While I have a wealth of cutting boards now, for quite some time we made do with a “practice” cutting board of mahogany that I’d made when I was in seventh grade (as a gift for my grandmother).
(Click to enbiggen the pic 🙂 )
While using it exclusively for all our kitchen cutting n chopping, I devised a simple method that made things go a bit faster in the kitchen. When the pig’s facing right, cut veggies. When it’s facing left, cut meats. Sure, I still had to clean the pig–and the counter it was on–after use, but I didn’t have to clean it WHILE in use. No matter which I started cutting frirst, the veggies/meats were kept to different surfaces, as long as I cut all of either veggies or meats at once.
Later, our collection grew, of course (including the walnut/maple cutting board the mahogany one was practice for, as my mom had decided her “new”, smaller kitchen needed utensil/tools downsizing), but the habit’s remained and has continued to be a useful streamlining habit.
BTW, that’s my two fav chef’s knives shown. An older Chicago cutlery knife that’s still in very good condition and a newer (only about 20 years old, now) Sabatier-before-Sabatier-was-devalued-by-WallyWorld that was an anniversary present from my Wonder Woman to me. (Last year, when Sabatier was still seliling directly online, this model was priced at $107, but I’m sure she didn’t pay that much 20 years ago.) She knows I loves me knives. *arrgh!* 🙂