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Things I have bought but hardly ever used

(103 Posts)
NanKate Sat 25-Sep-21 07:46:24

In the 70s I bought a yogurt maker only used it a few times.

What about you?

humptydumpty Sun 26-Sep-21 18:15:51

A while back I bought a steam cleaner for clothes, it sounded like a great idea but it's not been used - are they really good, do they match upto/beat an iron? Any advice gratefully received!

May7 Sun 26-Sep-21 20:09:35

Himalayan salt lamp. Used once and put back in box. Liked the look of it online but in reality its not my thing. However, I love my egg slicer, spiralizer and toastie maker.

Sara1954 Mon 04-Oct-21 20:15:02

I really love my Himalayan salt lamp.
I leave it on all night and it’s a lovely soft amber glow.

Urmstongran Mon 04-Oct-21 20:23:08

I’ve loved reading all these! Given me a good giggle. Thanks all.
??

Retyred Thu 25-Nov-21 22:18:10

I bought an exercise-rowing machine. I used it about 5 times then took it to the tip, after it sat in my spare room for about a year.

Deedaa Thu 25-Nov-21 22:31:04

I'm onto my third breadmaker. I bought the first one about 25 years ago. I was working in Asda and found that we had quite a few customers who used them so I thought perhaps it wouldn't get hidden in a cupboard.

DH had an awful habit of buying gadgets - for instance the spiraliser he bought me shortly before he died. I was quite interested till I found the recipe book just contained a whole lot of standard pasta sauces. Spiraliser is now sitting in the garage.

BlueSky Thu 25-Nov-21 22:50:25

I thought it was weird that a lot of people had a hardly used mandolin, then I realised they meant the kitchen utensil rather than the musical instrument! grin

Shinamae Thu 25-Nov-21 22:56:08

Juicer which has been up in the loft for about three years now but I do use my neutribullit. Soup maker used about four times is now languishing in the cupboard ?

Coolgran65 Thu 25-Nov-21 22:56:35

Just to say I notice how many have said how they’ve never used their electric knife and yet I use it at least once daily. Not just for carving a roast. It is wonderful for cutting a cake into portions without spoiling a fancy decoration (wipe the blades between cuts), or slicing a crusty loaf/bread. When making rounds of sandwiches it’s brilliant for cutting through several piled on top of each other, super triangles.
One man’s useless gadget is another’s treasure.

On the other hand I cannot be bothered with my 3 tiered steamer. It’s such a faff, always needing topped up with water and such a nuisance to clean. Much easier to put potatoes in a saucepan, and then cauliflower etc into a colander on top with a lid.

Retyred Thu 25-Nov-21 23:16:33

Ukulele. I attended group lessons, but could not keep up.

Grannynannywanny Thu 25-Nov-21 23:19:05

My dear old dad was fond of useless gadgets. In the late 60s he came home from the Modern Homes Exhibition with an Autochop. Did anyone have one? I’ve just found this photo of a vintage one on Google.

My mum found it impossible to use to chop veg as it hurt her hands. So, my dad used it to chop his pipe tobacco a few times before it was relegated to the back of the cupboard.

M0nica Thu 25-Nov-21 23:29:44

Juicer. It was so large and required so much cleaning. i used it half a dozen times - and never again.

Much the same applies to a soup maker, bought because a friend waxed lyrical about it. I didn't take account of the fact that she is a neat precise, follow the recipe carefully, kind of gal, while I am a hurl it all in the pot and hope for the best person, so between vegetables not cut small enough and putting too much fluid in.

When the element blew within three weeks of buying it - at the start of lockdown and i couldn't get back to the shop to throw it out. I just recycled it. It had been a sale bargain, so not much money had been wasted.

Spiraliser was more effective at spiralising my fingers than the vegetables and the ice cream maker, again, was just too fiddly.

Calistemon Thu 25-Nov-21 23:34:34

Grannynannywanny
I had one of those, it was brilliant for chopping onions. I used it so much it fell to pieces in the end!

Grannynannywanny Fri 26-Nov-21 00:01:41

You could have had ours from the back of the cupboard Calistemon!

Redhead56 Fri 26-Nov-21 00:13:19

A mincer attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer that I do use a lot the mincer never came out the box. I bought a pasta maker that never came out the box either I make pasta and just use a rolling pin. Potato ricer I used once and spirilliser was used once a waste of money too much trouble.

Teacheranne Fri 26-Nov-21 01:33:54

Grannynannywanny

Callistemon I bought this bread mix in Aldi during lockdown thinking it might be handy to have in the cupboard.

I made it recently and it produced a delicious loaf. Only cost 89p. It’s available in white or whole meal.

I discovered these products when flour was in short supply, the ginger cake is delicious and really does taste homemade with little bits of crystallised ginger in. Whenever I make one, people ask me for the recipe!

I add a ginger icing topping ( butter, syrup, icing sugar and ginger) and it is very popular. You just need to add some water and oil to bake a perfect cake. I get mine from Tesco.

CanadianGran Fri 26-Nov-21 07:17:55

I have several bundt pans of varying sizes, but I rarely use them. Next week for sure...

We found our electric knife in the back of a cupboard after a friend gave us a very hearty loaf of home made bread. After cutting one slice with a regular bread knife and realizing I was going to murder the loaf, DH mentioned the electric knife and the hunt was on. It did a brilliant job.

I have an exercise ball that keeps getting moved from one corner of the spare room to the other. I think I used it for about a month. I should just let the dog and grandchildren have it in the back yard until it bursts.

Witzend Fri 26-Nov-21 07:18:44

Ditto to the steam cleaner. Just too much faff.

And a potato ricer. Took far too long to make anything like enough. I thought I’d given it to a charity shop, but found it lurking at the back of a cupboard the other day. It’ll be off to the hospice shop soon.

MayBeMaw Fri 26-Nov-21 08:36:50

I have more (identical) sandwich/cake tins than you can shake at, probably because I have no idea what size they are and whenever a cake recipe specifies a particular size, I buy another one to be on the safe side. hmmhmm

Auntieflo Fri 26-Nov-21 09:26:39

One of those iron presses. We were at some sort of country fair, and I bought two, one for us and one for DD.

DD still 'squashes the washing', occasionally, I hardly used ours, then sold it on Gumtree.

Tizliz Fri 26-Nov-21 09:39:47

I was only thinking about this yesterday when I had to empty the cupboard out to find my favourite cake tin, I have bun tins, Yorkshire pudding tins etc that I have never used. It is the same with saucepans, I have at least 10 but only use 3 or 4.

Hetty58 Fri 26-Nov-21 10:02:58

Witzend, we're all different. I use my potato ricer and steam cleaner all the time. I seem to have a collection of sieves, though, that I never use (next trip to the charity shop). Then there's a flour shaker/caster thing sitting on a shelf - and I just sprinkle the flour!

Hetty58 Fri 26-Nov-21 10:11:08

Then there's the leaf blower - brilliant with dry leaves (in the rare case of having any) - useless with wet!

Calistemon Fri 26-Nov-21 10:36:47

Hetty58

Then there's the leaf blower - brilliant with dry leaves (in the rare case of having any) - useless with wet!

And oh so heavy!

bongobil Fri 26-Nov-21 10:41:15

Ice cream maker, never used it went to charity shop and showing my age now a deep fat fryer (was a wedding present)~, what was I thinking putting that on my gift list!