Useless household articles

[TheHauntedPencilCase]

I admit I'm having a bad day, partly provoked by not being able to find the 4 packs of discounted Christmas cards I bought in Monday having had to pay a fortune last minute this Christmas.
Anyway I also acquired a melon baller and sat down to enjoy my healthy fruit based lunch but rather than creating delightfully delicate bubbles of melon I ended up with wet strips of melon. It may well have been my technique but I'm blaming the bastarding melon baller. Tell me what arsehole household articles you have had to grapple with recently. Also if you know what I did with the cards please share.....

I do actually use a soup ladle...... but not for soup or in fact any food item
I use my soup ladle for filling up my paint trays from the big pant tins when I'm decorating

I do. How else do you get soup out of a large pan?

Yes!!!! This is so weird. Just pour the soup from the pan into the bowl- easy!
Also making risotto- recipes always say to add the stock a ladle at a time. Just pour it straight out if the Pyrex jug bit by bit!
Unnecessary extra washing up in both cases.

I have a troubled relationship with garlic presses. They last on average two uses in my hands before they break, and I have tried some expensive ones. The only one I’ve ever got on with and haven’t broke is a simple cheap Lidl one.

I’ve never got on with any potato masher, and instead use a fork.

But some of us make soup in a massive pan. You need the ladle.
I have an Alessi butter dish. Its beautiful, the butter knife sits in the ships funnel. It's impossible to clean and not dishwasher safe.

The same, thought the battery was going but after looking into it it slips down when i charge it so does not stay connected for long enough i now try to balance it but rarely works

Ah yeah, I didn't think of that. I was picturing my trusty tin on heinz tomato!

DP bought me special tongs to take my teabag out of the mug. Pointless. A tea spoon is fine.

I find a popcorn maker much easier than a pan - you don't get burnt bits.

Ladles are also needed for stew.

@29052022J definitely don’t want loads of manly bits in a salad 🤣

Whoops must of auto corrected from manky. Definitely don’t want any manly bits 😂

Oh God, I got rid of virtually everything a couple of years ago - pastry forks, melon ballers, corers of many fruits, mezzalunas, wine stoppers, the lot.

I cook a fair bit and manage just fine with:
Set of knives
Spatula/ wooden spoons
Tin opener
Bottle opener
Vegetable peeler
Scissors
Fish slice
Potato masher
Ladle
Slotted spoon

That's all I have.

we make a lot of soup and use a ladle to portion it up for freezing as well as putting it into our soup bowls.
I have the Alessi ship butterdish. 2 actually. DH put them in the diswasher so they're artfully cracked. And he hates them because you can't just put the butter in but have to faff (it is not a faff)
I also have the Alessi (Philippe Starck) lemon squeezer. Best one I've ever had.

hmmm what am i doing wrong?

Am going to nominate my under cupboard slide out bins in the kitchen. It has 1 large rectangular (in section) bin that goes at the back. We put recycling waste in there. 2 smaller rectangular (in section) bins that go in the front. One for bio waste one for general waste. The 2 smaller ones can be removed, bags changed no issue. But the large one? you have to wrestle the lid (which stays where it is when the bins are slid out) off and then wrestle the bin out (you can't just drag the bag out and fumble a new one in). It drives me batty

oh and for pp with the garlic crusher problem? I have Gracula. Not only super cute (sits on my coffee machine) but really good and relatively easy to clean (bottom goes in dishwasher, the head part not because it fills with water, rinse it under the tap or quick swoosh with washing-up brush)
According to my DCs it can also be used to grind up canabis resin. I have no idea if that... looks to be a good tip, tbh

Whyyy, just pour it straight from the pan😂I make soups in 5L pots, it should be doable.

I add this peeler that's meant to do vegetable pasta. Bought mine in Lidl and it's awful to clean.

Ladle gets regular use - soup, chilli, pasta sauces, stews, curries… I’m not lifting the ruddy great stock pot and tipping it when I can use a ladle.

The pineapple corer was shite. I want nice wedges of pineapple, not finicky bloody spirals.

Who actually uses a soup ladle?

Me. I even have different sizes. And you will have to remove my avocado knife from my cold dead hands.

www.lakeland.co.uk/14027/avocado-knife

I have a lovely soup ladle. It's in the shape the the loch ness monster.

www.johnlewis.com/ototo-nessie-ladle-blue/p5191853

After reading about how marvellous a spin dryer is, and cheaper than a tumble dryer, I ordered one.
However, it removes less water than the fast spin on the washing machine, I have to wait 5 minutes for it to cool down between loads and the catch almost breaks my thumb every time I try to open the top.
I still use the tumble dryer for towels as it still leaves them like sheets of sandpaper.
Complete waste of money. Only useful if you have a washing machine that is as crap as the spin dryer and no fast spin cycle.

I have a couple of those, and use them a lot, handy for making a tiny omelette and if you want nice tidy egg.

Nah, if you only use one layer of corn in the oil and keep shaking the pan you don't get burnt bits. But anyway, for the number of times we used it, it just didn't earn it's place in the cupboard and had to go. I find decluttering really hard, so I'm grateful if I can justify chucking something.

Garlic crushers. Useless, messy, pointless things.

Spiralizers. I've been given two of the useless things and both have gone to the charity shop within weeks.

Another vote for a garlic press - not only do you end up with a layer of uncrushed gunk on the inside but Lidl sell jars of the pre-chopped stuff for under £1.

One gadget I would not be witthout is my apple slicer. When DC were little they wouldn't eat apple unless it was sliced so I bought one and would not be without it now (if only so I can prepare something to spread my peanut butter on...)

However the most ridiculous household item I have seen must be this.....

www.theofennell.com/product/silver-marmite-125gm-lid/

Agree with everyone re garlic presses. Never found one that works well and is easy to clean.
Ocado do frozen chopped garlic. So easy - no mess and no garlicky hands!