If you’re anything like us, the dream kitchen you have in your mind has a lot more counter space than the actual room in the house where you prep and cook all your meals. Yes, in an ideal world we’d have a butler’s pantry, hutch, sideboard, massive island and more cabinets than we know what to do with. But the reality is that most of us are a little starved for space, and that can spell trouble if you’re an appliance junkie.
Sometimes, you start collecting appliances while watching late-night shopping channel shows; other times, it’s through well-meaning gifts that you find yourself with more appliances than you have square footage. That’s when it’s time to pare things down.
It turns out there are only a few appliances you really need in the kitchen. The rest do things you can accomplish with what you already have, and unless you literally make a panini every day, do you really want that big press taking up primo counter space? We didn’t think so.
Look through our list of the appliances that are truly essential and those you can ditch. Trust us, you’ll thank us when you see how much storage space you suddenly have.
Worth It: Slow Cooker
Because it allows you to set and forget foods (unlike braising something on the stove or in the oven), and because one-pot meals are a true hero in our homes, the slow cooker is legitimately worth taking up space on your counter. Whether you're cooking up a week's worth of soup, making pulled pork for dinner or creating a tasty slow cooker cocktail for a party, this versatile appliance has earned its place.
Crock-Pot 6-quart programmable cook and carry slow cooker, $39.99 at Target
Worth It: Stand Mixer
Stand mixers take up a bunch of space — there's no doubt about that. But thanks to the attachments, they basically eliminate the need for dozens of other appliances. Need homemade pasta? Your mixer can do that. Kneading bread dough? Um, obvi! Whipping up feather-light meringue for a showstopping, award-winning dessert? The stand mixer's got your back. You can even use it to shred chicken and other meat for meal prep, which is a lot better than burning your fingertips doing things the old-fashioned way.
KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-quart bowl-lift stand mixer, $349.99 at Amazon
Worth It: Instant Pot
Sometimes, you need dinner in a hurry but don't want to settle for something bland, and that's where the Instant Pot comes in. It does dinner, dessert and breakfast — meats, beans and grains — in way less time than usual so you can eat healthy and, more important, tasty food without using up all your free time hunched over the stove and doing dishes.
Instant Pot Pioneer Woman vintage floral 6-quart pressure cooker, $99 at Walmart
Worth It: Blender
It's honestly really hard to replicate what a blender does with manual tasks. You can't exactly blend frozen fruit, ice and juice by hand and make a smoothie (unless you have the most patience in the world and an enormous granite mortar and pestle), and making things like homemade nut milks and smooth sauces is really difficult without one. If you have a high-power blender, you can even make your own Nutella. Just try to tell us that doesn't justify the counter space.
KitchenAid five-speed blender, $72 at Amazon
Worth It: Toaster Oven
Toaster ovens are great for a number of reasons. First, you can toast stuff, be it bread, bagels or English muffins. But you can also use the toaster oven to toast nuts, seeds and spices; reheat leftovers; and broil or roast small quantities of ingredients if you don't want to waste a bunch of electricity turning on the oven.
Panasonic FlashXpress toaster oven, $97.98 at Walmart
Not Worth It: Toaster
A toaster does nothing that a toaster oven can't, nor does it do all the extra things a toaster oven can accomplish. You just don't need one.
Not Worth It: Food Processor
Unless you're churning out industrial quantities of slaw on a weekly basis, pretty much everything you do in the food processor can be done by hand or in your high-speed blender.
Not Worth It: Air-Fryer
We know there are some die-hard air-fryer fanatics out there, but let's be real — is there anything an air-fryer does that you can't do in the oven or on the stove?
Not Worth It: Panini Press/Sandwich Makers
Y'all know you can make sandwiches in a pan on the stove, right? And all you need to do to make a panini is wrap it in foil, put it in the pan, and top it with another heavy pan (think cast-iron skillet or a frying pan with a few cans of tomatoes in it). No clumsy, space-hogging electrical appliance needed.
Not Worth It: Electric Coffee Maker
Controversial? Maybe. But you can make coffee in a French press or pour-over in about the same amount of time, and guess what? Your coffee is going to taste a million times better, and both those devices take up a fraction of the counter space of a big electric percolator.
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