Let me start off by mentioning that I spent a few minutes considering what to call the contraption that’s titled in this post. I went back and forth between “magnetic knife holder”, which is what I always had known it as, and “magnetic utensil holder”, which is clearly what I went with.
I always heard of this marketed as a knife holder and thus thought of it as a luxury item, kind of in the same mental category as a knife block. Either way, these were always both things that I figured I’d never “need” only looked kind of nice to display knives. I’m still of that opinion for the knife block. Who needs a dozen specialty knives, a handful of which are probably steak knives? Unless you’re a professional chef, or want to become at least an amateur chef, I can’t see the need for so many knives. I’m happy with just a few good knives: one large for cutting large things, one small for everyday use (and maybe down the road a maximum of 2 steak knives…maybe).
Knife Block out the way, now let’s talk about the wall-mounted Magnetic Utensil Holder. What use could it possibly have?
- The obvious: you can put knives on it.
This means that they’re out of the cutlery drawer and arguably in a safer spot. When I had all the knives in the cutlery drawer, it took a bit of maneuvering to get my knives out without poking myself. Now when I reach for a knife in there, at worst it’s a dulled butter knife. So far putting knives on the magnet is +1 point for safety. - It lets me store my knives in a location that is most convenient to where I’m cutting most.
I do not cut on the counter above the cutlery drawer. I think that’s mainly because that spot is a high-traffic area during mealtime. Between setting the table and grabbing random spatulas or other things while cooking, that spot is definitely not out of the way…and out of the way is exactly where I want to be when I’m cutting things with my sharp knives. - It does look quite nice.
Yes, since putting this up on my kitchen wall, I have definitely admired how it looks. That’s great. It lived up to the expectation of being an elegant kitchen add-on. As a major bonus, it doesn’t take up any counter space. - It lets me put a lot of other handy things on it.
As I mentioned above, I only really use 2 knives, so I had a lot of extra space on the magnet. I quickly realized that it’s a perfect spot for my mini-whisks. (I have 4 mini whisks and I’ve definitely been glad to have so many during some busy baking weekends when I was behind on running the dishwasher.) It’s also perfect for my cheese slicer! Originally, I put these extra things on because they looked quite neat, but soon I realized that having these odd-shaped tools out of the cutlery drawer also freed up a lot of space in there. The cheese slicer and whisks definitely cluttered up the cutlery, but now they’re out of the way in their new home. - Attaching it was easy!
At first I wasn’t exactly sure how to attach this to the wall, but with only a few small 3M adhesive strips (which will have their own blog post coming soon), it was a breeze. - It’s durable.
It’s such a simple thing and it’s well built. I can’t see myself ever needing to replace this. I can’t see how it would ever break either? It’s just a giant magnetic flat slab.
So, is this something that I never knew I needed and now can’t live without? This definitely fits the criteria.
- It’s something that I use all the time.
I legitimately use this several times each day whenever I need my small knife. - It has only had a positive impact on things.
The knives are safely out of the way. The cutlery drawer is tidier. Win-win. - It looks elegant.
It’s a nice thing to look at and brings me some joy.
All and all, I have zero complaints and zero downsides for this. Usually I can at least find some flip side of the coin worth mentioning, but I haven’t been able to find anything that I’m disappointed with about this. It doesn’t even take up any counter real estate. Moving forward, I can’t see myself ever having a kitchen without this, so yes, this definitely meets the criteria.
