When I first got married, I giddily put a giant butcher block on my wedding registry with the dream of chopping and slicing everyday meals like my favorite chefs. What I didn’t think about was that storing a 15 lb high-quality butcher block was a pain, cleaning it in a tiny sink in a New York City apartment was sometimes impossible, and you couldn’t just pick it up and toss the ingredients on top into a waiting pan.

So I put this lovely piece of wood aside, to be used maybe once a year, and invested instead in very cult-favorite OXO plastic cutting board set. With WireCutter’s seal of approval and hundreds of rave reviews on Amazon, it had to be perfect. However, the very first time I prepped ingredients on it, I noticed that it was extremely loud. The plastic no longer absorbed the pangs of my stainless steel knives as smoothly and silently as they were absorbed on a wooden board.

Additionally, articles started coming out about the extreme levels of micro-plastics being stored in our bodies, permanently stored, and with every slice of my chef’s knife on my OXO plastic cutting board, I could just imagine the tiny plastic fragments coming off said board and going straight into my food, and my body. Yuck.

What started as an annoyance to the loud sound of chopping on a plastic board quickly transformed into a very real health concern. I wanted to go back to wood, or some wood alternative, but had a feeling trying to find the perfect everyday board would be a time-consuming rabbit hole. Spoiler, it was. But I did find it, and now would love share with you some great options if you are looking for a cutting board for:

1. everyday use
2. made of natural materials like wood or a wood alternative
3. big enough so that you have space to work with but can be easily washed and stored in a small space
4. light enough to pick up and easily toss ingredients into a pan
5. doesn’t break the bank

I present to you, my quest for the perfect wood or wood-alternative, everyday prep board.

Side note on wood-alternative, synthetic boards

At first, I was really excited by the idea of using a wood alternative, synthetic board. It seemed like the perfect in-between, not the the heavy wooden boards we’re used to, and not the light but potentially toxic plastic ones. The most popular ones are from the Epicurian brand, like these sold at Williams Sonoma.

I went to check them out in person and they met a lot of the criteria (great size, light, not plastic) but at $90 for a small set, seemed very expensive for synthetic, wood-alternative product. And personally, I was afraid that they still felt so hard and plasticky that they would be loud when chopping and would continue to ruin my nice metal knives. I wasn’t wrong on the loudness point – with every slice it felt like my knife would reverberate off the surface rather than having that nice cushion landing and ‘give’ you have with a wood cutting board. I didn’t feel like I was saving my knives any more than I did when using a plastic board, and the cost was pretty high.

Looking at the reviews of the boards though I found something even more interesting – for nearly $90, I expected these wood alternative boards to last a while. However, review upon review complained about their lack of durability, specifically warping. In the end, the noisy cutting + high cost + seeming lack of durability was enough to stop my composite board search and go back to looking for something that was made of natural wood.

Wood options

The butcher block is still my ultimate dream, but with space and weight constraints, I needed a lighter board. What I found was pretty limited options. You could have a smaller board, but it would still be 3+ inches thick, landing you into a small butcher block territory which is not light enough to easily maneuver to pan. In the end, two boards stood out to me as the best contenders:

Shun Board

This board from Shun had rave reviews on multiple sites particularly due to its appearance and weight. At 16 x 10 in. it was the perfect size for everyday chopping, and weighed in at a tiny 1.3 lbs. It was super easy to lift with one hand and the dimensions were perfect. However, I personally wasn’t a fan of the appearance – the wood was almost a tan/white, while I have a preference for a more brown, woods-y, country look to my boards.

Additionally, and this is a biggie, this board is made with a special kind of wood, a Japanese cyrpus called hinoki, which lends this board quite a potent aroma. In fact, as soon as I opened up the box that stored the board, the smell started permeating my kitchen and apartment. Some people absolutely love this smell – for me, it smelled a bit like peppermint and licorice (not great IMO). Some reviewers mentioned that the smell dissipates, but I wasn’t comfortable having my food and flavors mix with the smell of this board, even if the smell is from natural sources.

I cook with a lot of turmeric, and I would cringe thinking of the orange stains it would leave on this basically white piece of wood. Some reviewers mentioned that you could wet the board first to prevent the absorption of food stains, but this seemed unlikely to me and I was not looking for additional maintenance / steps required for meal prep, or running the risk of having a white board with orange splotches.

At $63 it was also more pricey than the second board I was looking at from Teakhaus (below), which I ultimately ended up selecting. This Shun board was light, a great size, and beautiful, and if you’re pristine with your meal prep, maybe this could be a great choice for you. But for me it just had too many small things (i.e. color, staining, smell) to worry about.

Teakhaus Board

Now total disclosure, my first butcher block was made by Teakhaus, so I have prior experience with their products. Their boards are highly rated, getting top place from America’s Test Kitchen. I even had their mini board, which I’ve been using as my OXO alternative for meal prep, and have had no issues over the past 5 years of nearly daily use.

The only thing I did to maintain the mini cutting board was handwashing it with soap and letting it air dry (never submerging it in water), which isn’t really maintenance at all. I didn’t even oil it as top cooks recommend. And had no issues.

With the Teakhaus, I was pleasantly surprised to find a 17 x 9.5 in. cutting board as part of their standard collection, which is the perfect size for everyday prep work. Similar to the Shun, it also weighed in at 1.5 lbs. The wood was good quality, my knives glided easily into it without a loud crack with every slice, and it was light to maneuver from counter to pan. It’s the perfect size for meal prep, easy to clean, and I bought it for sub-$30 on Amazon.

Some people are afraid of maintenance with wooden boards, but as I mentioned earlier, basic care did just enough with other boards from this brand. I will say that to increase longevity, immediately after receiving this new board I washed it, dried it, and applied a thin layer of mineral oil on both sides per the manufacturer’s instructions.

This is because many reviewers of this board mentioned that their wood arrived ‘parched,’ and parched wood = more likely to split wood. The board also had minor splinters on the surge when I did the first wash, which mostly went away after the oiling. To maintain it, I do nothing more than wash immediately (without submerging it) and letting it airdry, and so far so good.

I love cooking with the Teakhaus board. The knives sink into the wood, and the board fits all the ingredients I need when I need to quickly chop up a bunch of stuff. At 1.5 lbs it is not hefty at all, and is light to quickly lift off the counter and dump all the ingredients into a pan. The small size and thickness makes it easy to store (unlike my giant butcher block!). It’s super quiet and I love how it’s not only easy and non-dulling on my knives, but I also love how no tiny pieces of plastic are coming off and contaminating my food. At light weight, $30 price point, perfect size and high quality wood, I consider this board a win.

Other (more budget) option

I didn’t want to boil the ocean looking for a cutting board. I’m sure there are infinitely more pieces of wood out there that match the standard dimensions for an every day board and don’t break the bank. However, I prefer to go with reputable board brands like the ones above, and stop when I find something that’s nearly perfect. I will mention one last choice that can serve as a really good intro board for you, especially if you are on a budget: the IKEA cutting boards. I have multiple friends who say they do the job (aka good enough), and if you don’t want to really commit to a nice, wooden board or want to try one out for fun first, that could be a great option for you. Light, at a great size at 17 x 11 inches, and at $9, won’t break the bank.

Happy lightweight, budget-friendly, high-quality, no plastics chopping, friends.