Top 10 Useless Kitchen Gadgets to Toss

The New Year brings a familiar itch. You want to organize. You want a kitchen that feels like a professional workspace, not a junk drawer explosion. We see you eyeing that overflowing utensil crock. We know the struggle.

Professional kitchens run on efficiency. Chefs rely on a few high-quality, versatile tools maintained to perfection. They do not rely on plastic gadgets designed to do one specific task poorly. The “unitasker” is the enemy of a streamlined culinary life. It steals your money, clogs your drawers, and ultimately discourages you from learning the simple knife skills that make cooking a joy.

Here are the top 10 offenders we recommend purging immediately to reclaim your counter space and your sanity.

1. The Avocado Slicer

This tool is the poster child for unnecessary kitchen inventions. It promises safe slicing but delivers mashed fruit and another dirty tool to wash. The plastic blades are rarely sharp enough to cut clean slices, and the “pitter” feature is often dangerous or ineffective.

The Better Way: Use a sharp chef’s knife. Cut the avocado in half lengthwise around the pit. Twist to separate. Carefully tap the pit with the heel of your blade, twist, and remove. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon. You get clean lines and zero wasted flesh.

2. The Garlic Press

Garlic presses are controversial, but in our test kitchen, they are unwelcome. They extract juice while leaving much of the flavorful pulp behind in a hard-to-clean cage. This results in a bitter, acrid garlic flavor rather than the aromatic punch you want. Cleaning the little holes is a special form of torture.

The Better Way: Smash the clove with the flat side of your knife to peel it. Then, mince it by hand. If you need a paste, sprinkle coarse salt over the minced garlic and drag the side of your knife blade across it repeatedly. You get superior texture and flavor.

3. Multi-Blade Herb Scissors

These look efficient on TV. Five blades chopping at once should be five times faster, right? Wrong. Wet herbs stick between the blades immediately. You spend more time picking cilantro mush out of the crevices with a toothpick than you spent cutting. They also bruise the herbs, causing them to oxidize and turn black faster.

The Better Way: Stack your herb leaves, roll them into a tight cylinder (a technique called chiffonade), and slice through them with a sharp knife. You get fluffy, vibrant ribbons of green without the bruising.

4. The Countertop Knife Block

That heavy wooden block is destroying your knives. Every time you slide a knife in or out, the blade scrapes against the wood, dulling the edge. worse, the deep, dark slots are nearly impossible to clean. They trap moisture and food particles, becoming a breeding ground for bacteria.

The Better Way: Install a magnetic knife strip on your wall. It keeps your blades sharp, visible, and sanitary. It also frees up valuable counter space for actual cooking.

5. The Egg Separator

Separating eggs is a fundamental skill. You do not need a plastic suction device or a slotted spoon to do it. These gadgets often break the yolk during the transfer, defeating the purpose entirely.

The Better Way: Crack the egg into your clean hand. Let the white drip through your fingers into a bowl while you hold the yolk. It is gentle, fast, and tactile.

6. The Strawberry Huller

This tiny claw is easy to lose and rarely works better than common tools you already own. It gouges out too much fruit or slips off the green top entirely. It is clutter for clutter’s sake.

The Better Way: Use a paring knife to cut a small cone around the stem. Or, push a sturdy plastic straw through the bottom of the strawberry until the leaves pop off the top. Fast, clean, and gadget-free.

7. The Corn Stripper

Corn strippers are bulky, hard to sharpen, and dangerous. If the cob is too thick or too thin, the fixed blade won't work. You end up hacking away at the cob and sending kernels flying across the room.

The Better Way: Stand the corn cob vertically in a large wide bowl (or on a Bundt pan center). Use your chef's knife to slice straight down. The bowl catches the kernels. You control the depth of the cut.

8. The Apple Slicer

This wheel-shaped cutter requires significant force to push through a crisp apple. If the apple is not perfectly symmetrical, the core gets stuck or you slice into the seeds. The wedges are always the same size, which limits your plating options. Sharpening the blades is impossible.

The Better Way: A sharp knife. Cut the apple into quarters. Angle your knife to remove the core from each quarter. Slice as thin or thick as you like. It takes thirty seconds.

9. The Meat Claws

These look tough, but they are essentially oversized plastic forks that take up half a drawer. Unless you are shredding pork shoulder for a hundred people every weekend, they are overkill.

The Better Way: Use two dinner forks. Hold one steady and pull with the other. Or, for larger batches, put the warm meat in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low for a few seconds.

10. The Pasta Portion Measure

This tool—usually a stick with holes of varying sizes—lies to you. It cannot account for different pasta shapes, lengths, or hunger levels. It is a piece of plastic or wood that tells you nothing a kitchen scale doesn't tell you better.

The Better Way: Weigh your pasta. 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) is a standard generous portion. Over time, you will learn to eyeball the diameter of a serving size in your hand. Trust your eyes and your scale.