I recently acquired a new love in my kitchen, the TofuXpress. If you’re vegetarian, vegan, or someone who enjoys tofu (but doesn’t enjoy pressing it between two plates and beneath a tower of heavy objects), go check it out. Right now. I’ll wait.
Per my own minimalist rules… if it doesn’t get used regularly (once weekly), it is a candidate for expulsion. Also, a popular minimalist policy is the one-in-one-out rule. I got a new TofuXpress, so I had to rifle through my kitchen to find something to boot out in its place.
I purged:
- 2 carving knives (I’m an almost-vegan, and have only been using a couple knives regularly, and they will do!)
- 7 large spoons
- 4 forks
- 9 small spoons (I kept four small spoons, four forks, and four butter knives — do the math if you dare – who needs 20 spoons?!)
- 1 meat thermometer (which is very handy and lovely and not in any way unusable… but I no longer cook meat, so I have no more use for it!
- 1 pastry cutter (I have lived here a month and did not know I had it)
- 1 can strainer (a lovely invention, but I have a colander)
- 4 cups and threaded lip-cover-things to the Magic Bullet blender (keeping the blender and two blender cups but these were superfluous)
- 2 heart-shaped pancake molds that I used on Valentine’s Day and never again
- 1 cutting board (I have another, why have two?)
- 1 spatula (I have another one I like better)
- 1 plastic spoon (haven’t used it yet, and I have others)
- 1 cake pan (I am giving up my dream of being a confectionary goddess)
- 1 plastic pitcher (I have one that goes with my iced tea maker)
- 1 rice cooker/crock pot (It was a gift that I asked for so this one was sort of hard, but I have only used it once in three years!
- Rice scoop (with cooker)
- 1 brand new, in box Martha Stewart enamel fancy schmancy casserole dish (a gift, but in my defense, not one I asked for)
- 2 potholders (I have another two and who really has more than two hands for hot stuff anyway?)
I have a 9×13 baking dish, a smaller baking dish, three mixing bowls, a square baking dish, and two circular bowls I use for storing leftovers or packing for lunch. As an added bonus, check out my nifty knife rack! I used 3M Command velcro strips (for picture hanging, if you listen to the packaging) and put up a magnetic knife rack beneath the cabinet.
What’s in your minimalist kitchen?