Living in New York City isn't cheap, and it's only getting worse. These days you're getting less and less space for your dollar. Living in a shoebox apartment is pretty much the norm.
Even though people have come up with space saving ideas, we've seen so many friends buying crazy specific tools that you really, REALLY don't need taking up real estate on your kitchen counters.
In all honesty, these so-called tools are merely just crap designed to make you believe that you NEED them in your life so that you cough up crazy amounts of hard-earned cash for something that you will most likely NEVER use.
When you have the limited kitchen space of an NYC apartment, there's no reason to have these tools cluttering your drawers, cabinets, and counters.
These are the tools you don't need to buy, and the kitchen hacks you should use instead.
1. Rolling pin
Hey! Did you drink any wine this weekend? If you're anything like us you did. You probably discarded of the bottle in the recycling bin, believing that it had served its only purpose. You're wrong.
Don't stash a rolling pin in the limited space in your kitchen. Unless you're Paula Deen makin' biscuits on the daily, you don't need it. Even if it was so cute, you thought you just HAD to have it. You can use a bottle of wine to roll out your dough instead.
Just imagine, you can use that money that would have gone towards an overpriced, cutesy rolling pin towards another bottle of 2 buck Chuck and store it where you would have put that rolling pin that you'll never use.
Now, you'll have some extra vino for when you run out AND you have a bottle of wine that will certainly accomplish the task you need it for once in a blue moon.
2. Cake divider/slicer
Unless you're running a bakery or restaurant and are worried about your staff cutting slices that are way too generous or just plain stingy, you really have no reason to need a cake divider or slicer.
Even when you do use one, they don't work. Somehow you're always stuck with an oddball slice that's significantly too small to serve to anyone. Plus, who has the space to put something you'll probably never use? Not us.
Instead, use unflavored dental floss. To all the chefs who went at great lengths to teach some of us otherwise: please don't hate us for saying something so sacrilegious.
Take a long piece of floss and pull it down through the cake, where you'd like to slice it. Then repeat the process until you've cut the cake into perfect slices. If you don't have dental floss, do what the chefs do: use a friggin' knife.
3. Knife block
Speaking of knives, you have ABSOLUTELY no reason for that large piece of wood that's taking up space on your counter.
Sure, it keeps your knives protected from harm and keeps you protected from cutting yourself when you rummage through your drawers. But those blocks unnecessarily take up major real estate.
Unless those knives are Shun or Miyabi knives, there's NO reason why you should have a block to protect them. Even if they are Shun, you simply need knife protectors, which cost in the $1-$6 range per knife. They're pieces of plastic that protect the knife from damage, and you from the knife's blade.
If you're still not feeling the protectors, get a knife magnate strip to adhere to your kitchen wall. Then you can have your knives in reach at all times. But, since they're out in the open, this could be a hazard for small children, boisterous house parties, and generally klutzy people. As in, we're stickin' with the protectors.
4. Garlic press
This is something you have absolutely no reason to be in your drawer. First, these things SUCK to wash. Just imagine how much time you spend trying to clean out the mushed pieces of sticky garlic in the little holes of the press. It takes forever.
Second, you typically ALWAYS have to use a knife to cut the mushed up garlic afterward. It's just not worth it. Why not use your knife in the first place and save a lot of time, energy, and frustration.
Take your chef's knife, cutting board, and garlic. Use the flat side of your knife and the heel of your hand to press the garlic down between the knife and the cutting board.
The garlic will smash and lose its peel. Just pick the peel (it usually stays in one piece) and throw it in the trash. Then add a dash of salt and either cut it into desired sizes or mush the garlic into a paste.
5. Panini press
If you have one of these and don't use it on the daily, you wasted your money. We say that when we really want to say that they're a waste of money in general. Because they are. But we're trying to be nicer. We're working on it.
These things typically wind up taking up needed space on your countertops or in your cabinets. You probably don't even use it because you're at work during the lunch hour don't want to schlep it back to your apartment in the time you have off.
Seriously, when was the last time you used it? We haven't used ours in months and basically gave it away to our parents living in the suburbs with a heck of a lot more time and space on their hands.
If you have a grill pan (or even just a griddle), you can put your sandwich on the grill pan and top with a brick or a heavy pot. Then do the same on the other side. Boom. Panini.
6. Citrus reamer/press/juicer
We've worked in a lot of kitchens. We use electric juicers when we have to make big batches of lemon curd or grapefruit granita.
When we're at home and are makin' margs, we roll our limes on the counter to free the juice from the pump, cut them in half with a knife and use a fork to stick into the pulp and twist. It does the same thing that those electric juicers or citrus reamers do.
If you're worried about pulp in your curd, don't be. Just strain the juice through a colander or strainer before you use it. Then you can wash the knife and fork and throw back into the drawer where it takes up less room than that big ol' juicer.
