We all know how revolutionary mobile phones have been. Many of us look back to the 1990s (if you’re old enough) wondering how we ever managed to find people or work out where to go in a new place.

The same is true in the kitchen when it comes to certain gadgets. Here are some kitchen items you’ll never understand how you managed to live without.

The Garlic Twist

Chopping up fresh garlic is a massive hassle. It makes your hand stink for a start, and it’s incredibly difficult to get all the pieces small enough so that nobody gets a big chunk of garlic when they’re eating. Most of us give up and buy some sort of store-bought paste when all the garlic is already crushed up into a pulp. But the problem with lazy garlic and squeeze tubes is that you lose flavor. So what’s the solution?

According to Mumsnet, it’s the garlic twist, a sort of rotor-style cutter that pulps the garlic into small chunks with a few twists. The teeth on the inside chop the garlic into small pieces.

The Universal Knife Block

Regular knife blocks are designed to go with specific knives so if one of your old knives breaks then you’re stuck with an ugly empty hole in your block. But now a company called My MIL has come up with a knife block design that doesn’t rely on a particular set of knives. Instead, it’s a universal knife block and will work with practically any knife size or shape. The reason is that the block itself is filled with a mass of spaghetti-like filaments. Each of these filaments presses against all the other filaments in the block. When a knife is inserted, these threads push against the blade, keeping it in place no matter what size it is. You don’t even have to aim.

The Home Coffee Brewer

Pixabay

Let’s face it, instant coffee is rubbish and only something that we do out of sheer desperation in the morning. But most home coffee kits are still lackluster compared to what you get in the coffee shop. Instead of relying on filters, many people are moving over to pour over brewing, a superior method for making your morning cup of Joe. It’s a good idea to spend some time finding out what’s the best pour over coffee maker on the market, as the quality varies quite substantially. But the key benefit here is that these gadgets take away the need to use a filter, enhancing the flavor of the drink.

The Cling Film Dispenser

Cling film is great if you want to cover food and keep it fresh on the kitchen side. But handling cling film with your bare hands is an ordeal. Now, though, companies have come up with a solution: it’s called a wrapmaster dispenser, and it lets you dispense cling film without using your hands. Just drag it over whatever needs covering and then chop if off at the end: it’s that simple. No more having to untangle sheets of cling film for hours on end.