My kitchen scale seems to have bitten the dust. Or maybe is in the process of death. It works sometimes. The screen and buttons where I can zero out, change to metric, light the screen etc are dying. I am in mourning. At least until I get a new one. I am surprised how much I reach for it.

It is tool that I bought casually and now use almost daily. Learning to bake using ingredient weights was a huge improvement for me. I can easily scale recipes up or down. Plus I make fewer dirty dishes. I also used it to weigh seeds to grow microgreens or when putting garden produce up.

In our woodworking shop we are gradually adding new tools. Mostly to attempt to make sanding easier. Some are now essential and some not so much. I tend to think I overlook the tools I count on and notice the ones that frustrate me.

What kitchen tools bring your kitchen to a standstill if they break or are mislaid? What tools did you buy without much thought that you now love? Or did you buy something that you thought you would love but now never use.

I mostly think of smaller things. I love my thermopop thermometer. I need to replace my silicon spatula/scraper (and never use it in my vitamix). The vitamix itself which doesn’t get used daily but does what it does so well.