The 6 Oxo Products You Absolutely Need, According to Our Staffers

Some kitchen products enter your life like a marching band. They promise to spiralize your zucchini, foam your milk, dice your onions, sing you a lullaby, and possibly file your taxes. Then there are OXO products: quiet, practical, ergonomic little heroes that show up, do the job, and make you wonder why every other tool in your drawer has been making dinner feel like a hand-strengthening exercise designed by a villain.

OXO has built its reputation on thoughtfully designed kitchen tools, especially the Good Grips line, which is known for comfortable handles, non-slip details, and a friendly “you’ve got this” approach to everyday cooking. The brand’s origin story is part of the charm: the company was created with accessibility and ease of use in mind, and that design philosophy still shows up in tools that feel better in the hand than their cheaper, flimsier cousins.

After comparing staff-favorite picks, current product details, and real-world kitchen use cases, we narrowed the list to six OXO products that earn their cabinet space. These are not novelty gadgets that require a 12-step explanation and a drawer you do not have. They are the useful ones: the peeler you reach for without thinking, the tongs that behave like an extension of your hand, the cutting board that stays put, and the ice tray that does not require a wrestling match.

Why OXO Products Keep Winning Over Home Cooks

The best OXO kitchen tools tend to solve small annoyances. Not dramatic, movie-trailer-level problemsjust the little things that make cooking more irritating than it needs to be. A slippery handle. A cutting board that skates across the counter. Ice cubes that launch themselves onto the floor like tiny frozen escape artists. A peeler that makes one potato feel like a legal punishment.

OXO’s advantage is that it pays attention to those details. The brand often combines soft, non-slip grips with durable materials and easy-clean designs. That combination matters because most home cooking is not glamorous. It is Tuesday. You are hungry. The chicken is almost done. Someone has asked what smells “weird.” Your tools should not add drama to the plot.

Below are the six OXO products our staffers would replace immediately if they disappeared from the kitchen. We selected them for usefulness, comfort, durability, and how often they solve a real problem without demanding applause.

1. OXO Good Grips Wooden Citrus Reamer

Best for quick citrus juice without dragging out a machine

A citrus reamer is one of those tools that looks almost too simple. It is basically a ridged wooden cone with a handle. No motor. No app. No Wi-Fi password. And yet, when you need fresh lemon juice for vinaigrette, lime juice for tacos, or orange juice for a glaze, it suddenly becomes the most sensible object in the room.

The OXO Good Grips Wooden Citrus Reamer is made from solid beechwood, a material that works well with acidic fruits and feels sturdy in the hand. The pointed tip digs into the fruit, while the ridges help extract juice quickly. It is compact, easy to rinse, and much less annoying than trying to squeeze a lemon with one hand while seeds parachute directly into your salad dressing.

This is the pick for cooks who like fresh flavor but do not want another bulky appliance. Use it for lemons, limes, oranges, and small grapefruits. It shines in marinades, cocktails, pan sauces, lemonade, salsa, and baking. A splash of fresh citrus can wake up roasted vegetables, balance a rich pasta dish, or make a store-bought rotisserie chicken taste like you had a plan all along.

Why staffers love it

It makes fresh juice feel effortless. There is no setup, no complicated cleaning, and no drawer full of parts that look like they came from a tiny spaceship. It is also surprisingly satisfying to use. Twist, squeeze, done. The only danger is becoming the person who says, “This needs a little lemon,” at every meal. Honestly, there are worse identities.

2. OXO Good Grips Swivel Vegetable Peeler

Best everyday peeler for potatoes, carrots, apples, and tough skins

The OXO Good Grips Swivel Vegetable Peeler is one of the brand’s most iconic tools for a reason. A good peeler should feel sharp, steady, and comfortable. A bad peeler turns a carrot into a whittling project and your hand into a complaint department.

This peeler uses sharp Japanese stainless steel blades that swivel as you move, helping the blade follow the curves of fruits and vegetables. The soft, non-slip handle is designed for comfort during repetitive use, and the built-in potato eyer lets you remove blemishes without hacking away half the potato like you are settling a grudge.

It works well on common prep jobs such as peeling potatoes, carrots, apples, cucumbers, zucchini, and citrus. It is especially useful when you are prepping a lot at once, like potatoes for mashed potatoes or apples for pie. The swivel action helps create smoother, more efficient strokes, while the handle makes the job easier on your hands.

Why staffers love it

It is the kind of tool you stop noticing because it simply works. That is the highest compliment a peeler can receive. It feels secure, the blade glides cleanly, and it does not punish you for making soup from scratch. A good vegetable peeler is not glamorous, but neither is a reliable toothbrush, and you would be pretty upset if yours suddenly vanished.

3. OXO Good Grips Plastic Carving & Cutting Board

Best cutting board for stability, everyday prep, and juicy foods

A cutting board should have two basic manners: stay still and keep mess contained. The OXO Good Grips Plastic Carving & Cutting Board handles both better than many basic boards. It has non-slip edges and feet that help keep it steady while you chop, slice, carve, or dice. That stability is not just convenient; it makes prep feel safer and more controlled.

The board is double-sided, with one side for produce and another grooved side designed for meat. The grooves and drip-catching edges help manage juices from roasts, poultry, tomatoes, watermelon, and anything else determined to flood your counter. Easy-pour corners make it simpler to drain liquid without performing the awkward “tilt and pray” move over the sink.

Because it is plastic, it is practical for everyday use and easier to sanitize than many porous surfaces. It is also large enough for serious prep without being so massive that washing it feels like bathing a cafeteria tray. Use it for chopping vegetables, slicing bread, carving chicken, prepping fruit, or building sandwiches that have gotten emotionally ambitious.

Why staffers love it

It feels dependable. The surface gives you enough room, the board does not slide around, and the juice groove saves your counter from becoming a crime scene after carving roast chicken. It is not the flashiest item on the list, but it may be one of the most used. In a working kitchen, boring and reliable is a love language.

4. OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop

Best for hard ice cream and dessert emergencies

Ice cream is supposed to be comforting. Unfortunately, some scoops make you feel like you are trying to mine dessert from a glacier. The OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop is designed with a sturdy stainless steel head and a comfortable, non-slip grip that helps you dig into firm ice cream without bending, chipping, or making dramatic noises over the freezer.

The scoop’s shape helps it glide through hard ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. The stainless steel head is built to resist chipping, pitting, and discoloration, which is useful if your household treats ice cream as a food group rather than an occasional treat. It also feels balanced in the hand, which matters more than you think when the pint is frozen solid and everyone is pretending to be patient.

Use it for classic scoops, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches, frozen yogurt bowls, and serving sorbet between courses if you are feeling fancy. It can also help portion cookie dough or other soft mixtures in a pinch, though dedicated scoops are better for exact baking measurements.

Why staffers love it

It turns dessert from a struggle into a scoop-and-smile operation. The handle is comfortable, the head feels strong, and it makes clean, satisfying portions. Also, let us be honest: any tool that gets you to ice cream faster deserves respect.

5. OXO Good Grips Ice Cube Tray

Best small upgrade for better everyday drinks

An ice cube tray sounds like the least exciting kitchen product possible until you use a bad one. Then suddenly you are twisting plastic, cracking corners, launching cubes across the floor, and wondering if warm lemonade is actually a lifestyle choice. The OXO Good Grips Ice Cube Tray fixes several of those tiny freezer frustrations.

The tray uses a rounded cube shape that releases more easily than traditional sharp-edged cubes. That means you can pop out one cube without freeing the entire tray in a frozen avalanche. The sliding lid helps protect ice from freezer odors, lets you uncover only the cubes you need, and makes the tray stackable. It is also BPA-free and top-rack dishwasher safe.

This tray is ideal for everyday water, iced coffee, tea, lemonade, smoothies, and cocktails. The lid is especially helpful if your freezer contains a rotating cast of leftovers, frozen vegetables, mystery containers, and one bag of peas that has been there since the previous administration.

Why staffers love it

It is a small luxury that makes daily life smoother. You do not need a premium ice tray, just like you do not need matching socks. But once you have one that stacks neatly, releases cubes easily, and keeps freezer smells away, it becomes difficult to go back to the chaotic tray that dumps twelve cubes when you needed two.

6. OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Tongs with Silicone Heads

Best all-purpose tongs for nonstick cookware and everyday cooking

Kitchen tongs are not optional. They are the hand extension every cook needs for turning chicken, tossing pasta, grabbing roasted vegetables, lifting corn, serving salad, flipping bacon, and rescuing toast when you refuse to admit the toaster betrayed you. The OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Tongs with Silicone Heads are especially useful because they combine stainless steel strength with silicone heads that are friendly to nonstick and ceramic cookware.

The silicone heads are heat resistant and designed to protect delicate cooking surfaces from scratches. The tongs lock closed for storage, which means they will not spring open in your drawer like a startled crab. They also have enough tension to feel controlled without making your hand tired during longer cooking sessions.

The 12-inch size is the sweet spot for most home cooks. It gives you distance from heat while still offering enough control for stovetop tasks. Use them for grilling, sautéing, tossing noodles, serving roasted potatoes, flipping fish, and moving food from sheet pan to plate. If you cook with nonstick pans, silicone-headed tongs are a smart choice because they reduce the risk of scratching the coating.

Why staffers love it

They are comfortable, versatile, and practical. The silicone heads grip food without tearing it apart, and the locking mechanism makes storage simple. They are not indestructiblesilicone can wear over time with heavy usebut for everyday cooking, they are one of the easiest OXO products to recommend.

How to Choose the Right OXO Products for Your Kitchen

The best OXO products are the ones that solve a problem you actually have. Do not buy a citrus reamer if the last lemon you touched was decorative. Do not buy an ice cream scoop if your freezer is a responsible adult’s freezer full of broth and spinach. But if you cook even a few times a week, these six tools cover a surprising amount of kitchen territory.

Start with your pain points. If prep work annoys you, get the swivel peeler and cutting board first. If you cook dinner regularly, choose the silicone tongs. If you make drinks, smoothies, or iced coffee, upgrade the ice cube tray. If you love bright flavors, the citrus reamer will earn its tiny footprint. If dessert is your love language, the stainless steel ice cream scoop is basically emotional support with a handle.

Also consider storage and cleaning. One reason these picks stand out is that they are not huge. The peeler, reamer, scoop, and tongs fit easily into drawers. The cutting board needs more space, but it replaces flimsy boards that slide around. The ice cube tray stacks neatly, which matters if your freezer is already playing Tetris.

Staff-Style Experience Notes: Living with These OXO Favorites

After spending time with these kinds of tools in real kitchens, the common theme is not that OXO makes cooking magical. It does something better: it removes friction. That may sound small, but small irritations are what make people avoid cooking. You do not quit weeknight dinner because one onion is difficult. You quit because the board slides, the peeler is dull, the tongs pinch your palm, the lemon seeds fall into the sauce, and then the ice tray cracks like it has personal issues.

The swivel peeler is the clearest example. A sharp, comfortable peeler changes the rhythm of prep. Potatoes become fast. Carrots become tidy. Apples for a crisp no longer feel like a group project. The built-in potato eyer is a tiny feature, but it prevents waste and keeps the process moving. You are not switching tools or using the corner of a knife like someone auditioning for a kitchen safety video.

The cutting board earns loyalty more slowly. At first, it is just a board. Then you carve a roast chicken and realize the juices stayed mostly where they belonged. You chop onions and the board does not skate across the counter. You rinse it, stand it up, and move on. Over time, that steadiness becomes the reason you keep reaching for it. A cutting board is not supposed to be exciting. It is supposed to be there for you, like a reliable friend who owns a label maker.

The 12-inch silicone tongs are the tool that seems to migrate into every meal. They flip chicken thighs, toss green beans, pull pasta from the pot, serve salad, and move toast when fingers are a bad idea. The silicone heads are especially helpful with nonstick pans because they feel gentler than bare metal. They are also easier on delicate foods like salmon or roasted vegetables, where aggressive metal edges can shred the thing you were trying to serve attractively.

The wooden citrus reamer is a sleeper hit. People often assume they can just squeeze citrus by hand, and yes, they can. People can also write emails on a phone with one thumb, but that does not make it pleasant. The reamer extracts more juice with less effort, and it makes fresh citrus feel casual. Once it is nearby, you start adding lemon to soup, lime to beans, orange to glazes, and grapefruit to vinaigrettes. Your food gets brighter, and you get to act like it was your culinary genius rather than a $10-ish tool doing quiet work.

The ice cube tray is another quality-of-life upgrade. The lid matters. It keeps freezer odors away, makes stacking easier, and stops cubes from absorbing the personality of frozen leftovers. The rounded cube shape also reduces the classic ice-tray fight where you twist too hard and accidentally free every cube in a single dramatic event. This is not essential in the survival sense, but it is essential in the “why is my kitchen less annoying now?” sense.

The ice cream scoop, meanwhile, is pure joy disguised as hardware. A solid scoop saves your wrist and helps you serve neat portions even when the pint is stubbornly frozen. It is especially nice when serving guests, children, or yourself at 10:37 p.m. while standing in the kitchen and pretending a bowl would be too formal. A good scoop makes dessert feel intentional, even when the plan was simply “open freezer, locate happiness.”

What stands out across all six products is that they do not demand special knowledge. They are friendly to beginners but still useful for confident cooks. That is the sweet spot. A new cook gets tools that make basic tasks easier, while an experienced cook appreciates the comfort, durability, and thoughtful design details. None of these items will turn a person into a chef overnight, but they can make cooking feel less like a chore and more like a series of manageable, satisfying steps.

Final Verdict: Which OXO Product Should You Buy First?

If you want the most universally useful pick, start with the OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Tongs with Silicone Heads. Tongs are useful in almost every kitchen, and the silicone heads make them especially practical for modern cookware. If prep work is your biggest annoyance, start with the Swivel Vegetable Peeler and the Carving & Cutting Board. Together, they make the early stages of cooking faster, safer, and cleaner.

For small upgrades that make daily life more pleasant, choose the Ice Cube Tray and Wooden Citrus Reamer. They are compact, affordable, and surprisingly high-impact. For dessert lovers, the Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop is the obvious move. It may not be the most “necessary” kitchen tool in a strict sense, but emotionally? Extremely necessary.

The best OXO products succeed because they respect the reality of home cooking. They are comfortable, practical, and built around the little tasks people repeat every day. And when a tool makes those tasks easier, it earns its spotnot in the gadget graveyard, but in the front of the drawer.

Note: Product details, use cases, and editorial recommendations in this article are synthesized from current publicly available product information and reputable U.S. kitchen editorial sources. Prices, availability, and product specifications may change over time, so readers should confirm current details before purchasing.