We don’t all have them, though, not enough to be considered “the vast majority of homes”. Even if you have kids not all kids are teens at the same time! But you are so right, not only are they useless but they also cost money.
A natural evolution from making master bedrooms the size of starter homes. I’ve come to hate one or two things about our house, and first on the list is the effing IMMENSE MBR. There’s no good way to shrink it, either with furniture rearrangement or by remodeling. I don’t have a dimension but from standing up on my side of the bed to standing in front of the jake is twenty-three steps. It’s over 50% wasted space. I can see how it might seem like a good idea to fit it out like a studio apartment, just to fill up the acreage. But no, short of making it an (illegal) in-law space, a seating area would never get used.
Like the pseudo “chef’s kitchen” in many houses, it’s for buyer wow value and not useful living.
I inherited my mother’s food processor. I used it once, to make hamburger meat. It wasn’t worth the cleanup. I also inherited her service for 12 “good” dishes and silverware. They’re lovely, but I have no use for them.
We refer to our iron as the Electric Paper-weight; we keep an ironing board and iron despite the fact we haven’t used one in the last 15-20 years. Possibly 30 years. The last time I can recall was to crease some seams for a shirt I was making.
Maybe it’s my sample size, but everyone I know who has one of these uses it much more than once a year. Then again, maybe everyone I know likes to bake. And we all seem to store them in cabinets, not on the counter. They take up a lot of real estate…
In my house, it was the Salad Shooter that my MIL gave me one year for Christmas. In the time it took to get it out, put in the correct blade, and start to use it, I could have my veggies mostly chopped or sliced by hand. For all I know, that stupid thing is still sitting on a shelf in Goodwill. But that really doesn’t count, does it, since I doubt that they’re in the vast majority of homes.
Now that you mention it, that is strange. Growing up, we were never in our parents bedroom. I wonder what explains the change? My kids have always hung out with us. Part of it maybe that we spend much more time in our bedroom then my parents ever did. It’s a more multi-purpose room.
I would say books. They just pile up, never to be read again. I know many people who have enormous book collections, that they never touch.
Breadmaking machines.
They are often given as wedding gifts and people use them maybe once but after that they just stay on the shelf.
Bread is so cheap I just cant see going thru the trouble.
And add after that the fancy china and crystal. We probably have $2,000 worth of that stuff from our wedding but all its done is sit in the fancy china cabinet.
I have a compact-but-comfortable easy chair next to the window in my bedroom, it’s the best reading light in the house in daytime.
I once had a loveseat in the master bedroom, and it was nice. We could all go upstairs around bedtime, and one could sit in the loveseat to leisurely chat with the other while preparing to retire, or our daughter could come in from her room for some bedtime socialization. It made for a pleasant, unhurried family interlude at the end of the day. I strongly recommend it.
I purged mine a few years back. Occasionally I pass a used bookstore and feel the draw, but I can resist. I admit the Kindle is a great help here. I have 250+ books on one slim little thing.
A lot of people who have only a few books seldom or never read them.
But in my experience, any person who likes books enough to have an “enormous” collection reads those books on an on-going basis.
Unless you’re talking about people who collect books like they might collect stamps.
Personally, I find nearly everything in the kitchen unnecessary. For mashing potatoes, I use an empty tin can that opened with a ring-pull, which has a 3/16" rim around the top. Punch a few holes in the bottom, the open top mashes potatoes nicely. Warning – very hot, use a potholder.
I make cole slaw without a grater. Cut up the cabbage with a big knife, and a potato peeler works fine for grating carrots.
I threw my toaster away. I can make toast better and faster holding the bread in a pair of tongs over a hot stovetop ring. Or on a wire rack held with vise-grips.
Dairy products come in free recloseable leftover containers, why buy them?
Metric measuring sets usually come with a tiny 1 ml (1/5th tsp. in Imperial) measuring spoon that I’ve never actually seen anyone use. For the vast majority of people, a pinch or a drop is close enough.
Kills mice. Earns steak.
Sounds like a coke spoon.
In plastic? I certainly wouldn’t have thought.
Love the bread maker. I make fresh bread five days a week, using the timer to have it done just before breakfast.
Decorative soap.
People who have them don’t use them- they’re just for decoration, which means they’re wasted soap.
I’ve got a VHS recorder/player in my bedroom that it occurs to me I haven’t touched in at least five years.
In the kitchen, there would be the off-brand George Foreman-type grill given to me my dear departed mother that, first time I used it, splattered boiling hamburger fat two feet in every direction. I’ve got to remember to toss that thing out one of these days.
I’m a bad bachelor: I have a decorative towel. My mom came over and decided to clean everything because my apartment is a mess but I didn’t want her to clean it: “it’s decorative: the colors might fade.” But I relented because I do actually use it to dry my hands once in awhile :eek: