Day 68: Single-Use Appliances
What: Single-Use Appliances
Why: The George Foreman. The omelet maker. The one-hit wonders. As Seen On TV. The machine/appliance that will solve all of your chopping, cooking, and baking needs. Promises that seem too good to be true. Do have any of those appliances? The ones that you only take out about twice a year? The ones that you need to dust off and make sure there are no dead bugs in it every time you are going to use it? Why do we hang on to them? Here are a few tips on how to make sure you are maximizing the appliances you have and ridding your cupboards of the useless ones.
How:
1. Make a list of all of the appliances/one-hit wonders you have. These are the appliances that you can really only use for ONE thing. Like a quesadilla maker.
2. Decide:
- How often do I use it?
- Is there another way to make this item, not using the appliance?
- Does it really save me time?
- It is worth the space that it takes up?
- Would I miss it if I did not have it?
3. Do not hang out to it thinking you will use it more. You won’t. Just DONATE it!
4. Biggest step: preventing these type of mechanisms from coming into your home. Make the most of what you have!
Confession of the Day: We used to have a quesadilla maker (like the one pictured above). It took up quite a bit of shelf space. We REALLY like quesadillas, so I wanted to hang onto it. Then my cousin taught me how to make them in the oven! Out the quesadilla maker went! Plus, I can make multiple quesadillas at once, instead of having to wait for each individual one to get done. It has been such a time saver NOT using this appliance. Who would’ve thought? I will confess we do have a KitchenAid Belgian waffle maker that we received as a wedding gift and have NEVER regretted having that! It makes those big ole whoppers that you get at restaurants and now we can enjoy them in the comforts of our home! Living with less means minimizing, while maximizing the use of every item – like those one it wonders.
What one-hit wonder are you hanging onto, but are now considering getting rid of?
Easy Oven Quesadillas
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Butter one side of each tortilla
3. Place foil in bottom of pan or cooking sheet
4. Place tortilla on cookie sheet, butter side down
5. Fill tortilla with cheese, chicken, or whatever ingredients you want
6. Place another tortilla on top, buttered side up
7. Bake for 5 minutes per side or until golden brown
8. Slice and serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, etc.
Thanks for this prompting! I was thinking I didn't have any single use appliances…love that term them by the way. Then I remembered I have an ice shaver (snowcone) maker. The kids wanted to keep it, but I haven't used it for over a year because I hate giving them sugar syrup. Plus it is messy and time-consuming. I have a VitaMix that hopefully could make snowcones anyway. It's nice to have that space now. Woo-hoo!
Isn't it easy to just collect so many single-use appliances? We hide them in places we forget about because we so rarely use them. You have a PERFECT example in the ice shaver/snowcone maker :). What a great example. And to find something else that works just as great, is a wonderful road to living with less 🙂
We use our George Foreman grill a LOT. My husband likes to make hot sandwiches on it, and we grill all kinds of things on it. But we have this waffle maker that I haven't used in two years. We like waffles, but they're a pain to make, so I'd rather make pancakes. Probably should get rid of that dude.
Ah the George Foreman! That is quite a versatile appliance, I must say! Good point about your waffle maker though Amy – that you can make pancakes just as easily. I just struggle with the space that they take up when space is so limited at times. Glad to hear you are thinking through these things such as other alternatives to the waffle maker and thinking of other ways you can accomplish the same thing (roughly) without having to keep everything. Thank you for your comment!