thinning out my kitchen gadgets, what to keep?

[Beekissed]

Attack cat -Have you thought of using the wall space for stuff. When I had a very small kitchen, I used magnetic tool holders to keep my knives on the wall along with other metallic items like measuring spoons and other things I used a lot- handy.
That's when I found out that some metals that look like they ought to are not held by magnets- but it helped with a lot of things.

Enjoy, I do the same thing except I have an old green porcelain flower pot that I keep my big utensils in. You can just see the bottom of it in this photo of my Mama's blackberry cobbler....

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[attack-cat]

Attack cat -Have you thought of using the wall space for stuff. When I had a very small kitchen, I used magnetic tool holders to keep my knives on the wall along with other metallic items like measuring spoons and other things I used a lot- handy.
That's when I found out that some metals that look like they ought to are not held by magnets- but it helped with a lot of things.

I wish I could. One wall has the door outside and the fridge spot tkes the rest of it. The other wall is gone because it is open into the living (I wouldn't have built it this way), the one wall has the dining table ( seater) and some cabinets above the table. The last one has the sink and the stove and the fridge (fridge is in the corner) - there are two cabinets above the stove, a window over the sink and then the fridge. The wall that opens into the living room is a huge waste of space! The kitchen was desinged by a man that didn't cook! The bathroom is on the backside of the one wall and its huge. He could have used space from the bath and made a nice size kitchen. I have pans in a rubbrmaid tote int he bathroom since there is such little space in the kitchen. I hide the tub in the basement when we have guests! but the only wall spaces have four cabinets. I had to hang a clock over the door! We were supposed to inherit some money, not much but enough to redo the kitchen by building a half wall where the open wall into the family room is, but that isn't going to happen now. I could have had a little more cabinet and countertop space. Family problems.

 

[enjoy the ride]

My favorite gadget of the moment is a cheese slicer that is a cylinder that turns with three wires that run from the end to the handle- you can roll off three different thicknesses of perfect slices of cheese from a block with this- sort of like a peeler for cheese.
I liked this so much, I went back and bought another so I would have a spare if one failed.
So not only do I love gadgets, I feel they are important enough to require back up-lol. I can't find my favorite hard boiled egg slicer that had a place for making slices AND quartering so you can tell that back up is important.
Hmmm- I wonder if I could use the french fry slicer to make cheese cubes......................

 

[keljonma]

That's very similar to what Alton Brown suggests. Only he recommends getting a box and storing things in it as you use them. Anything not in the box after 6 months goes. Your way sounds a lot neater. The though of digging through a box to get to stuff I do used doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

We have been doing something similar for years. Put stuff in a box and mark the date you boxed it up on the outside of the box. Don't forget to also have a list on the outside of the box telling what is inside. Whenever you go into the box to remove something, change the date on the box. If the box has not been opened in 1 year out it all goes. For holiday items or annually used items, I have a 2 years, 'if not used, it goes' policy. It does not apply to heirlooms or family genealogy files and/or photos. This really helped us in the early 1990s, declutter everything before we made a major move 1800 miles away.
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A number of the old kitchen gadgets, like the hand beater can be found at thrift type shops for reasonable costs.

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We have a coffee maker, small microwave, toaster, waffle iron, coffee bean grinder used for herbs only, a bread maker I use for kneading dough, a dehydrator, immersion blender, kitchenaid stand mixer, food processor/blender, and my water bath canner.

I got the dehydrator for $2 and the bread machine for $7 at auctions. I got as gifts from family or friends the waffle iron, grinder, immersion blender, coffee maker, food processor/blender, the kitchenaid mixer and canner. Most of these items I use daily/weekly for food prep or processing for canning/storage.

I could live without the microwave, although I would miss it in the winter because I use it most for warming up our homemade bedwarmers.

Luckily, I have a huge pantry, partially under the stairs to the 2nd floor of the house. With the exception of the microwave and coffee maker, which we keep on the counter, all of these items fit there.

I could never get rid of my bread machine! I use it two or three times a week. It does take up a lot of counter space though.

I just use the bread machine to mix and knead the dough. I make 2 to 4 loaves of bread a week. I have 2 loaves mixing and kneading in the bread machine while I have 2 loaves mixing and kneading in the kitchenaid mixer. Then all 4 go into the oven at once. The bread machine is stored in the pantry under the stairs when not in use. I don't use it to bake the bread.

 

[Henrietta23]

We have been doing something similar for years. Put stuff in a box and mark the date you boxed it up on the outside of the box. Don't forget to also have a list on the outside of the box telling what is inside. Whenever you go into the box to remove something, change the date on the box. If the box has not been opened in 1 year out it all goes. For holiday items or annually used items, I have a 2 years, 'if not used, it goes' policy. It does not apply to heirlooms or family genealogy files and/or photos. This really helped us in the early 1990s, declutter everything before we made a major move 1800 miles away.
----

A number of the old kitchen gadgets, like the hand beater can be found at thrift type shops for reasonable costs.

----
We have a coffee maker, small microwave, toaster, waffle iron, coffee bean grinder used for herbs only, a bread maker I use for kneading dough, a dehydrator, immersion blender, kitchenaid stand mixer, food processor/blender, and my water bath canner.

I got the dehydrator for $2 and the bread machine for $7 at auctions. I got as gifts from family or friends the waffle iron, grinder, immersion blender, coffee maker, food processor/blender, the kitchenaid mixer and canner. Most of these items I use daily/weekly for food prep or processing for canning/storage.

I could live without the microwave, although I would miss it in the winter because I use it most for warming up our homemade bedwarmers.

Luckily, I have a huge pantry, partially under the stairs to the 2nd floor of the house. With the exception of the microwave and coffee maker, which we keep on the counter, all of these items fit there.

I could never get rid of my bread machine! I use it two or three times a week. It does take up a lot of counter space though.

I just use the bread machine to mix and knead the dough. I make 2 to 4 loaves of bread a week. I have 2 loaves mixing and kneading in the bread machine while I have 2 loaves mixing and kneading in the kitchenaid mixer. Then all 4 go into the oven at once. The bread machine is stored in the pantry under the stairs when not in use. I don't use it to bake the bread.

I rarely use mine to bake the bread either. I make all our sandwich loaves as well as hearth breads for dinner, rolls, english muffins, and bagels.