Best Knife Drawer Inserts for Shallow Kitchen Drawers

How the Five Compare on the Numbers

A shallow drawer closes on whatever stands highest inside it, and on a knife insert that is almost never the insert. It is the knife handle sticking up out of the slot. These five publish heights from 1.6 in to 2.8 in, and only one of them says in writing that the published figure excludes the handle.

Two of the five publish that height in a bullet of their own and three publish it only in a dimension field, which matters because two of the three field figures disagree with the maker’s own sentence. One listing publishes a minimum drawer height as well, which is the figure a shallow drawer actually needs.

What the table cannot tell you is how far your own knife handles stand above any of these. NIUXX is the only maker here that raises it, warning that the published height of the block does not include the height of the knife handle. On every other listing the figure in the table is the empty insert, and the drawer closes on the loaded one.

Where the Height Figures Come From

The Two Makers Who State It Themselves

Utoplike states 16.6 inches deep by 9.6 inches wide by 1.8 inches high in its own bullet, and then goes further than anyone else here by publishing the drawer it needs: an inner height greater than 2.3 inches. That half inch of clearance over the insert is the published answer to the handle problem, even though the listing does not frame it that way.

Lifewit states 11.6 by 16.5 by 2 inches in a bullet while its fields read 9.06 x 16.54 x 1.97 in. The height difference is trivial and the width difference is not: two and a half inches between the two figures. This page uses the bullet and names the field it dropped.

The Three That Only Have a Field

GHWIE publishes 1.6 in, the lowest figure on this page, but it appears only in the dimension fields with no sentence to confirm it. The listing also disagrees with itself on capacity: its size field says a seven knives dock while a bullet says it can fit up to eleven knives of varying sizes.

OXO publishes 2.5 in and NIUXX 2.8 in, both in fields only. Neither names a drawer minimum. OXO publishes no material at all, which on an insert judged by height is a surprising omission, since bamboo and plastic of the same height behave differently when a drawer is slammed.

What Stands Above the Insert

The Handle Is the Real Height

NIUXX publishes the sentence every listing in this category should: the height of the knife block does not include the height of the knife handle, and please measure your drawer before purchasing. At 2.8 in it stands higher than every other pick here, so a handle above that needs a genuinely deep drawer.

Utoplike addresses the same thing differently, publishing an angled handle support that it says ensures knife tips do not point up and stops larger knives shooting out the back of the block if the drawer is slammed. That is about the knife’s attitude in the slot rather than its height, and it is the only such feature published here.

Magnets, Grooves and Feet

Lifewit holds knives with magnets inside the slots and states they stay in position even when the drawer is pulled open, with tips nestled down. On a shallow drawer that is useful for a different reason: a knife that cannot shift cannot rise in its slot and catch the drawer above.

Three of the five publish something to stop the insert itself sliding. Lifewit publishes six rubber feet, OXO non-slip feet and NIUXX a non-slip slot design. GHWIE publishes nothing of the kind, and Utoplike relies on the angled handle support instead.

Footprint, Weight and Cleaning Out a Low Insert

The Trade Between Height and Area

GHWIE’s 1.6 in height comes on a 3 by 15.6 inch strip holding seven to eleven knives, which is 3 inches against 5.6 in and more on every other pick here. Utoplike’s 1.8 in comes on a 9.6 by 16.6 inch block holding twelve plus a sharpener, which is three times the area for not much more height.

NIUXX pays for its sixteen slots with 2.8 inches of height on a 9.84 by 16.14 inch footprint. Lifewit gets the same sixteen into a stated 2 inches by using magnets rather than deep grooves, which is the clearest illustration on this page that height is a design choice and not a consequence of capacity.

Getting Crumbs Out

A low insert sits closer to the drawer base and traps more. OXO publishes a removable tray for easy, thorough cleaning, and NIUXX publishes detachable cleaning knife slots it ties to avoiding dust accumulation. Those are the only two picks here that come apart.

GHWIE publishes a care instruction instead, saying low maintenance bamboo cleans up easily with soap and water and should be rubbed with oil to extend its life. Utoplike and Lifewit publish no cleaning instruction at all, and Lifewit’s magnets are the one feature here that a wet wipe is least likely to help.

Which One Fits Your Kitchen

The shallowest drawer you have. GHWIE publishes 1.6 in on a 3 by 15.6 inch bamboo strip. The figure appears only in the dimension fields, and its capacity is given as seven in one place and up to eleven in another.

Wants the drawer figure too. Utoplike states 16.6 by 9.6 by 1.8 inches and asks for a drawer over 2.3 inches high, which is the only published clearance allowance on this page. It also publishes angled handle support.

Sixteen knives in two inches. Lifewit states 11.6 by 16.5 by 2 inches and holds sixteen knives with magnets inside the slots rather than deep grooves, on six rubber feet. Its stated width and its field disagree by two and a half inches.

Wants to lift the tray out. OXO publishes 16.45 by 5.6 by 2.5 inches, slots for five small and four large knives, square corners to close the gaps in a drawer, and a removable tray. It names no material.

Sixteen slots and detachable cleaning. NIUXX publishes 9.84 by 16.14 by 2.8 inches in bamboo with detachable slots, and is the only maker here that says the published height excludes the knife handle.

What We Could Not Verify

These are the figures we went looking for on the manufacturer listings and did not find.

• How far a loaded knife handle stands above any of these inserts. Only NIUXX raises the issue at all.
• A minimum drawer height for four of these five. Only Utoplike publishes one.
• A material for the OXO insert.
• Whether the GHWIE block holds seven knives or eleven, since its own listing says both.
• Which width is right for the Lifewit insert, whose bullet says 11.6 in and whose field says 9.06 in.
• Any cleaning instruction for the Utoplike and Lifewit inserts.