-Giant Stand Mixer with detachable clutter. I know you have one of these!!
-Iced Tea Maker
-Machine just for cooking rice.
-Vacuum sealer
-Expensive, but useless, cake decorating accordion thingie. (I was better off with my tip-and-baggie routine)
-Kitchen scissors that have 50 different uses, and cost $50. For scissors. They had better iron my laundry.
-Panini maker
-Small electric grill
-Machine that does nothing well but it intended to slice and grate stuff.
-Tiny food choppers, both electric and the kind you hit(again, and again)
-Anything with missing parts, or accessories you always intended to buy, but just haven't gotten around to it.
-Expensive machines made with one recipe in mind.
-Cheap machines made with one recipe in mind.
-Cheaply made gadgets that you can't bear to throw away because you spent so much money on them.
- Anything you bought after watching the infomercial for it for an hour.
I think you catch my drift, or should I go on??
Now here is my list of gadgets I love and cannot do without. And I have very limited countertop and cabinet space, so you know these are necessities!
-A Good Blender, not necessarily an expensive one, but a quality made one. Mine is an Osterizer with a glass jar. I have had it for about 8 years. The glass jar is a must for me.
-Food and Rice Steamer, mine is not this one, but looks like this:
I received this as a gift, and it is one of the most used gadgets in my house. Fantastic for healthy cooking. A Godsend. Pros:I can cook rice below and steam broccoli above. Or steam two kinds of veggies simultaneously. Vegetables are always cooked evenly and perfectly to my taste. Wash them, put them in, set the timer and walk away. Rice is never scorched.Cons: rice takes a bit longer to cook than on the stove top. Food has to cook longer when both baskets are full, so allow extra time. Planning ahead is a must. And so is seasoning.
-Large Slow Cooker. Mine is 7 quarts. Love it.
-Food Processor. I just got one. I think mine holds 10 cups. It is sort of like this one.
Got this about a month ago, and I have already used it to slice veggies, grate, puree soups, cut butter into flour for shortbread, and lots more.I made graham cracker crumbs in 10 seconds, then added sugar and drizzled in melted butter, and Voila! Graham cracker crust in less than 30 seconds. It is not as difficult to clean as I feared, and the parts are dishwasher safe. I would not recommend sticking a plastic spoon down the chute, however. Never never do that. Bad idea.
-Cast iron griddle. 
I bought mine at least 9 years ago unseasoned in the camping supply aisle for ten bucks, I think. Seasoning it was no big deal, and it was inexpensive. I use it all the time. It rarely leaves my stove. I think it came with instructions on how to season it, I rubbed oil on it and heated it on the burner, then repeated a couple times. Never put this in the dishwasher, or submerse in water. Wipe it down with a paper towel and salt to clean it. If you must wash with soap and water, I turn on the burner under it to dry it quickly so it doesn't rust. I make tortillas on it, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pancakes, tons of stuff.
-A good hand mixer. Doesn't have to cost a lot of money. I received mine for a wedding present 10 years ago, and it is a champ. It also comes with a case which keeps me from losing the beaters and such.
-A good peeler. Find one that is comfortable in your hand and WORKS. Important detail.
-an electric griddle
. Again, none of the pictures are exactly what I have, but as close as I could find without taking my own pictures. Which I am too lazy to do.
Pros:You can make burgers and hotdogs on a rainy or cold day. You can make bacon, and the grease gets deposited in a little drawer for easy disposal. Make 6 slices of French toast simultaneously, or several pancakes, depending on the size. Mine has a thermostat I set for the temperature I want to cook at(325 for perfect French Toast, by the way.)
Cons: There is a slant to it for the grease to drain, so take care when pouring batter close to the edge.
-A set of quality cookware. Find which type you like and go with it. I bought a set of stainless steel pans for $20 bucks at a tool sale. No joke. So far, they work just as well as the heavy skillet and dutch oven I paid more for individually than the whole lot of 'em. So don't think you have to pay thousands for cookware. I have a large saucepan and a small skillet I love to make omelets with that are nonstick, but the rest is the stainless for me.
-One good chef's knife. You don't have to have 10,000 different knives for every purpose, one good chef knife does almost everything for me. And you can get a much better quality chef knife for less than a whole set of lesser knives.
-Baking dishes. I have a set of glass Pyrex dishes that have all the standard size pans in it, 4 muffin pans, and 4 cookie sheets. Those are all necessities for me. There are a couple more I may invest in in the future, but for now these serve my purposes.
So here is my challenge to you: take an objective look at your kitchen. What things do you really use? Get rid of stuff you don't. Donate it, or sell it if you feel like it is worth a couple bucks. Clearing out some of the clutter really is cathartic!
