Lots are more of a pain to pull out and clean than they are worth, but I have to confess that I love many of my kitchen gadgets and appliances.

I'm not one to splurge on clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, etc., and I can count on one hand the number of meals I eat out in a normal year, so I allow myself to indulge in kitchen-related gear.

I love my electric pressure cooker, my KitchenAid mixer, my food processor and my coffee machine and milk frother.

Sometimes I enjoy preparing a meal with just a good knife & cutting board and I could manage without a lot of my gizmos, but other times, I really enjoy & appreciate them.

I am making it a point to use my gadgets lately. Unfortunately, I am a little too careless when putting them back because one of my cords was loose and grabbed on my cappuccino maker as I was pulling out a mixer or something and it smashed to the ground.

I think for me they seem kind of inconvenient since I now have a small kitchen. When I've lived in houses with large kitchen's I loved all the small appliances because I could keep them right out on the counter. But now I have to put most of them away in the basement which is the only place I have to put stuff. But all that said...I feel much like you do. It's just easier to not use them.

I do love my food processor, but I know what you mean about the cleaning. I do think before I use it -- "is it really worth it to use it in this case?" What I do do is as soon as I'm done with it I rinse it with hot water so it's a lot easier to clean and no bits of food harden up in the little crevices.

I'm sure you'll have no problem unloading your KitchedAid mixer. You might have a fight on your hands amongst relatives!

I don't have a Kitchen Aid, but wish I did. I like small appliances but especially my egg cooker and my waffle maker.

Storage is a huge part of convenience. If the small appliances are handy and easy to get to, they're of course easier to use and put away. Cooking style and frequency of use is a big part as well.

I have an electric ice cream maker.....I've used it twice. Luckily, it was a garage sale buy, so I'm not kicking myself for spending money on something I use so little. It is in the garage, from whence it will likely be pulled out another time or two over the next few years.

However, I LOVE my stick blender/puree gadget. LOVE my Ronco Rotisserie. LOVE my dehydrator. Use them all frequently.

I love most of my small appliances. I don't own or need an electric knife though. I just don't like their unsighly appearance on top of my cabinets. Nor do I want any of those gadgets they hawk on TV such as the Bullit or the Pasta cookers. I don't like other non-electrical gadgets unless they are multi-taskers. They take up too much space.

I have lots but don't use much on a regular basis.
Electric carving knives are great for biscotti.
I have a big KA food processor and often find myself reaching for the small Oscar chopper instead since it doesn't take up much room at all in the dishwasher.

I could have a whole closet for my crock pots alone.

I need to apologize to my Keurig coffee maker. I have the smallest, simplest model and use it at least twice daily. It doesnâÂÂt take up much space so it gets to stay on the counter, and I love it.

I would love to give away my KA mixer, came with some attachment that grinds or chops and has never been out of the box, but there is no one to give it to. I come from a long line of dysfunctional families, as did my ex. I have 5 or 6 cousins I have never met. Of the two I did know, one died recently and his sister is in prison for life for murdering one of her husbands. My son in CA is a gourmet cook and owns and uses all kinds of appliances. My son and daughter in law who live 15 miles away live in a tiny house with the worldâÂÂs smallest kitchen, so they donâÂÂt want it. I have two friends and they have kitchens that are already well stocked. I paid close to $300 for the KA and would like to sell it, but I doubt I would get a decent price for it. I used it no more than 10 times.

Nancy

I love appliances. I'd much, much rather shop in kitchen stores than for clothing. I despise clothing and shoe shopping.

I'm limited with my counter-space, and just having received a KA mixer my food processor is relegated to a wooden stool in the dining room. The KA is much too heavy to move when I want to use it. The FP is lighter, to bring into the kitchen.

I use my bread maker weekly, and got an electric knife off of Freecycle to make slicing easier. It's okay, but kind of a pain.
Does anyone have an easy way to make nice slices in their homemade bread?

MudLady, you could try selling your mixer on Kijiji or Craigslist. You wouldn't have to sell it for next to nothing.

Just look on ebay mudlady and see how much people are getting for their KA mixers! They go like hotcakes and people are getting big bucks for them! They are a very hot item! But one day you may decide to make homemade bread and you'll have to have it then! They should last many many years!

Try Craigslist that way you don't have to deal with shipping.

I love gadgets and kitchen appliances. I work in a kitchen store and do catering when asked so kitchen items are part of my daily life. I think it comes down to I just like to cook and bake(bake mostly) and the appliances are part of the that.
The only small appliances I keep out on my counter are the toaster and the coffee maker. Everything else is on the selves in the pantry or in the kitchen cabinets. I use my KA mixer and Cuisinart FP the most. Bowls, beaters and blades go in the dishwasher so clean up isn't a problem. Wipe down the outside of the appliances with a damp paper towel and it's done. They go back into the pantry.
There are times thou, that I just like doing things by hand. Making pasta dough comes to mind. I still have a mess on the counter to clean up so I don't think you will ever get away from the cleaning part whether you use small appliances or not.
I second the advice of selling the items you don't want/use on EBay. Recoup some of your money and get storage space for something that you will use. NancyLouise

I love my small appliances. I use my Oskar small food processor several times a week. I love my KA mixer. I think the key is keeping them handy. Mine all sit on the counter but in an appliance garage. They are all right there, plugged in, ready to use, but out of sight.

I agree with NancyLouise on the cleaning issue. All that stuff goes into the DW so cleaning the bowl & paddle of the mixer is no different than cleaning a bowl and other mixing utensil if I did it by hand.

In any case, if you don't like yours, I agree, sell them. Craigslist. You should be able to recoup most of your investment, especially for the KA. But to be honest, whether or not you get a lot for them, what's the point of keeping them if you're not using them? They are just taking up space and that money is gone either way. Ditch 'em!

Another consideration would be to donate them to a recongnized chartible organization such as a church with a kitchen and/or your local soup kitchen/pantry that serves meals & then take the tax write-off. You might be surprised how much write-off you can have from your KA. This, of course, is contingent upon your itemizing deductions on your tax returns. If you go short form then there's a standard deduction.

/tricia

Triciae,
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into various soup kitchens and see if they need a good stand mixer.
Nancy

To jasdip, the best way to slice homemade bread. Order a Kyocera 5 1/2 inch ceramic blade chef's knife on line. Does a wonderful job and you will find it to be the most useful kitchen knife you own. Worth every penny. Some here will not agree about this knife. Don't listen to them. It is a treasure.

I guess I'm a bigger fan of small kitchen appliances that of large ones. Since I renovated my kitchen two years ago, the bread maker and crock pot have been relegated to basement storage. I've brought the crock pot up a few times, but make bread by hand now.

I don't have a stand mixer, probably because my mom got by quite happily with a hand-held. Well, I do remember Dad got her a Sunbeam for Christmas 1966, but I don't remember her ever using it. I gave it to a friend when I cleared her house in 2007. I've got a 7-speed Kitchen Aid hand-held.

I do have a food processor, but only because my cousin gave it to me when he left town. I haven't used it since I got an immersion blender/mini-chopper, since the only thing it does well is puree. Mind you, I don't think I could do hummous with a stick...I wish I had a gizmo to grate veggies like potatoes and carrots, but I don't want to invest in anything expensive and/or big. So, for the foreseeable future, I will continue to use a box grater.