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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

the price for the most useless household item goes to...

279 replies

greenelephantscarf · 28/02/2019 17:40

... the gravy boat

  • always drips
  • never big enough
  • alwas at the wrong end of the table
  • a pain in the drawer as it's not stackable

I'm moving house. gravy boat will stay behind.

OP posts:
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MrsRhubarb · 28/02/2019 21:53

I see your gravy boat, and raise you a toast rack. I have yet to meet the person who sits down for breakfast in the morning as decides they want to leave their toast sitting about, all cold and un-buttered.

Although they are such a useless item that back when DH and I knew lots of people getting their first home we always gave them as a house-warming present.

Theoscargoesto · 28/02/2019 22:00

I am thinking of getting an insulted gravy jug though, my MIL will love it at Christmas.

Am I the only one ROFL over an insulted gravy boat? Still I suppose better than one which insults, MIL won't like that at all!!

PrivateIsles · 28/02/2019 22:03

Delia Smith recommends a toast rack I believe MrsRhubarb but I'm with you - it just makes the toast cold and hard - ugh.

ToeDust · 28/02/2019 22:05

Does nobody just use a ladle from the pan?

My most useless would be a biscuit press given I've never used it in all the time I've had it. Could actually be really good as there's lots of different ends 😏

MrsRhubarb · 28/02/2019 22:11

@PrivateIsles, oo-er, not sure I dare contradict Saint Delia!

Vulpine · 28/02/2019 22:13

I do not own one. But then we don't have gravy.

PrivateIsles · 28/02/2019 22:13

Grin I know!!

SobaYakitori · 28/02/2019 22:22

I'm in shock here.

Bloody love my electric wok.
And my stick blender. (you can blend in the saucepan Ffs, it's awesome!)

Ratonastick · 28/02/2019 22:32

I have to question the PP who dissed the nutribullet. While mine has never seen a leaf of kale, I can confirm that there is no better device for making a frozen margarita.

In the meantime, I offer you a mandolin slicer as I am terrified of losing digits to mine. And a spinny milk frother machine that my mum bought. I still don’t exactly know what I am supposed to do with it. It doesn’t make cappuccino or frothy chocolate, in factit specifically says that you can ONLY froth milk. On the odd occasion that I need frothy milk I use a little handheld whisk thing. Does the job adequately, I don’t need a freestanding mains powered machine for the same task.

Ratonastick · 28/02/2019 22:34

And what in the name of all that is holy is a biscuit press? With multiple ends? Do they sell them in Lakeland? Do I need one?

ContinuityError · 28/02/2019 22:34

I moved into a rental house where a well used raclette grill was left in the cupboard.

The kitchen was spectacularly grease laden and the neighbours said the previous tenant had dropped dead of a heart attack in the house (I’m betting in the utility room as it was really unpleasant in there and the cat refused to go in).

I think these things might have been connected.

greenelephantscarf · 28/02/2019 22:35

I need to know what a biscuit press is.
now that the gravyboat makes space in the drawer I have a need to fill that gap

OP posts:
Lurleene · 28/02/2019 22:51

Earlier today I saw a triple slow cooker in Aldi. I havent got cupboard big enough for one so I left it. I also couldn't conceive of a situation I would ever be in which would call for the use of three slow cookers at once.

Fabellini · 28/02/2019 22:59

The mega gravy boat from Tesco for the win - it’s massive, pours well, and is plain white so it goes with most crockery.
I think they only have it at Christmas, but it definitely appears every year.
My useless thing is a travel steamer for clothes...I saw someone with one on Instagram and found myself influenced - it’s crap, doesn’t get any creases out and scalds my fingers every time I try to use it. Loathsome article.

Slazengerbag · 28/02/2019 23:02

A friend of mine has the perfect soloition for gravy. She uses a tea pot and puts a tea cosy on it to keep it warm. Genius

joyfullittlehippo · 28/02/2019 23:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

joyfullittlehippo · 28/02/2019 23:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Jamiefraserskilt · 28/02/2019 23:17

One of those stupid stainless steel teapots that pour scalding hot tea everywhere except in the cup

MorrisZapp · 28/02/2019 23:22

I think I saw a biscuit press on qvc. You shove dough in one end and then out come dough circles at the other.

If Mr McVitie himself makes enough biscuits to justify this frankly ludicrous implement I'll eat my hat.

Even the soft voiced lady looked faintly embarrassed.

Haffiana · 28/02/2019 23:26

Fucking lettuce-cleaning spinners. Enormous stupid things that can be replaced with a tap

@Dutch1e I think you have misunderstood the function of these. You wash the lettuce under the tap and then put in this to spin the water off so that your lettuce isn't soaking wet and soggy when you add salad dressing.

safariboot · 28/02/2019 23:28

For me, the coffee machines, I'm a strict tea drinker. But family drink coffee.

In general, yeah, toast racks are useless. Toast needs to be buttered straight from the toaster.

And gravy is poured straight from the jug for us.

Also milk jugs are pointless. Just use the carton and stop trying to be fancy.

Those pasta spoon things with the battlements round the edge. Is there any use for them? They don't properly drain the pasta, it needs to be tipped into a colander to drain.

ToeDust · 28/02/2019 23:40

For those asking about the biscuit press (I'm not even sure that's what it's called): it's like a gun, when you pull the trigger it clicks an (I'm assuming) perfect amount of biscuit dough out of the end - which is interchangeable so you can make all different shaped biscuits. It also has icing nozzles, I've used that part a couple of times but i hate cleaning it.

Ratonastick I'm not sure what Lakeland is Confused but I'm going to say you don't need one, mine just collects dust...

TooManyPaws · 28/02/2019 23:44

My dad was a gadget freak and spent a fortune on his latest craze. Rotisseries, blenders, steak cookers, waffle irons, etc.

There was a graveyard of expired gadgets in the storage under the kitchen table bench seat. I have a horrible feeling that I forgot to clear that out so either it's still a mystery to the new house owners or they got a bit of a surprise when opening up the storage.

MitziK · 28/02/2019 23:49

I'd say not all coffee machines (despite being perfectly happy with a Cafetiere mug of cheap instant shit) are pointless.

Except for the one an exBF bought me one Christmas.

Filter. Milk Frother and warming plate. Espresso. All in one 'handy' machine.

The bastard thing is, without exaggerating, four foot long, weighs about 25 kilos, doesn't get up to a high enough pressure to actually make espresso that tastes of anything and takes hours to clean out. I only drink one weak black coffee every 2-3 days at most and, at the time, the biggest of the two surfaces I had in the kitchen of my flat was two foot six long, so, to use it would have meant dangling it over the sink and stringing an extension lead across the kitchen (and cooker, just for the added frisson of potential electrocution).

It's somewhere in the loft where it's been since the day I moved in because the cunting thing is too big to hide in a bin bag and shove in the wheelie bin.

The most irritating thing is that I didn't even want a coffee machine - it was the exBF's sister who wanted one from her DP. So, not only was I landed with something I neither wanted or needed, I had to deal with his sister copping a massive strop because she didn't get what she wanted for Xmas and I did - tempting though it was to give it to her for a quiet life, she wouldn't have accepted it because it was too big to fit on her kitchen countertop either.

I would Freecycle it, but I have the nagging suspicion that if it were to come out of the loft, DP would decide he wanted to keep the bastard thing.

Ratonastick · 28/02/2019 23:52

Toedust. Click at your own risk......

www.lakeland.co.uk

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