11 Cool Kitchen Gadgets: The Best Kitchen Gadgets for 2026

I love me some guac, but the stuff expires while you’re looking at it. Eggshells stick to the egg like they’re paying rent. The ice cream is rock hard, and somehow I’m always the one who has to change the trash bag. Most kitchen annoyances are small. They just happen every single day.

That’s what this list of cool kitchen gadgets is for. These are the best kitchen gadgets I’d actually give counter space in 2026: tools that fix one specific problem and then get out of the way. Some I’ve used for years. Others are newer picks, and for those I’ll tell you what reviewers and the makers say instead of pretending I’ve tested them. Every item was re-checked for this update, and the ones that disappeared from the shops are gone from the list too.

Quick picks

• Best for dip lovers: Casabella Guac-Lock
• Most satisfying: The Negg egg peeler
• Best for small kitchens: Kuhn Rikon Pull Chop
• Best splurge: Ninja Swirl by CREAMi
• Best under-the-radar tool: Zeroll 1020 ice cream scoop

Casabella Guac-Lock – guacamole that stays green

So often I’ll buy fresh guacamole at the supermarket and toss half of it away the same day, because it turned brown in the fridge. Avocado browns when it touches air. The Guac-Lock removes the air.

You fill the container (it holds up to 24 ounces), clip the lid on with three clips and set the container on its “elevator.” Then you push down until the guacamole comes up to the hole in the lid, and close the last tab to seal it. Owners report their guac staying green for up to a week. It works for hummus, salsa and tzatziki too.

The con: it has more parts than a normal tub. Some owners say it’s messy to clean and fiddly to put back together after the dishwasher.

Who it’s for: anyone who makes a big batch of guac and can’t finish it in one sitting. If you only buy the single-serve cups, skip it.

The Negg – an egg peeler you shake

Deviled eggs for a party are great. Peeling twelve hard-boiled eggs for a party is not. The Negg is a small plastic capsule that peels them for you.

Put a boiled egg in the Negg, add a bit of water, snap on the cap and shake it a few times. Open it up and the egg slips out of its cracked shell. It’s so satisfying that I wouldn’t mind peeling dozens in one sitting. There are no batteries and no blades. The Negg is made in the USA from BPA-free plastic and comes in six colors.

The con: it’s one egg at a time. If you meal-prep 30 eggs every Sunday, a bowl of ice water and patience is still faster.

Who it’s for: people who boil a few eggs a week and hate picking shell bits off with their nails. Also a good cheap gift for the person who has everything.

Dreamfarm Supoon – the spoon that does four jobs

I wish more kitchen spoons were like the Supoon. It’s a non-stick silicone spoon from Australian brand Dreamfarm, and it replaces a handful of utensils in your drawer.

The edges are flexible, so it scrapes a pan clean like a spatula. The bowl scoops and serves. It has marks for a 5 ml teaspoon and a 15 ml tablespoon, so you can measure with it. And the handle is bent, so the spoon sits up on the counter with the dirty end in the air. No more sauce puddle next to the stove.

The con: it’s 11 inches long, which is handy for pots but a bit big for a small jar of spices.

Who it’s for: anyone who cooks one-pot meals and wants fewer utensils in the sink. Buy two. One will always be in the dishwasher.

Dreamfarm Garject – a garlic press that ejects the peel

Garlic presses have one job and one mess: the peel and pulp stuck inside afterwards. The Garject, also from Dreamfarm, fixes both. You don’t peel the cloves first. You drop them in, squeeze, and then push a button that shoots the peel straight into the bin. A built-in scraper pushes the minced garlic off the plate when you open it.

The standard model is chrome-plated zinc and takes up to three cloves at a time. The cheaper Garject Lite is nylon and takes two. Reviewers are mostly happy. One review calls it the best garlic press it tested, beating Zyliss and OXO. Others say very large cloves don’t press all the way through.

The con: it’s one of the most expensive garlic presses you can buy. For a tool that crushes garlic, that’s a lot.

Who it’s for: people who cook with garlic most nights and hate sticky fingers. If you use garlic once a month, a knife is fine.

Kuhn Rikon Pull Chop – a dicer you pull like a lawnmower

This is for when you don’t trust yourself with a proper chef’s knife, but you also don’t have the space or money for a food processor. The Pull Chop from Swiss brand Kuhn Rikon is a 2-cup bowl with blades inside and a pull cord on the lid.

Put in an onion, some herbs or a couple of tomatoes, close the lid and pull the string a few times. A few pulls give you a rough chop. Keep pulling and it gets finer, all the way to salsa. No plug, no noise.

The con: the capacity is small. Chopping for a big pot of chili means emptying and refilling a few times.

Who it’s for: small kitchens, students and anyone who cries over onions. It’s also a clean way to make pesto or salsa without dragging out the big machine.

Joseph Joseph Titan – a trash can with a built-in compactor

How come I’m always the lucky one that needs to replace the trash bag? At our place it’s a game: who can push the trash down furthest so they don’t have to take it out.

The Joseph Joseph Titan ends the game. It’s a trash can with a built-in compactor. You pull a lever and a plate squashes the trash, without your hands (or your foot, if you’re a crazy person) touching anything. Joseph Joseph says the 30-liter Titan holds up to three times more waste than a normal can of the same size. There’s a replaceable carbon filter for smells, and the can comes with a 10-year guarantee.

The con: three times the trash in one bag also means a much heavier bag to carry out. It’s also a lot more trash can than a basic pedal bin, in price and in parts.

Who it’s for: families and anyone with a small kitchen who takes the trash out too often.

