You know how kitchen gadgets were designed to make our life easier?

Well, apparently one of the most common food tools – the humble potato peeler – hasn’t been used to its full potential.

In fact, we’ve pretty much been using it incorrectly our whole lives. 

That’s right. While you might have thought that your peeler was just ~a little wobbly~ (it was $1.75 from Kmart, after all), it’s actually been designed that way.

And understanding why could just be the key to speedier potato prep.

The peeler’s loose blade means it can swivel back and forth, allowing you to glide the peeler both up AND down the potato.

Yep, it’s not a one-way street. Instead of swiping the peeler in one direction, lifting it off the veg, and then bringing it back to the top and starting over, you can just go up and down. 

It’s actually MULTI-DIRECTIONAL. ????

We first saw the trick in this TikTok, from user @jenniabs3. She demonstrates the hack with ultimate efficiency, it’s almost mesmerizing. 

“Fun kitchen hack!” she begins.

Continuing, she explains: “Did you know the reason why potato peelers swivel back and forth is so that you can not only go down but forward when you’re peeling so that you can peel the entire thing super fast? Without having to actually lift up the peeler off of the vegetable.”

So obviously we had to try the hack out for ourselves.

We put our old-school methods away for a second and gave the “proper” way a go and can confirm it totally works!

Lots of commenters under the video were also left shocked. 

“I always got mad ’cause I thought mine was just loose,” someone wrote. 

“This is why we need cooking classes back in high school. How am I just finding out about this now at 26? another pointed out.

And someone else joked, “Seriously questioning everything I do in life right now.”

A few commenters claimed that this hack could potentially cause people to cut themselves and we kind of agree. It’s a little more of an effort trying to control where the blade goes and how to place your fingers for the upward motion. 

Jenn even made a follow-up video addressing the safety concerns and said: “It’s literally impossible to cut yourself by doing it my way because you’re never really lifting the blade off of the potato so you’re not actually putting the blade in a position to cut you.

“But if you do it in the old way, you pick the blade up, you put it back down, you pick it up, put it down – it gives you an opportunity to accidentally miss and cut your skin.

“If you are a klutz in the kitchen or just completely terrified, you can use a fork to hold the potato still while you’re doing it and so your skin is not in the way at all.”

Give it a go and see which way you think is better/easier.