The Well-Organized Kitchen

For the Sunday Cook

When you're too busy to cook, one weekend session―making dinners to freeze―reduces daily stress. Your kitchen setup should facilitate that.

The Strategies

Keep essentials front and center. Stackable storage containers ($15.50 for three, tupperware.com), large plastic mixing bowls, and other tools left on the counter won't be in the way during the week and will be ready to go on Sunday.

Invest in equipment. A food sealer (Tilia FoodSaver Advanced Design, $135, amazon.com) is just the thing for turning blanched green beans, fish fillets, and muffins into future instant meals. A scale is useful for weighing ingredients, which some cooks consider a faster and more reliable way to measure for bulk recipes. A calculator speeds the doubling and tripling of recipes.

Organize the freezer. When food items get crammed in willy-nilly, you won't know what you have on hand. Instead, make designated sections (prepared meals, vegetables, desserts). Use dividers, baskets (available in two sizes, $6 and $8, containerstore.com), or multilayer ice caddies to keep containers neat and accessible. And be sure to label everything with both what's in the container, and when you cooked it up ($11 for 70 erasable labels and a pen, containerstore.com).