This $9 Amazon Find Has Solved My Biggest Annoyance With Cooking

Over the past few years, I’ve seriously upped my cooking game. Ever since the first shelter-in-place order went into effect, I’ve learned how to make everything from Swedish meatballs to whole rotisserie chickens — and, no, I don’t mean reheating the ones you spot at the grocery store. But, shockingly, my biggest culinary gripe isn’t the complexity of a recipe or finding a tear-free way to cut my onions. Instead, it’s what to do with all of the cooking tools I’m using.

Whether I’m hosting a multi-course dinner party, meal-prepping for the week ahead, or whipping up pan-fried chicken and sautéed mushrooms for me and my fiancé, I use a lot of cooking utensils for one meal. (A spatula? That slotted spoon? My precious tongs? Check, check, and check.) A spoon rest might be the obvious choice, but most versions can usually only fit one tool. I could leave my accessories on my counters, but I don’t love the idea of dirtying up my clean surfaces. And, trust me when I say, I’ve literally been burned too many times by precariously resting each utensil on its respective pot or pan.

Desperate to find a solution that was actually conducive to my cooking needs, I turned to Amazon and found Walkbon’s Silicone Spoon Rest.

Unlike the standard spoon rest, this $9 accessory has four slots, so it can comfortably hold multiple utensils at once. (It’s a tiny tweak to a spoon holder’s original design, but it is a godsend for avid meal-preppers like myself.) Plus, its silicone material is both BPA-free and heat-resistant, so you won’t have to worry about it melting mid-recipe.

Another thing to love: It makes cleaning up so much easier. Thanks to its drip pad, I don’t need to worry about accidentally covering my counter in sauce. As for cleaning the holder itself? This rest comes with a cleaning tool to get all of those nooks and crannies, but I’ve found that throwing it in the dishwasher gets the job done just fine. (Yes, this multi-spoon rest is dishwasher-safe, so I don’t have to worry about lifting a finger or sponge to get it looking good as new.) And, since it is sold as a set of two, I can easily swap out a dirty holder for a clean one after a marathon meal-prepping session.

After spending so much time in the kitchen, I really thought I had all of my cooking accessory bases covered. But a convenient spot to put everything so I don’t have to run around my kitchen looking for my tongs?! It’s been a small tweak that has made my time cooking much more efficient. (In fact, I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner.) If you’re looking to bring the same ease into your kitchen for just $9, I cannot recommend this find enough.