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?

The MIL is always giving us utter shite that we don't need or want and we end up keeping it so as not to offend her, drives me mental.

Recent additions include:
A microwave: donated following a conversation during which I said that I'd not owned one for years, don't see the point, never wanted one again. In response she gave us hers. It was filthy.
A pineapple corer: lethal plastic pointlessness.
Massive paper bunting: fuck knows why.
Scales: because apparently the electronic set I'd just bought needed an old fashioned companion. And there was me under the impression that one set of scales had our weighing needs covered.
A massive ugly drinks globe on wheels: the source of many a marital argument, because it's just what you need in a 1 bed flat isn't it, to lose 13% of your floor space to storage for seldom touched liquors, crytal glasses and angostura bitters.
A bread maker: I don't eat wheat. It was filthy.

She's visiting tomorrow, I dread to think what she'll bring...

Cushions on beds are not pointless if you've got a dodgy knee/hip to support!

Funnels. Just got rid of mine, never have time for jam-making etc so have just binned them!

This is quite cathartic...!

Onion holder

Dishwashers.
Its more effort to load em, unload em, clean em, and do the salt than it is to just wash up.

Essential: washing up bowl (because I don't have a fancy double sink, so need to be able to drain the potatoes while other stuff is soaking)
Decent scissors (oh the irritation of watching bacon bend instead of cut)
Spongy scourer (new each day) to get gunk off pots and pans
Microwave (goes without saying...)

Non-essential: Dish drainer - that's what the draining board is for.
Drawers (or so the person who designed my kitchen believed... ) my cutlery holder is balanced on top of my freezer --- and has been for 14 years..!!
Plastic knife to cut lettuce - in the pretence that the rest of the lettuce won't turn brown. I find that tearing it off with my fingers works just as well...

Can I commit MN blasphemy and say slow cooker.

After cooking a few stews in which all the moisture and flavour was sucked out of the meat and everything tasted the same, it has sat on the kitchen worktop gathering dust.

Really pointless.
Bread maker.. Have tried and tried and tried. It makes horrible bread. It's less stress to make bread by hand.

The slow cooker.. Again have tried and tried. But things don't come out as nice as in the oven/on the hob. And then people gush over a recipe saying omfg you should try this, it's lush. So you do and it's rank.

Garlic crush.. Although the peeler is even worse.

Ornaments.. Just clutter up the place and take up time and effort cleaning.. 'Accidentally' binned the lot of them when moving around. Must have got boxes mixed up.

Ice cream maker.. The amount of effort to make a little bit of ice cream.
Cushions on beds.. Those are seriously just a marketing con.
USB coffee warmer. Have a few of them, never used any of them. Coffee never hangs around enough to need warming up.

Rice cooker. Electronic thing that takes a zillion hours to cook rice.. Ok slight exaggeration, but still longer than pan made rice.

USb airfreshner thing. Not sure what it's supposed to do. Never plugged it in.

Baby food maker.. Twas a gift. Apparently I couldn't just make food as normal and mush some up for a child. No, instead you need an over priced gadget for that.

Pepper knife that erm is pointless. Can do the same job with my hand.

Those clips that you use to seal bags... A peg, which is considerably cheaper does a better job.

Dryer sheets.. Don't don't understand the point of them.. Fabric conditioner however, I think it depends on your water.. Need it here, otherwise everything is like cardboard.

The pickle picker. It looks like a smaller verison of he head massager, but used to get pickles out of a jar. Because you know a fork or skewer isn't good enough.

Then what about the asparagus peeler. A mate got me that.

Cannot believe I had just admitted to owning all this crap. Apart from a few that were gifts, I am a sellers delight. I buy any old crap.

But anyway someone mentioned not having room to make a roast... Try the one tray roast. All your root veg and meat is all cooked in one tray. And the gravy is lush.

Oh dear, that just reminded me of another thing. The gravy strainer.

When you see all this useless crap sold on ebay by the same seller, I am finally having a clear out.

Omg, Takemedown. I thought I was the only one.

a teapot. hate the buggers.

McFox, SIBU! at the drinks globe!

I'm of the firm belief that if someone wants a full sized drinks globe (on wheels) that they'll go and get one themselves.

In the one bed flat I had it would be on par with having a chandelier in the sitting room

What are your DHs arguments for keeping it?

It's because he's scared of his mum isn't he?

Rice cooker. Electronic thing that takes a zillion hours to cook rice.. Ok slight exaggeration, but still longer than pan made rice.

Then you have a crap rice cooker. They should only take 20 min to make a full thing of rice.

I'm not sure we have any useless things, but we do have more pan covers than pans because I ruined the pans.

So my rice cooker isn't crap then. They all are, takes 15 minutes tops to do rice in a pan.

The toilet brush is a common household item that many members of my household view as pointless. Just as I well I am on good terms with it. With me it is the Iron?( ours does have a point at the front) but I do not see it v. Often. I have an ironing board somewhere in this house and have only opened it few times since 2001 ( that is the total truth) :( [ run's out of the room v. fast and v.mortified]

MCFox can I have the globe please?! I will fly to another continent to collect!

MIL has one that H and I have coveted for years but given that we are both now persona non grata, chances are slim that she will gift it to us. They are practical and ornamental, whats not to love?!

For me it would be the toothbrush mug/glass. In theory you keep the toothbrushes in it and also use it to rinse your mouth. In reality it has a layer of spit and second hand toothpaste in the bottom so you use your hands to get the mouth rinsing water. No matter how many times I wash it, I cannot bring myself to put water in my mouth from it.

Candy when DD1 forgot something she need to go out with, I said that she would have to do without. She said "Where is the iron?!!" (never having used on to me knowledge) and I said that we didnt have one since the last one broke. H said that yes we did, it was in X place. I asked when he bought it as he hadnt mentioned it. He showed me the receipt and it was just over 2 years old......

mcfox Wtf are you letting her unload all that crap on you? Tell her you don't want it and she can take it back

It's a blender for me on the useless items list, never use the bloody thing

@Bogeyface :)

Oven

Garlic press
Bread bin
Butter dish
Coffee table
The 'good china' and wedding pressie Waterford glass that was never unpacked from its original packaging
Kitchen Aid food processor now given to DD1

Beer butt chicken maker, must be 5-6 years old, still in the box.

bloodyteenagers re rice cooker. Yes it's your taste bud that's the problem. There is a reason why every Far East Asian home has a rice cooker. No one ever cook rice on the stove in a pan. Or maybe you will just say people in the Far East doesn't know their rice?

I cook rice in the microwave

Food processor - I was desperate for one but never rarely use it.

It's a posh ish one but it's shit - I wanted it to chop veg / grate stuff but everything just seems to clump up round the seal bit at the top.

Skillet - bought a le crueset one but it's crap - total hassle to clean and the frying pan is used more!

An instant hot water maker.

A friend has one. It lives on the work top and makes water hot enough for coffee but not for tea. I don't see the point but he uses it every day and when it died he replaced it. It's not even plumbed in so has to be filled up every other time it's used.

A pod coffee maker.

I drink black coffee and a pod of Americano cost 10 x a spoonful of instant or scoop of filter coffee and is too strong for my taste.
And like the hot water maker above it's not plumbed in, so you have to faff filling the reservoir.

Rice cooker best invention ever. So easy. Use it 3 times a week. Just pop the rice in and forget about it. It cooks the rice and keeps it warm until needed. That slim lean grill was a best investment and was out of house with 6 months..