Delroy Tony - Kitchen secrets: cooking for one--or more: how to select, store, prepare and cook fresh ingredients

A well-organised kitchen makes food preparation so much easier. It takes only a few minutes to think about the functionality of the kitchen, which is possibly the most important and most-used room of a home. Not only is it used for food preparation, but it may also be a homework zone for children, an informal eating area and a meeting place for family and friends.

Check the layout and see if you have easy access to the most commonly used items, such as pots and pans deep drawers are more accessible for pots than a cupboard.

Bright lighting is important above preparation and chopping areas fluorescent tubes offer brighter light than globes.

Keep your favourite workbench area clear and free from clutter and appliances. Only have the appliances you use frequently on benchtops, if there is sufficient space.

A bench next to the opening side of the refrigerator door makes packing or unpacking foods easier and it also minimises the time the fridge door is open. No bench? Consider adding a table.

Attach a notice board or whiteboard to a kitchen wall or have a magnetic pad attached to the refrigerator door for shopping lists. Preparing lists will save you time and money!

Keep a waste bin under the kitchen sink and empty it regularly. Always sort kitchen waste into paper, glass and food scraps before disposal.

For easy access to biscuit and baking trays, its a good idea to store them vertically in a kitchen cupboard the trays will take up less space too. To do this, install a divider made from a piece of laminated board approximately 2 cm wide and tall enough to fit snugly between the cupboard floor and ceiling.

Ceramic and slate-tiled kitchen floors look smart and are easy to clean; however, glass or china shatters on them. Cork and linoleum floors are a dream to keep clean or choose a floor that is low maintenance.

A kitchen is the most likely place in the home where a fire can occur, so invest in a domestic fire blanket and keep it in a handy spot at all times. Otherwise have a woollen blanket on hand for emergencies.

Ensure dry goods, such as rice, pasta, flour, couscous, lentils and dried fruit, are removed from their original packaging and stored in the pantry in labelled airtight containers, so that in the summer months these foods are not invaded by moths and weevils. Cardboard packets often harbour insects from a warehouse environment, well before they reach stores and supermarkets. For a little extra money, as a once-off purchase, you can now buy rice, pasta and flour packed in plastic containers, and refill them when necessary.

If possible, install narrow shelves or wire racks in the pantry to display a single row of dried herbs and spices for easy visibility and access. Attaching racks to the pantry door is sometimes a possibility, too.

Food items should not be stored anywhere near an oven or their quality and shelf life will be shortened. Suitable items to store near the oven are pots and pans, cooking equipment, such as bowls and jugs, baking trays and tins, foil and wraps.

A magnetic knife rack at eye level on a wall, well away from the kids, is more hygienic than a wooden knife block.

Keep a wooden, heatproof board or trivet next to the stove to put pots and pans on immediately after cooking in them burnt benchtops are not a good look.

Line the base of the oven and grill tray with foil to lessen cleaning, but check with the oven instruction manual first. If you prefer to use the fan-forced cycle in an oven, the oven floor shouldnt be lined with foil as it will flutter in the breeze of the fan.