mess far from your kitchen, flaky fish and vegetables often fall through the grates to the fire below creating a burnt mess that’s not for the faint of heart. Fire-safe grill mats for those fall-apart foods are an easy fix for a cleaner grill. And here’s how to properly clean your grill before and after each season.