To ask what household items were a complete waste of money?

[Ladymayormaynot]

Have just read expensive items worth every penny thread & interested to see what others have regretted buying. I'll start off with steam mops, I've had 3 all useless & binned. Garden strimmers again I've had 3 makes and none of them any good. The last was a Gtech which promised so much including free blades for life. Hidden in the small print was the £2.99 delivery cost per packet of 20. By the 2nd use I had used 10 blades as the kept splitting. It was returned for a refund.

Those new cordless dysons.

Ok for hoovering up odd bits, but not enough battery charge and needs emptying too often to do a whole house. Plus isn't as effective as it thinks it is.

So I still use my big plug in thing for most of the hoovering. And the little thing, which at nearly £400 actually cost more, sits in the cupboard taking up space.

I was virtuous about the steam mop. For a couple of months. Now it has dust on it. The little scrubby brush thing wore down and is not replaceable. So it's neigh on useless. Especially when you could just throw abrasive chemicals up the bathroom tiles, leave it for 10 minutes before rinsing off for the same effect.

Kenwood multi-function food processer: DH hoped I was going to be a baking goddess. Bad luck DH. It can't do anything the cheap hand blender does.

I'm on my second bread maker though. I'm gluten intolerant and it's worth the faff not to have to endure revolting supermarket GF bread.

Smoothie maker
Spiraliser

Oh and all hair straighteners, dryers and wands. My curly hair hates any heat. Saved hours of my life and tons of cash letting it air dry.

SodaStream. DD wanted one for her birthday two years ago - it's been used about four times.

Never used my coffee machine, I just prefer instant! Spiraliser was a gift that I've never used..

After reading this thread I now want a steam mop and toasted sandwich maker. Dammit.

LOVE my steam mop! Is the OLD style Home Tek one. No longer available. I knew I should have bought another & shoved it in the loft. God alone knows which one I'll buy when this one dies as none of the look as good & none if the reviews are outstanding

Love the bread maker but it was given away to prevent divorce proceedings. It was incompatible with a man incapable of wiping the crumbs off of the worktop after cutting some bread X every 5 bloody minutes!). Should have kept the bread maker & ditched the man.

Juice maker. I bought it when trying the McDougall Healthcare Program. It's a great juicer, but I'm now very anti juicing AND it's just such a faff to wash up.

Classic Dyson. Hoovered MILs lounge and half the kitchen with it, emptied 3 times which was a right faff, and then the motor burnt out. Apparently you aren't supposed to use them on pet hair!

Meanwhile the Electrolux we got in 1997 for £50 because it didn't have a retractable cord is still going strong.

Slow cooker - never used it as I set up stew in an evening and then it tastes better the next day.

Digital camera with weird battery charger that won't communicate with my computer, and MP3 player ditto. Just use my phone now.

Spiraliser. What the actual fuck was I thinking? I couldn't even assemble it ...

prefer instant. Wash your mouth out! Then send your coffee machine here 😁 I LOVED my Senseo, still do really, but I'm struggling to find nice coffee pads for it now. Might need to buy a bean to cup machine instead. I do the milk separately, I can't stand the pods that come with milk in them, the whole thing tastes like chemicals to me. Bleurgh.

George Foreman grill. It always just sits in the corner as I find it quicker and easier to use the oven or stove for cooking. Luckily, we got it 50% off :D

Steam mop - fiddly, tiny reservoir and you still needed to scrub. Just scrubbing is easier (If I ever did...). Used it twice.

George Foreman - v useful for DSS and sausages - now gathering dust.

Use the food processor about once a fortnight - for coleslaw - and the slow cooker for making stock.

Juice maker - loved the juice - hated the cleaning - gave it away.

Ice cream maker - gave it away (2nd hand anyway)

Bread maker - used loads when SC were younger. Haven't used it for about 3 years - lovely new sourdough bakery opened up on my way to work - just buy their cripplingly expensive bread now the kids have moved out.

The mincer DH insisted on buying "so we can make our own sausages". Like fuck has that happened. He used it once to mince some beef and make burgers. Bloody disgusting all the washing up of squished up raw meat metal cogs etc.

I love my cordless dyson and couldn't manage without it now.

Fondu set - never used
Halogen oven/multi cooker type thing - Sits on worktop taking up too much space
Large George Foreman - never used
Coffee maker - used it a lot to begin with - now just gathers dust

Most of the kids toys - hardly used once they got tablets

Henry the bloody Hoover. The only way I can get it to pick up dog hair is to get down on my hands and knees and scrub at the carpet with it. Grrrr.

Never use my toaster, use my microwave about twice a year, used my sandwich toaster twice.

However I use weird unusual stuff like my dehydrator, pestle and mortar, sugar thermometer and pressure canner all the time

Bag less vacuum cleaner. imo one more thing to clean.
Gone back to one with bags- less mess and faff and I can't see the spiders I've hoovered up.

Juicer
All that pulp😱
Not to mention that in many ways the whole point of veggies is the fibre
But i love my coffee grinder, bread maker, food processor, pressure cooker

Kenwood multi piece food processor which barely gets used. The stick blender bit gets used a fair amount but I could have just bought a stick blender.

Huge and expensive electric swing, bought to make baby DD sleep. It didn't work (luckily I could return it).

SLR camera. Bought when pregnant thinking I would take lots of stunning photos of our new baby in all that spare time I'd have. Hahahahaha. It is never used.

Soup maker

Those who dislike steam mops..! There are fantastic brands available, Shark is really good. If mine broke today I'd be straight out to buy another!

My biggest waste was a soda stream what was I thinking!

My microwave also broke around 4 months ago, never got round to replacing it and I haven't missed it either.

Bread maker
Pressure cooker
Steamer

^ all given to me by my dad who palms off everything to me when he gets bored of it. I really need to get rid of them. I used tbe bread maker once. The other two never.

Ice cream maker. It worked ace the first few times then I got it out recently to make banana ice cream and it was shite. Didn't even freeze the bananas and i've used the same recipe, same set up.

Rice cooker. Used it twice. Pan on the hob does the job just fine.

Microwave. Haven't had one for years. Relative thought they'd buy me a new one. Realised I don't have anything microwave safe to cook in. Sent it back.

HairsprayBabe which dehydrator do you use? I'm trying to find a really good one that will last but so few people I know use them :(