Why You Really Need To Buy An Oversized Cutting Board

When you're making a meal with a lot of ingredients that require chopping, cutting, crafting, seasoning, and mixing, you're going to have a lot of food on your kitchen counters that can leave behind stains and messes, or even get contaminated by those surfaces. Thankfully, the cutting board was invented so that you can use one as a workstation to protect your food and kitchen surfaces from each other. But sometimes a small or average-sized cutting board just isn't big enough to give you the amount of space you need to comfortably and safely prepare your dishes while also keeping messy ingredients off your kitchen counters. This is precisely why you should purchase one of the largest cutting boards that you can find.

The standard size of a cutting board is 12 inches by 18 inches. By using a cutting board that is larger than that and still rests safely on your kitchen counter or table, you can comfortably prepare your meals while preventing their ingredients from coming into contact with kitchen surfaces. This will protect your food from becoming tainted, minimize the chances of your kitchen surfaces becoming blemished, and significantly reduce cleanup after cooking because your kitchen counter or table should be kept relatively mess-free. This is why buying a supersized cutting board is one of the best meal prep hacks. So how else can an extra large cutting board make your life easier in the kitchen?

If you need to make several dishes simultaneously, using a larger cutting board to prep and build the dishes can be incredibly convenient because a larger board can provide you with enough room to tend to each of those dishes on a single workspace. Larger cutting boards are also one of the best types of boards for cutting meats, especially bulky meats such as hams, turkeys, and chickens. Bigger cutting boards also can provide enough surface area for you to safely rest your sharp kitchen tools on them while meal-prepping or cooking.

A larger-sized cutting board doesn't just apply to its length and width. Its thickness matters as well. According to Home Depot, the optimal thickness for a cutting board is 1¼ inch to 2 inches. Thicker cutting boards will typically last longer than thinner boards, and they are less likely to shift when you are slicing foods on them. 

In a Reddit thread titled "Huge cutting board worth it for home-cook?," some commenters shared why they love using their extra-large cutting boards. One user revealed that their cutting board helped them compensate for a lack of counter space in their kitchen, writing "I don't have very much counter space and I love mine. I'm able to put it over the sink to have another surface to put things if needed."

Another Redditor mentioned that extra-large cutting boards are even convenient for those with a considerable amount of kitchen counter space. The user posted "Some people with enough counter space just keep their big cutting board on a certain counter permanently. Make a sort of 'prep station' out of the area. Keep your knives, prep bowls, etc in that area." 

The extra room for ingredients and the expansion of limited counter space are terrific reasons to go out and get yourself an oversized cutting board so you can enjoy all of its benefits. When you're shopping for that big cutting board, make sure you also pay attention to the material the board is made from. Spoiler alert: Wooden cutting boards look better and last longer than plastic boards — but need a lot more maintenance.