Common household items that are pointless...

[ilovebruuuceandbags]

Ok, the ruined designer washing up bowl which has popped up all over again has just prompted me to ask…what is the point of having a washing up bowl? We used to have one, then moved house and now don't bother with one. We just use the sink, which, to be honest, is much easier for washing up the dishes. It was a revelation!

What common 'essentials' do most of us have, which actually aren't essential at all?

We've got a load of kitchen stuff that only does 1 job as dh likes cooking so people buy him stuff. Most useless is the mini blow torch to make creme brulé. Neither of us really likes crème brulé.

I never bother with my mop, I just find it easier to use a floor cloth.

Washing up bowl uses less water
Not if you don't fill up the sink. Which I never do because I like to rinse everything.

All sorts of clever things.

clearly DH isn't the only one finding iPhones trying tonight.

Also, stupid garlic grater that I can't get the garlic off of and makes my fingers garlicky. Chopping garlic is much easier, less of a faff to wash up a knife too.

HD we never use. I can't tell the difference between HD and not HD

nappy sacks
I just don't see the point.

maus depends how far you have to carry the nappy!

I couldn't live without a microwave either. But ours is a combi, I use it for jacket potatoes, cakes, roasting chicken... Milk for DS twice a day. Reheating coffee multiple times a day!

Again, I suspect those of you without microwaves have a proper 60cm cooker and everything . We can't cook a whole roast at one time in our oven. I think the things you think are dispensable with a big kitchen are indispensable with a small one and vice versa. My parents' kitchen is about ten times the size of ours and they have so much shit in it - they come to us and ask why we have a slow cooker (because there's not enough room in our kitchen to mind a pot on the stove and look after the children - when it's a choice between keeping an eye on the kids or keeping an eye on the dinner, you let the dinner look after itself). Likewise tiered steamers - pointless for most people, but vertical stacking is essential with a small kitchen, plus you can use the bottom bit as a saucepan and one of the tiers as a colander, thus doubling up.

Yes nappy sacks. I only ever used them to put vests that had fallen victim to poonami if we were out.

Juicer: just buy a carton

Washing up: place items in DW eliminate need for washing up bowl, drainer etc

Steamer thing: fucking pointless bastard. I could be wearing that £100

Washing up bowls make life easier if you don't have a double sink or a utility sink. You can put the dregs down the side of the bowl, you can run the tap to rinse the dishes (let's NOT have another debate about that though) and you can use the sink for 'unclean' jobs without feeling quite so bad about it.

I miss the double sink & the utility room :(

Iron

I was once given a corrugated plastic tray for crisping bacon in the microwave (why?) and a friend of mine recently bought a special bag for keeping old carrier bags in. It has a picture of a carrier bag on the front, and she keeps it hanging on the kitchen door.

What about all those handy plastic boxes designed for keeping specific things in? A yellow banana-shaped one for (you've guessed it) a banana; a small circular one for those two digestive biscuits you need to carry about; a long narrow one for bacon; a longer narrow one for spring onions; a box exactly the same size as a packet of cream crackers; one shaped like half a grapefruit (can't think what that's for) and another for storing half a onion - the list is endless.

I love my tiered steamer Blackbird it was essential in my old tiny kitchen but I'd never be without it now, and it's energy saving.

We have a warming oven. It has cookbooks in it.

Salad spinner. Never use it. Takes longer to clean than just doing it all by hand.

nappy sacks: I just rolled the nappies and closed them, contents and wipe firmly contained within.

If nappy sacks are the same as what we call poo bags, we still use them for all sorts of stuff, even though the youngest is coming up to 5 (and the same with wet wipes/sudocreme).

Picking up the DDogs crap is the most obvious one, but 13 YO DD1 has been honking in them for years when she gets car sick, which saves DH clearing it up and the car stinking of puke.

I don't get HD either Notso, perhaps our TVs aren't the dogs bollocks enough to actually see the difference?

I don't have a dish drainer and pile my dishes on top of one another. It's potentially risky when the washing machine has been on (underneath the dishes) and the dishes are balanced, we have lost a few bowls that way!
The most unused item in our kitchen is the bread maker. A loaf is £1 to buy and I really couldn't be bothered with the faff of making it

I'm truly sorry to say it is the raspberry red kenwood kmix I bought at Xmas. And which I had so lusted after.

I've had a heavy duty magimix for years, and it has turned out that the shiny new kitchen addition was surplus to requirements.

Washing up bowls. Because if you drop your wine glass into a Belfast sink it breaks. Washing up bowls are bouncier.

My kids use the salad spinner to make twirly paintings

I would love a warming oven though.

You are probably right AgentZigzag I think ours is too small to notice what D your in.

Washing up bowls. We don't have one as we have a dishwasher but we still have to soak things. I've just never felt the need to have a bowl. The last couple of times I have stayed over whilst babysitting for family members they have had washing up bowls. I just cleaned the bowl, set it aside and then used the sink. Far easier.

There's a shop I visit sometimes that has sooo many things I look at and think "That's handy" - & then think again. One day I counted 6 types of grater - and realised I had at some stage considered at least 4 of them. Threw out 2 that I actually did buy last month when decluttering.

Going back to a previous post I think those silly half throws are for people who come into the hotel room & lie on the bed with shoes on (like the plastic covers in furniture shops).

But the cushions on the bed give me The Rage. I had some when I got my own house at first (fecking interior magazines) and will never have the bastards again. Least useful things in the world. Spent every night on the floor.

They spent the night on the floor, not me. I won't give up me bed for a person, let alone a cushion!

Ah now, we have a half throw on the bottom if our bed. DH is very tall and his feet stick out if the bed. We have a half throw to cover his feet, but not to cover us as he gets too hot. Awkward bugger.