Why Rachael Ray's Garbage Bowl Is A Kitchen Time-Saver

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While some kitchens are maximized for space with carefully measured distances between work stations, other layouts may have you pacing between the sink, stove, and trash can as you put a meal together. If your kitchen has a floor plan that is less than ideal, Rachael Ray introduced a trick on her popular daytime talk and cooking show to help solve this issue. Ray reveals that when she was working in a restaurant kitchen, she would place a pot or bowl beneath the cutting board as she would work through her cuts. With a hole cut out in the cutting board, she could quickly discard waste by pushing it into the container — or into what she describes as a garbage bowl. 

Although you may not be assembling a meal in a professional kitchen, the concept of using a garbage bowl can still be a useful one, even in your own home. Instead of having to move between the area in which you are preparing food and the trash can, you can simply toss peels, scraps, and anything else you want to discard into one bowl, collecting a heap to be thrown away once your recipe has been put together. 

If it's helpful in your kitchen, you can use separate bowls to better organize garbage, compost, and recycling items as you work on a recipe. This time-saving tip doesn't need to be limited to the kitchen, either. Use a similar dump bowl technique as you complete tasks in an office, classroom, or artist studio. The one-stop container can collect odds and ends to get rid of at the end of your project or working time.

From steel mixing bowls to options with pretty ceramic finishes, any type of bowl can be used as your designated garbage bowl, as long as its large enough to contain all the items you want to get rid of after you're done working. Ray developed a line of melamine pantryware that can be used to collect this discard pile, but it can also double as a popcorn or salad bowl that can be set onto tables and instantly brighten up dinner parties. Plus, you can invert these pieces when not in use to create an elevated presentation stand for a platter of appetizers, an aesthetically made cake, or a plate of neatly cut coconut bars. Talk about efficiency.