I have my egg cooker on my kitchen counter covered by a toaster cover I made that does not cover our toaster now. I keep hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator (carton marked "hard") as we like them for breakfast, and I have "instant" egg salad makings, deviled eggs, for potato salad, etc. And we really like the soft boiled eggs for breakfast! My husband even likes them refrigerated if I make an extra or 2. I am always careful to punch the end of the egg that was up in the carton as that is where the air bubble is. The secret is to get under the membrain between the egg and the shell when peeling! As she said "get an egg cooker!"