diff --git a/tools/watch/informerwatcher.go b/tools/watch/informerwatcher.go
index 35a34694..4ccc4b49 100644
--- a/tools/watch/informerwatcher.go
+++ b/tools/watch/informerwatcher.go
@@ -58,8 +58,10 @@ func (t *ticketer) WaitForTicket(ticket uint64, f func()) {
 
 // NewIndexerInformerWatcher will create an IndexerInformer and wrap it into watch.Interface
 // so you can use it anywhere where you'd have used a regular Watcher returned from Watch method.
-func NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw cache.ListerWatcher, objType runtime.Object) (cache.Indexer, cache.Controller, watch.Interface) {
+// it also returns a channel you can use to wait for the informers to fully shutdown.
+func NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw cache.ListerWatcher, objType runtime.Object) (cache.Indexer, cache.Controller, watch.Interface, <-chan struct{}) {
 	ch := make(chan watch.Event)
+	doneCh := make(chan struct{})
 	w := watch.NewProxyWatcher(ch)
 	t := newTicketer()
 
@@ -107,8 +109,9 @@ func NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw cache.ListerWatcher, objType runtime.Object) (
 	}, cache.Indexers{})
 
 	go func() {
+		defer close(doneCh)
 		informer.Run(w.StopChan())
 	}()
 
-	return indexer, informer, w
+	return indexer, informer, w, doneCh
 }
diff --git a/tools/watch/informerwatcher_test.go b/tools/watch/informerwatcher_test.go
index e94b4d25..b5a09f0c 100644
--- a/tools/watch/informerwatcher_test.go
+++ b/tools/watch/informerwatcher_test.go
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ func TestNewInformerWatcher(t *testing.T) {
 					return fake.Core().Secrets("").Watch(options)
 				},
 			}
-			_, _, w := NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw, &corev1.Secret{})
+			_, _, w, done := NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw, &corev1.Secret{})
 
 			var result []watch.Event
 		loop:
@@ -227,9 +227,7 @@ func TestNewInformerWatcher(t *testing.T) {
 			// Stop before reading all the data to make sure the informer can deal with closed channel
 			w.Stop()
 
-			// Wait a bit to see if the informer won't panic
-			// TODO: Try to figure out a more reliable mechanism than time.Sleep (https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/50102/files#r184716591)
-			time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
+			<-done
 		})
 	}
 
diff --git a/tools/watch/until.go b/tools/watch/until.go
index aa4bbc21..54134371 100644
--- a/tools/watch/until.go
+++ b/tools/watch/until.go
@@ -108,7 +108,10 @@ func UntilWithoutRetry(ctx context.Context, watcher watch.Interface, conditions
 // The most frequent usage would be a command that needs to watch the "state of the world" and should't fail, like:
 // waiting for object reaching a state, "small" controllers, ...
 func UntilWithSync(ctx context.Context, lw cache.ListerWatcher, objType runtime.Object, precondition PreconditionFunc, conditions ...ConditionFunc) (*watch.Event, error) {
-	indexer, informer, watcher := NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw, objType)
+	indexer, informer, watcher, done := NewIndexerInformerWatcher(lw, objType)
+	// We need to wait for the internal informers to fully stop so it's easier to reason about
+	// and it works with non-thread safe clients.
+	defer func() { <-done }()
 	// Proxy watcher can be stopped multiple times so it's fine to use defer here to cover alternative branches and
 	// let UntilWithoutRetry to stop it
 	defer watcher.Stop()