After a long, busy day, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time fixing dinner. Getting dinner on the table quickly is often a matter of how you approach the process—it’s about getting creative and choosing the right techniques and tools.

Now’s the time to clean out that drawer you’ve been meaning to organize. Set up your kitchen so you can grab the tool you want when you need it. Gather wooden spoons, spatulas, whisks and the like in a large canister by the stove. You can buy decorative canisters at kitchen and housewares stores, or, if you have a large unused vase lurking in a cupboard, recruit it for kitchen duty. Store knives in a knife block on the counter or, to free up counter space, attach a magnetic strip to the wall and store knives there.

Trim large cuts of poultry or meat so they cook quickly and evenly. “I have always sandwiched skinless, boneless chicken breasts between layers of plastic wrap and pounded them,” says Birmingham, Alabama-based freelance food stylist Kathleen Kanen. “Now I just cut them in half horizontally (through the middle) to create two thin pieces—no pounding and no plastic wrap needed.” You can use the same technique with boneless pork chops and other thick cuts of meat.

Use a coffee grinder for more than java. “I use mine to grind bread and crackers, flaxseed, and nuts, as well as spices,” says Kanen. “Sometimes you just don't want to drag out the big food processor to do these things when you only need a small amount.” You can use the same grinder for coffee and other jobs. To clean the grinder, brush the blades with a dry pastry brush or grind a slice of bread to absorb the residue of coffee so spices and bread crumbs don’t taste like coffee, and vice versa.

Multitask with tongs. “I use tongs to extract juice from cut lemons, stir sauces, combine sauce and pasta in the pan, turn meats and veggies on the grill, and toss salad,” says Kanen. She recommends getting 12-inch tongs with black nonstick tips and a locking mechanism. The locking feature makes the tongs easy to store and they stay closed when you want to stir with them.

Cook extra food tonight to get a jump on dinner tomorrow. As long as you’re in the kitchen, prepare a double batch of an ingredient to use in a different dish later in the week. For example, cook extra rice, chill the leftovers and use them in a stir-fry another evening, or grill extra boneless pork chops to use in a sandwich or salad.

Prep bulk ingredients when you get home from the store. Family-size packs of chicken breasts and other cuts of meat are a great money-saver. You can save time, too, by opening the packages, trimming all of the meat at once and repackaging it in smaller freezer-safe zip-top bags.  That way, you can use what you need while the rest stays in the freezer for another night.

Invest in a good pair of kitchen shears. Use them to trim and cut meat and poultry or snip fresh herbs into a sauce. Kanen especially likes using shears to cut up whole canned plum tomatoes in the can. “Trying to chop canned whole tomatoes on a cutting board with a knife can be messy,” she notes. Pull-apart shears are especially easy to clean—just separate the blades and put them in the dishwasher. (Safety note: If you trim meat with shears, remember to wash them thoroughly with hot water and soap before using them to cut herbs or veggies to avoid cross-contamination.)

Use your box grater. Jennifer A. Ford, a health and wellness coach in Huntington Beach, California, tells clients to give their box graters a workout. “It’s cheap and easy, and not just for cheese anymore,” she says. She uses a box grater to shred carrots and ginger for stir-fries, zucchini for salads, apples for baked goods and potatoes for soup. “It’s so easy and so much faster than using a knife,” says Ford. If you like to bake, use the box grater to grate cold butter; grated chilled butter is easier to cut into a pastry dough than cubed butter.

Immerse yourself. If you enjoy cooking soups and sauces, like Susan Palmquist, who writes the  Budget Smart Girl’s Guide to the Universe blog (http://budgetsmartgirl.com), you’ll appreciate the convenience of an  immersion blender because this small appliance enables you to puree right in the pan, “If you make lots of soups, the immersion blender is perfect,” she says. “No more dragging out the regular blender and cleaning it; no more transferring half the hot soup to a bowl or saucepan while you blend the other half of the soup.” An immersion blender also is handy to emulsify salad dressings, whip small amounts of cream or egg whites and blend a single-serving smoothie. When you’re done, pop off the blade end and throw it in the dishwasher.

Once you start to reconsider how you approach cooking, you’ll begin to find your own ways to save time in the kitchen—as well as lots of clever uses for the tools you already own.