I bought this before my son was born and now that he's here, it is a lifesaver! My husband and I believe in the power of good old-fashioned "elbow grease" and we wash our dishes by hand and use our dishwasher as a drying rack (unless we cook a really big or involved meal).The baby is our first, so we don't really make enough dishes to run the dishwasher all the time, anyway.This sterilizer allows us to sterilize everything for baby's feeding without having to waste all the water used to run a full dishwasher cycle. I especially like that you can use it any way, you don't have to put everything into the little pre-designated slots if you don't want to. When dealing with a newborn, sometimes it's all you can do to get all the bottles, rings, nipples, etc. piled into the thing before you have to tend to the baby.Be careful though when you first take this out of the microwave. The sterilizer itself can get hot enough to make you wince.