Why does cooking create such a mess? Seriously, whatever we do and however hard we try, when we have finished creating our masterpiece the kitchen always looks like a bomb has hit it.

This has bugged us for generations, well, since the days of masters and servants ceased to exist. At one time, all our ancestors had to do was sit at the table, have their meals brought to them and then retire. The staff downstairs had to worry about all the tidying up.

The lesser classes didn't suffer from this problem either as they could afford neither servants nor expensive meals.

The thing is, with today's so called time saving gadgets, there seems to be more mess than ever. As well as utensils we have used, there are also a stack of appliances such as blenders that need to be cleaned out.

Kitchen mess is embarrassing; we don't like others to see how untidy we are. If you are lucky enough to afford servants then it isn't an issue, but the majority of us can't, so it is.

I've tried various things over the years, mostly unsuccessfully. The one I'm going to tell you about now however seems to have made life an awful lot easier, so why not give it a try yourself.

This is a very simple principle, much advocated by those in the catering trade. You wash as you go, as you finish with each pot, pan, appliances etc, wash it straight away. Keep your work tops tidy as you too and when you leave the kitchen, you know it's in a fit state for anyone to enter.

In the long run, leaving everything to the end is making more work for yourself. This is particularly difficult if you have guests for dinner, you know what a state your kitchen is in but can't abandon your guests to go and clean up. Cleaning as you go means you can enjoy your evening as you know your kitchen is okay.

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