Five things I stopped buying for my kitchen

I work for a company that sells kitchen products, which I think makes me more careful about what I own rather than less. I see what people buy, and I see what they buy again a year later because the first one broke or bored them.

1. Single-purpose gadgets

The garlic press, the herb stripper, the strawberry huller, the avocado tool. Each one solves a task that a knife already solves in the same amount of time, and each one takes drawer space permanently.

The test I use now: does this do something a knife, a spoon or my hands cannot? If not, it is a gift I will pretend to like.

The exceptions are real, and they are the tools that do something genuinely difficult. A rice paddle. A mandoline, carefully. A sushi tube roller, because even rice distribution by hand takes practice.

2. Cling film

I used a roll every few weeks for years without ever thinking about it. Now I use a plate on a bowl, a beeswax wrap, or a reusable bag, and I have bought one roll in two years, for one specific job.

This was not a moral decision. It was that cling film is genuinely annoying: it sticks to itself, tears wrong, and never seals as well as a lid.

3. Plastic tubs

I owned about thirty and could match maybe eighteen lids. They stack badly, stain permanently with anything containing tomato, and warp in the dishwasher.

I replaced most of them with a few large bags that lie flat, and glass for anything going in the oven. The flat storage alone gave me back most of a freezer drawer.

4. Novelty moulds and shaped anything

Panda-shaped rice moulds. Heart-shaped egg rings. Cars, stars, dinosaurs. I have owned several and used each exactly once.

They photograph beautifully, which is the problem: they are designed to look good in a product listing rather than to be used on a Tuesday.

5. The fourth chopping board

I had one for meat, one for vegetables, one for bread and one that was somehow for fruit. In practice I used the biggest one for everything and washed it between jobs.

Two boards is right. One large wooden one for most things, one plastic one for raw meat that goes in the dishwasher. The rest was storage cost pretending to be organisation.

What I did buy

Fewer, better versions of the things I use weekly. A pair of chopsticks I like enough to carry. Large bags that replaced thirty tubs. A box for the recipes that were previously in a drawer.

None of it is exciting. All of it gets used, which is the only test that matters.

Questions

What kitchen gadgets are not worth buying?

Anything that does one task a knife already does, such as garlic presses, herb strippers and avocado tools, and anything shaped like an animal. The useful exceptions are tools that do something genuinely difficult by hand.

What can I use instead of cling film?

A plate over a bowl, a beeswax wrap, or a reusable silicone bag. All seal better than cling film and none of them stick to themselves.

How many chopping boards do I need?

Two. A large wooden one for most work and a plastic one for raw meat that can go in the dishwasher.