Between breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, most moms spend over 1,200 hours in the kitchen each year.

In that amount of time, you could rewatch every single episode of Gilmore Girls ever released...8 times.

But the truth of the matter is, a lot of us waste way too much time when we're in the kitchen.

Today, we've got 13 kitchen time-wasters you should stop right now.

Soaking the crock-pot

If you're still wasting hours of your day soaking your slow cooker because something burned and stuck to the side, you're wasting tons of time. Try one of these instead.

Working with (and cleaning up) raw meat

Working with raw meat is a huge pain. There's the set up, the clean up, washing your hands, cleaning out your sink.So take a lesson from the pros and buy some butcher paper. (Aaahhh, that's why they call it butcher paper—turns out it's good for more than just elementary school posters.)Buy some butcher paper at the store and next time you're ready to prepare raw meat, roll it out on your counter. When you're done, just toss it in the garbage. Problem solved.

Using a dull knife

Using a dull knife is not only more time-consuming, but it's far more dangerous.Invest a few minutes to sharpen your kitchen knives and you'll be amazed at how much faster you can slice, dice, and prepare your food.

Using too small of a cutting board

When using a cutting board, be sure to give yourself plenty of room for both the uncut veggies/meat and the cut stuff.Using too small of a board means you're constantly tripping over yourself while trying to cut quickly. It's a quick fix that won't slow you down anymore.

Using too small of a knife

If you're using a steak knife to prepare your meals, you're wasting massive time and effort.Larger knives are engineered to make cutting more efficient and easy. Next time, reach for the larger knife and notice how much leverage works in your favor when preparing a meal.

Preparing garlic

Garlic is delicious—there's no doubt about that.But preparing it can be a huge pain. You can spend an hour trying to crush, separate, mince and cook your garlic, or you can use one of these gadgets and save tons of time.

Cleaning under burners

Yes your stove has to be clean. But have you ever tried to really get under those burners for a good scrub?It's a huge pain.Next time, try wrapping your burner dishes in tin foil to catch any drips, spills or splashes.

When it's time, just remove the foil, toss in the trash, and replace.

Walking to the trash (or opening the cabinet with the trash inside)

Sure, it doesn't take long to take leftover meat scraps or veggie waste to the trash can...once.But add that up over the course of 3 meals every day, and you're wasting tons of time.The simple solution? A garbage bowl.Use a garbage bowl on the counter to toss in any excess food wrappers, waste, or anything that you would have walked across the room to the trash. You'll be amazed at how much time you've been wasting.

Defrosting and cutting meat

Does this sound familiar?You buy fresh meat from the store, bring it home, cut it up into family-friendly portion sizes, and then freeze it all.When dinner time rolls around, you pull the meat out of the freezer, wait 20 minutes for it to defrost (or longer) and then stil have to cut and prepare it for cooking.

Instead, cut the meat when it's fresh.

With chicken breasts, for example, try cutting some into medallions, others into cubes, and leaving others as whole breasts.

Then, when you're ready to cook, the meat is mostly already prepared and ready to go.

This comes in particularly handy when you're cooking the crock-pot.

Cutting really hard things

Have you ever tried to cut a really thick pumpkin, frozen meat, or something else that is extremely hard to cut?Next time, use a kitchen mallet at gently hit the top of your knife as you cut through. The extra pressure and leverage offer a simple solution to a frustrating situation.

Chipping away at brown sugar

Have you ever felt like you needed to borrow a jack-hammer just to break through your brown sugar?If so, try putting a couple marshmallows in your brown sugar container—it'll keep it from clumping and make scooping it out way easier next time.

Rinsing raw meats first

Research shows that rinsing your meat before you cook with it is completely unnecessary and only leads to spreading more germs in your sink.Next time, skip the rinse and just make sure you heat the meat to the proper temperature to reduce risk of illness.

Hand-washing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher

Last but not least, stop rinsing your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Sure, you should remove any food from the plate, but after that, let the modern convenience take over.Most dishwashers are equipped to remove burned-on food from pots and pans. They can certainly handle a little extra ranch dressing on your plate.

And there you have it. 13 ways you're probably wasting precious time in the kitchen.

If you can tighten up your kitchen time, you can spend more time with your family, friends, or...you know...catching up on all those episodes of Gilmore Girls mentioned earlier.

Happy cooking!