I have a confession to make. I love kitchen gadgets. Sure, I’m all about minimalism and function when it comes to my kitchen, but there are some cooking tasks that your basic knives, pots and pans, and cutting boards aren’t so great for. For those, you need kitchen rockstars. Here are 13 of my favorite kitchen gadgets I use almost daily to make cooking a quick meal as stress-free as possible.

The Kitchen Gadgets I Use Every Day

1. I love these rubber grippy jar openers because they allow me to actually open jars without having to call my husband in to do it for me.

2. I never ever ever squeeze a lemon with my hands because I hate fishing out the seeds. This citrus squeezer tool gets all the juice out without the mess.

3. I can mince garlic, but with a garlic press tool, I don’t even need a knife at all. I can have fresh minced garlic in literally seconds.

4 & 5. I haven’t touched a fabric pot holder in years. I use these silicone “claws” exclusively for pots and pans, and these silicone trivets for protecting my table and countertops.

6. We keep a small dry erase board on the fridge for reminders, shopping lists, and cute little love notes, and we update it almost every single day. I also use it for cleaning to-dos, because crossing off tasks seems so satisfying.

7. We saw the Cupboard Pro on Shark Tank and immediately got on the waitlist for it’s relaunch. We waited almost 4 months for it to finally ship, but it was so worth it. This is the BEST cutting board ever, and I love the detachable tray for scraps. I use this board at least twice a day.

8. The Pioneer Woman Signature Knife is my go-to knife for almost everything. I love it so much I bought an extra one that’s still in the package, just in case something ever happened to my current one. You used to be able to buy it individually, but now the only way to get it is by buying the full Pioneer Woman Knife Set. The set is totally worth it though. All her knives are fantastic.

9. I’m all about a minimalist kitchen, and these adjustable measuring spoons allow me to store just one measuring spoon versus all the different sizes. You can buy the cup version, too, but it only goes to half a cup so I decided to skip it.

10. If you haven’t jumped on the kitchen shears bandwagon yet, now is the time to embrace it. I keep one set for meats and one for veggies and flowers. They’re great for non-precise cuts like making fajita meats, chopped chives for potatoes, cutting open food packaging, and trimming flowers and veggies from the garden. Plus they’re dishwasher safe! I recommend buying two different colors so you can keep a dedicated meat pair.

11. I don’t use an immersion blender every day, but I do use it weekly. I have a great Ninja blender that I love, but it’s bulky, heavy, and hard to clean. Most of the time when I need to blend something, I just use the immersion blender instead. I can just pop the head into the dishwasher and there’s no extra pieces to wash or blades to accidentally cut myself on.

Two More Things I Love

I also like to keep this glasses holder and one of these tasting bowls by the stove for when I cook. I take my glasses off when I make pasta and sauces because they fog up constantly, and having a glasses holder is a good way to make sure they don’t get scratched when I’m flinging things around on the counters.

And the little bowl is the perfect place to put my wedding rings when I’m working with meat. If I take off my rings to pat out mini meatloaves, my rings are safe and sound in a bowl, so there’s no accidental drain rescues. Plus they camouflage on the granite counters and make it hard to see them, even in plain sight.