The kitchen is arguably the most dangerous room in the house. Between hot pans, boiling water, electric appliances on wet countertops, sharp knives, and literal fire, there are many potential accidents waiting to happen. Don’t get us wrong — the kitchen is also often the most joyfully crowded, soul-nourishing, blissfully delicious room in the house. And sometimes, it’s where the wine lives. Trust us, we have no problem with the kitchen. It’s just that there’s safety to consider.

If you’ve ever nicked yourself on a sharp blade, or accidentally poured boiling water onto your arms instead of into the sink, these clever items on Amazon are well worth your attention. From knife guards to special colanders, these items are designed to keep you safe and make your kitchen a more enjoyable space. 

Kitchen Tools That Keep You Safe

• Jayvar Food Slicer Assistant Tool, $10, originally $16
• Jytuul Herb Shears, $10
• Kitchen Gizmo Clip-On Colander, $14
• Mandolin Food Safety Holder, $8
• Daisyhome Cord Organizer, $7
• Dowellife Cut Resistant Gloves, $10, originally $13
• Gemox Stainless Steel Finger Guard, $6
• Cat Tongue Grips Cutting Board Grip, $13
• Fullstar Vegetable Chopper, $20, originally $23
• Ergo Chef Knife Guard Set, $16
• Humanfun Jar Opener, $8, originally $13

Jayvar Food Slicer Assistant Tool

My knife skills course was scheduled immediately after our bar studies and wine tasting course at culinary school. I’ll never understand the logic in that arrangement. Needless to say, there were quite a few alcohol-fueled knife accidents in my class that year. 

While knife skills like the claw and pinch grip are important skills, that lesson often comes at the expense of a few sliced fingertips, especially when you’ve been tasting too much wine. With this food slicer assistant tool, your fingers never need to come in contact with the ingredient you’re slicing. Simply puncture your ingredient with this handy tool, then slice through the spaces between the slats for perfectly safe slicing every time.

Jytuul Herb Shears

Fresh herbs can be tricky to chop, especially when trying to achieve fancier cuts like chiffonade. Leaves might be wet and slippery, and there isn’t much thickness so that you can tell your knife is in the right place. Properly chopping fresh herbs with a knife takes more finesse than some of us have, which is why we love these shears from Jytuul. Made from stainless steel, these shears have five blades that make it easy to work with that bunch of cilantro. All the guacamole, none of the cut fingers.

Kitchen Gizmo Clip-On Colander

It’s a familiar scene: you’ve placed your best colander in the sink and returned with a screaming pot full of cooked pasta and devilishly hot water. You start to pour, but the colander shifts in the sink, and you’re frantically trying to adjust it with your elbow mid-pour as boiling water has its way with your hands and arms. You’re drenched and burned, and only half of your rigatoni actually made it into the colander. It’s time for a change.

With its clever design, this clip-on colander from Kitchen Gizmo saves you all of the pain and embarrassment. Made to fit just about any size or shape pot you have, this colander clips on and stays put, allowing you to drain your pasta safely and keep all that delicious rigatoni. 

Mandolin Food Safety Holder

A mandolin is one of my very favorite cooking tools. But there’s nothing worse than the building pressure of an ingredient steadily shrinking as your fingertips get closer and closer to the wall of blades with every pass. It’s anxiety-inducing, to say the least, especially if you’ve ever shaved off a chunk of your skin in addition to your russet potato slices.

This little gadget from Weicoca takes all of that mandolin-slicing anxiety away by virtuously holding the ingredient you’re slicing for you and covering your fingers at the same time. Stick your vegetable onto the guard’s spikes and slice away, knowing your fingertips are safe from harm.

Daisyhome Cord Organizer

The kitchen can be a dangerous place for more reasons than the obvious knives and fire. Take, for example, the frightening countertop combination of water and electricity. We tend to think about this danger more often in the bathroom, being intensely careful never to get our hair dryers too close to running water. However, the kitchen is arguably an even more dangerous place when it comes to this concern. Between the toaster, the stand mixer, the coffee machine, and the microwave, there are a lot of cords that can become tangled or dangerously close to the sink. 

That’s why these cord organizers from Daisyhome are a smart choice. Keep your cords out of harm’s way by tidily wrapping them around these convenient organizers that stick easily onto the backs of all of your countertop appliances.

Dowellife Cut Resistant Gloves

Years ago, when we were fresh out of culinary school, my chef husband worked for a large food corporation that required all their cooks to wear these gloves. Every day he would come home and complain about having to wear these gloves and roll his eyes whenever they were brought up in conversation. But, here’s the thing — in the entire time he worked there, not a single one of the hundreds of employees ever suffered a knife-related injury. In commercial kitchens, that’s a huge deal. 

We admit that cut gloves like these aren’t the most attractive, or always the most convenient item in the kitchen, but if your main concern is safety, you couldn’t make a better choice than these gloves from Dowellife. Made from a high-performance, cut-resistant material, these gloves are designed to keep you safe anytime you’re near a blade in the kitchen. No matter if you’re slicing steak, peeling vegetables, or shucking oysters, your hands will be completely protected.

Gemox Stainless Steel Finger Guard

If you want to protect your fingers from harm’s way, Gemlox has you covered. This stainless steel finger guard slips easily onto the middle finger and blocks your knife’s blade from your skin as you chop and dice. Size adjustable and made for either right or left-hand use, this finger guard will keep you safe and can be subtly stored easily and discreetly in any kitchen drawer. 

Cat Tongue Grips Cutting Board Grip

One of the first tricks I was taught when I was learning to cook was to always put a wet paper towel underneath my cutting board to prevent it from slipping. While keeping your cutting board in place is indeed a very important thing to do to stay safe in the kitchen, constantly using paper towels for this purpose can be wasteful. That’s why I love this Gription Pad from Cat Tongue Grips. Just place the pad underneath your cutting board before you begin slicing and dicing, and it will stay securely in place.

Fullstar Vegetable Chopper

I used to be skeptical about choppers. I believed true knife skills meant you didn’t need one but after seeing them on TikTok, I decided to give them a try — and I’m thrilled I did! These handy gadgets are perfect for quickly preparing salads without needing to break out the knives and they save a lot of time while also keeping your fingers safe. This vegetable chopper from Fullstar is made from hard plastic and rust-resistant blades that are dishwasher-safe and made to last.

Ergo Chef Knife Guard Set

If you’re anything like me, your kitchen drawer can be a bit of a mess. It’s a potentially dangerous mess if (like me) you happen to have a few loose knives in the drawer instead of in a tidy knife block where they belong. Thankfully, these knife guards from Ergo Chef are here for those of us who aren’t always as careful as we ought to be. Available in Black, Red, and Multicolor, these plastic shields easily slip onto just about any blade and keep hands safe when rifling through the kitchen drawer. 

Humanfun Jar Opener

Although I initially felt a bit taken aback by Amazon’s description of this product as a “jar opener for weak hands,” I can’t deny its usefulness or nearly perfect reviews. Making easy work of hard-to-open jars and bottles, this little gadget keeps hands safe from strain and minds safe from frustration caused by stubborn jars and bottles. This handy tool easily opens jars of many sizes and comes with an additional 5-in-1 bottle opener and a jar opener gripper pad. Take that, pickle jar.