The Only Good Way to Wash Dishes Is with This $4 Kitchen Gadget I Love

Cooking has never felt like a chore to me — I enjoy the chopping, slow sautéing, hypnotic stirring, and all the aromas and flavors that come with it. What I don’t love? The resulting dirty dishes strewn around the kitchen. Even though I’m the one who used them, I’m always somehow surprised and betrayed at how they add up and dismayed at having to clean them. But then, I found a tiny, elegant little product that quelled my dish washing complaints. It’s a bamboo pot scraper.

I know a pot scraper is nothing revolutionary. I can clearly picture the one in my family’s kitchen growing up, made of dark brown durable plastic. But I’d never had my own, and this one is a pretty pale wood that feels elegant next to my sink and encourages me to use it. Plus, each corner is a slightly different shape so you can get into all the nooks and crannies of any dish. From curved to pointed, the unique corners let me easily clean the smoothed perimeter of a skillet or the tight edge of a baking pan. It’s ideal for scraping stubborn food bits, like egg or cheese, and it saves me from the time and annoyance of scrubbing relentlessly with a sponge — it’s also extended the life of my Scrub Daddy, since I’m letting the bamboo do the tough work first. 

I found my dish scraper at a low-waste store called Cleenland near me, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and paid just a few dollars for one. If you’re not my neighbor, though, the brand is Bambu and you can just as easily score a pack of four from Amazon for under $14. I’ve had mine for a year now and don’t see myself having to replace it anytime soon, so I’d recommend keeping one for yourself and giving the others away as future stocking stuffers or little just-because gifts to friends, family, or neighbors. They won’t be able to help but think of you every time they wash a dish and reach for the cute doodad that makes it feel like less of a chore.