Real Solutions: Color-Coded Kitchen Utensils

Today: Our Test Kitchen Manager Erin McDowell shares her brilliant trick to keep flavors just as they're intended while cooking. 

I’m big on organization in my kitchen, but the trick I'm asked about most often is also one of the simplest. On my countertop, I have a utensil holder full of wooden spoons and red spatulas. I also have a drawer full of utensils that contains offset spatulas, bench scrapers, and blue spatulas. Why the two colors? I color code commonly used kitchen tools to differentiate between sweet and savory.

I’ve seen a million ways to do this: wrap each utensil in a piece of tape (white tape for sweet, blue for savory), make a mark on it in some way, etc. But with Silicone spatulas (my most-used kitchen tool, bar none) that are available in so many colors, why work harder to see the difference? I just purchase different colors for different tasks, and that way I never end up with garlicky whipped cream or vanilla-scented Bolognese.  

What are your best tricks for staying organized in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments!