The Clever Way To Use IKEA's Raised Chopping Board To Make Clean Up Easier

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Who'da thunk that putting risers on your cutting boards would make post-prep clean-up so much easier? Well, IKEA did, for one. Enter the brand's STOLTHET Cutting Board. The top of the board looks like most cutting boards without a handle: rectangular ... functional ... not very exciting. It's the feet on the bottom that make it seem like the IKEA piece is taking a new step in evolution, kind of like when fish grew feet in the Paleozoic Era and became amphibious. Turns out that the addition of feet to something has always had long-reaching consequences. Fortunately for home gourmands, there's no need to wait until the neo-Jurassic Period appears to see the benefits of adding feet to their cutting board. They'll see the results first-hand the next time they chop vegetables and are ready to clean up the resulting mess.

If you're noticing signs it's time to replace the cutting boards in your kitchen, the STOLTHET is worth your consideration. The nearly 9-inch by 14-inch cutting board is made of bamboo and sits on risers that stand 2.5 inches high. Those dimensions are both tall enough and wide enough to slide a small container, like the Nordic Ware Naturals Eighth Sheet or a shallow bowl, underneath the board while you use it. Simply pull out the pan or bowl when it's time to clear the chopping board of food scraps. All it takes to make clean-up a breeze is a flick of a knife (or your hand) to push the food scraps into the waiting container below the rim of the board. The scraps can then be dumped into a bin to be used in homemade broth, fed to backyard chickens, or added to your compost pile.

The IKEA board might be the cutting-board equivalent of next-stage development. And while this cutting board hack does speak to an evolution in design, it also acknowledges that the design may not be finished yet. We're speaking about what happens when you cut into juicy items, like tomatoes or that big ribeye steak. Sure, the bins underneath will catch most of the scraps and probably even some of the juice, but liquid is tricky. It has a way of seeping into places you never expected, even in the best of circumstances.

You'll help your cleaning efforts out if you slide a larger grooved cutting board, like the Kitsure Grooved Bamboo Cutting Board, underneath the IKEA chopping board. Some cutting board manufacturers have carved grooves into the internal borders of cutting boards. This is for the express purpose of catching things like tomato juice and seeds, bovine meat fat, and chicken juice. In other words, the grooved feature catches all of the things that make cleaning up after chopping especially challenging. And layering your cutting boards like this means you get double the help with clean-up and a great reduction in mess — it could be one of the best hacks for a spotless kitchen. Where evolution has fallen short, DIYer ingenuity has filled in the gap.