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 – the rice cooker that thinks

As a lover of anything rice, the Zojirushi is an essential device in my kitchen. I’m not a Japanese mother who perfected her rice over decades, unfortunately. This machine gets closer than I ever will.

The NS-ZCC10 cooks up to 5.5 cups of uncooked rice. Its “Neuro Fuzzy” logic adjusts the temperature and cooking time as it goes. There are settings for white rice, sushi rice, brown, semi-brown, porridge, sweet rice, rinse-free and a quick cycle. A timer lets you set it in the morning and come home to rice. The keep-warm mode means dinner can be late.

The con: it’s big (about 10 x 13 x 8 inches) and it costs a lot more than a basic one-button cooker.

Who it’s for: people who eat rice several times a week. If you make rice twice a month, a cheap cooker or a pot is fine.

Zeroll 1020 – the ice cream scoop that doesn’t bend

You know the fight. A new tub of ice cream, fresh from the freezer, and a scoop that bends before the ice cream does. The Zeroll 1020 has been solving that since 1935.

The handle is filled with a heat-conducting fluid. It uses the warmth of your hand to warm the scoop just enough to glide through frozen ice cream. It’s one piece of aluminum with no springs or moving parts, and it’s made in the USA. The 1020 is the 2-ounce size. There’s more about it in our post on the ice cream scoop that works with rock-hard ice cream.

The con: it’s hand wash only. The dishwasher can damage the finish and the fluid inside, and then the magic is gone.

Who it’s for: anyone who eats ice cream straight from the freezer. It’s also a gift that sounds boring until someone uses it.

The Amazon listing we used to link is no longer available, but Zeroll sells the 1020 directly. See it at Zeroll

Tofuture Tofu Press – pressed tofu without the paper towels

If you eat tofu regularly, you know that pressing it between plates and a stack of cookbooks is a sad, wet ritual. The Tofuture is a three-part plastic box that does it in the fridge.

The tofu goes in the inner basket, the lid pulls down on elastic bands and clips in place, and the water drains into the outer container. There are three pressure levels, so you can gently drain silken tofu or squeeze firm tofu hard. It fits blocks from 8 to 16 ounces, and all parts go in the dishwasher. It replaces the bamboo press that used to be on this list. You can still read about that bamboo tofu press if you like the wood look.

The con: a 16-ounce block is the limit. Bigger blocks need the Tofuture Large.

Who it’s for: anyone who cooks tofu weekly and wants it crispy instead of spongy.

Ninja Swirl by CREAMi – soft serve from your countertop

The original Ninja CREAMi was the TikTok ice cream machine (we covered it here). The Swirl is the version that also does soft serve. You freeze a base in a pint for 24 hours, then the machine shaves and spins it into ice cream. With the Swirl you can also pull a handle and dispense soft serve straight into a cone.

It has 13 programs: scoopable ones like ice cream, gelato, sorbet and milkshake, plus soft serve ones like fruit whip, frozen custard and a high-protein “CreamiFit” mode. The pints, lids and paddle go in the dishwasher.

The con, according to reviewers: it’s big, it’s loud and there are more parts to clean than on the regular CREAMi. You also need to plan a day ahead, because the pint has to freeze first.

Who it’s for: families and protein-shake people who want soft serve at home. If you only want scoopable ice cream in big batches, reviewers point to the CREAMi Deluxe instead.

Mr. Pung – a CO2 plunger for clogged sinks

Where I used to dread the moment the sink wouldn’t drain, now I almost look forward to it. Almost. It means I get to use my Mr. Pung. This oddly shaped plunger from Korea takes a CO2 cartridge. You place it over the drain, press the button, and one blast of gas pushes the blockage through.

The kitchen version is compact enough to sit in the cabinet under the sink, locked and loaded. The full story is in our Mr. Pung post.

The con: you need to keep buying CO2 cartridges. And some buyers worry about blasting pressurized gas into old or fragile pipes, so read the instructions before your first shot.

Who it’s for: anyone whose kitchen sink clogs with grease and food a few times a year.

How to choose kitchen gadgets that won’t end up in a drawer

• Start with an annoyance you have every week. A gadget that fixes a daily problem (trash, eggs, garlic) gets used. A gadget for a once-a-year dish gets lost.
• Check how it’s cleaned. Dishwasher-safe beats hand wash for anything you use daily. The Zeroll is the exception worth making.
• Count the parts. Fewer parts means less to lose and less to reassemble. The Negg and Supoon win here. The Guac-Lock and Ninja Swirl don’t.
• Measure your counter. Rice cookers, trash compactors and ice cream machines are big. Know where they’ll live before you order.
• Buy the boring upgrade first. A good scoop or spoon you use daily beats a flashy machine you use twice.

FAQ

What is the most useful kitchen gadget?

For most people it’s the one that saves time every day. In this list that’s the Supoon for cooking, the Titan for trash and the Pull Chop for chopping. The Negg and Guac-Lock are more specific, but brilliant if you eat eggs or guac often.

Are kitchen gadgets worth it for small kitchens?

Yes, if they replace something. The Supoon replaces a spatula, a ladle and measuring spoons. The Pull Chop replaces a food processor for small jobs. Skip single-use gadgets that need their own shelf.

What’s a good kitchen gadget gift?

The Negg, the Zeroll scoop and the Garject are small, affordable and useful, which is exactly what a good gift is. For a bigger present, the Ninja Swirl makes the whole family happy (until someone has to clean it).

That’s the list. And if you like your kitchen a lot spicier, our roundup of the spiciest snacks in the world pairs well with that guacamole.