,7. Egg/avocado/potato/apple/banana slicer
Three words. Use. A. Knife.
Seriously, why do you need all of these crappy tools to take up space when they only do ONE job, that you MIGHT need maybe once a year.
Wanna make fries? Cut your potatoes with a knife. Apples? USE A KNIFE. We're boggled that people spend money on specific that they forget they even have.
The only good thing about a banana slicer are these reviews. Other than that, it's entirely useless.
Spend your money on a knife and a sharpening stone. Learn how to use both the knife and your stone, and you'll never need to spend money on another tool again. Saves space and money. And we're all about saving money.
Heck, then sharpen your friends knives for a small price and you'll have a steady source of income from your new skill.
8. Popcorn maker
Like, really... Do you have a stove (electric, induction, gas, campfire flame, doesn't really matter). Check. Do you have a pot? Check. Do you have oil? Check. Go grab some loose kernels from the supermarket. Follow the directions on the back of the package.
Then cover with butter, salt, parmesan cheese, truffle oil, or whatever floats your boat. It's going to be a hell of a lot healthier than any popcorn that comes out of the microwave. Which means you don't have to share.
When you're done, just wash the pot once it cools and put it back in it's spot. Maybe it can take the spot of the useless popcorn machine.
9. Strawberry huller/cherry pitter
Sooo many people have these decorative tools that take up way too much space in your drawers for the task they're designed to do. Why do you need a plastic strawberry in your drawer that you'll never use?
You can use a paring knife or small utility knife. If you're really dead set on using a tool to de-hull a strawberry or de-pit a cherry or olive, grab a regular ol' bendy straw. It doesn't have to be a bendy straw, they're just so much more fun.
Rip the leaves off your strawberries. Then poke the straw through the top of the strawberry. You can poke all the way down to the tip or maneuver the straw to rip the hull from the body. We recommend saving yourself some frustration and just poke through the tip.
Since we're not adults, we suggest you spit the hulls at someone by blowing through the straw. If you're an adult (why on earth be something so unfun?) either spit it into a trash bin, or pick the strawberry out of the bottom of the straw.
Pretty much do the same with the cherry/olive by poking the straw through the tip and pushing the pit out the bottom. It's not as fun as a strawberry because you can't spit the ends at people.
10. Meat mallet
Are you a butcher? Great, keep your meat mallet because you probably use it all the time. If you're a regular ol' cook, you have no reason to keep one of these bulky things in your kitchen.
Instead, loosely cover your meat with plastic wrap. Then take a pan and tap/smash it down on the bulk of the meat. The meat will inevitably yield to the force of your smashing and flatten out.
Just don't smash so hard that you break your pan or make so much noise that the person who lives below you thinks you're getting pummeled to death and calls the cops...that is, if they're a kindly neighbor who looks out for your livelihood.
If they're not, they'll probably just start using a broom to bang on their ceiling to get you to shut up. Yes, people still do that.
11. Electric steamer
We've worked in many kitchens here at spoiledNYC. We've NEVER used an electric steamer. This is another product created by someone who figured they could dupe consumers out of their money and cabinet space.
Since we've already established that you have a pot an a colander (or spaghetti strainer as we called it growing up), put a pot of water on the stove to a boil, then place the colander filled with veggies to be steamed over the boiling water (but not touching). Cover that with the pot lid, and wait until your veggies are nice and tender.
If you don't have a pot or a stove (lookin' at you college dudes), but have a microwave, put your veggies in a microwavable bowl with a bit of water.
Then cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. CAREFULLY take the plastic wrap off making sure to let the steam escape before tearing it off completely (steam burns really hurt). Now you can be healthy in your dorm room instead of eating ramen for every meal.
12. Egg separator
We went to culinary school for baking and pastry. We've worked in Michelin Star restaurants where we separated more eggs than we could count. We have NEVER used an egg separator.
We've seen the tip to use a bottle to separate eggs. But still, you need a water bottle.
With the holiday season coming up, we're sure you'll be making egg nog and need to separate a large bunch of eggs in a short period of time. We're not going to be using the water bottle method OR a useless egg separator.
Grab three bowls. Crack your egg into one small bowl and transfer to a larger bowl. Make sure you do this one at a time so you can catch any bad eggs, double yolks, or broken yolks. Once you have all your eggs in one large bowl (whites and yolks), use the best tools known to man. Your clean hands.
Carefully scoop the yolks out with one hand and transfer to another bowl. The whites will slide through your fingers. You can do all of this in a matter of seconds and all you have is one extra bowl to clean.
Check out 7 Best Breakfast Sandwiches in NYC.
[Feature Image Courtesy To Love Honor and Vacuum]