Conclusion: Small Kitchen Appliances

At the beginning of last year, 2022, I set out to track my small appliance usage every single day. I created a chart, printed it out, and put it on the side of our refrigerator. Every time we used an appliance, I would mark a tally. I limited myself to one tally per day because if I tallied every single use, it would affect the results. My logic was I could borrow an appliance from a friend and use it three times in one day and return it. But if I used it three times over the course of two weeks, I would have had to keep someone else's appliance for two weeks or borrow it three different times. I am less likely to do the latter. 

My small kitchen appliances.

My chart contained 19 small appliances. I go into a bit more detail on how I define small appliances and why I included the ones I did in my original post linked above. The toaster oven, kettle, and rice cooker did not receive tallies because they were automatic winners. I will never get rid of these no matter what, and if one breaks, we are definitely replacing it. They are staples to our lives and that's never changing.

From the rest of the list, the lower was our hand mixer. It received 0 uses this year and I actually sold it in November of last year. 

For visual learners, here's the data summary if you can understand my notes.

Now for the rest of the list starting from the bottom:

10th place: Stand mixer - 2x

This one makes me kind of sad, but at the same time, I know why it came in last. I don't really bake. I enjoy cooking much more. It's also a very heavy appliance to move from storage to counter, and unfortunately, it won't fit underneath the cabinets on the countertop for daily storage. I will never get rid of it because I do occasionally make cookies, banana bread, or knead dough with it. But the number of times I do in one year will be very small. 

9th place: Steamer and dutch oven - 3x

We switched to induction last April, and since then, our steamer does not work with our induction cooktop. I figured out a creative way to still use the steamer, but it didn't happen often. Off the top of my head, we use our steamer to make two things: turnip cake and steamed buns. I made neither of these multiple times, hence why we only used our steamer three times last year. 

The dutch oven refers to my enameled cast iron dutch oven, I have a stainless steel dutch oven I use regularly in cooking. My enameled cast iron dutch oven is the lesser used because it is heavier to clean and I need to be a little more careful when I use it. It's one of those things that's great to have but in all honesty, I could probably get rid of it if push came to shove.

8th place: Popcorn maker - 4x

This was a surprise not-last-place for the popcorn maker. I didn't use it all year and was expecting it to come in last. However, my kids have gotten older and I remembered we had it so I pulled it out and made popcorn for them a few times. I think for now, it is not on the chopping block, but down the road, we may reconsider whether to keep it or not. 

7th place: Juicer, Mini warmer, immersion blender - 6x

We bought our juicer specifically to juice citrus in the winter months when citrus is in season. It received a lot of use in 2021. Unfortunately, that wasn't the year I was tracking. Last year we saw less juicing because the winter storm killed the fruit trees at my in-laws's home so they didn't have excess to share with us.

My mini warmer is a small plug in warmer that came with my crock pot. We have used it the most to heat up canned corn to go with certain meals. It's safe to say we ate at least six cans of corn last year.

The immersion blender is one I'm not convinced I will need often in the future, but it will earn its keep for now. I used to use it a lot when I was making baby food, but again, that was not the case in 2022 as my youngest turned 2 and could already feed himself. The one use I love is to blend beans in my chili. My kids will eat the chili I make, but they will not eat beans. So halfway through the cooking, I blend up the beans and then add the rest of my ingredients. 

6th place: Crock pot - 8x

I was genuinely surprised I used my crock pot this many times. Because we do have an instant pot with slow-cooking capabilities, I expected just to use the instant pot. However, I do find sometimes the instant pot is too hot, even on the slow-cook function. It is also nice to have both to use for double portions when cooking large amounts. 

5th place: Griddle, Waffle maker, Vacuum sealer - 17x

These three appliances align in how we use them which is perhaps why their usage was so similar. We use our griddle primarily to cook bacon and tortillas. I cook an entire package of bacon on the griddle and then freeze the leftovers. When we run out in the freezer, we repeat the process again. Tortillas are similar except we do not freeze them because it ruins their texture when homemade (in my experience). 

I use our waffle maker to make a large batch of waffles to freeze and we reheat for breakfast. Each batch lasts anywhere from 2-4 weeks depending on how often my kids want to eat waffles for breakfast. It is super convenient to be able to pull out pre-made waffles from the freezer without paying a premium for commercially made and packaged ones.

Our vacuum sealer gets used approximately 1-2x a month so this number is very reasonable. Whenever I see a good price on meat, I will buy large quantities of it and then vacuum seal them for the freezer. I save it in the freezer anywhere from 2-8 months generally. Sometimes, if it gets buried deep, we will end up with meat that meets its first freezer birthday. We still eat it. I've yet to get sick from eating vacuum sealed meat we stored in the freezer. We're more likely to get sick from fast food, grocery store sushi, or old orange juice, all of which has happened at least once.

4th place: Food processor - 28x

I used my food processor a lot last year. I used to not be inclined to want to use it because of the cleanup, but I realized, it's so much faster at shredding carrots and potatoes than I could ever do by hand on a grater. I also ground my own meat in my food processor this year just to experiment. The cleanup was a little bit messier than I would have liked, but the end result was very similar to what I would have gotten buying ground meat from the store. 

In fact, I used my food processor so many times last year, I justified buying myself a new one during the holiday sale. I had actually been eyeing one since holiday season 2021 but did not bring myself to purchase it. After tracking the usage in 2022, I justified making the purchase. I was even able to sell our old one to help cover a portion of the new cost. 

3rd place: Blender - 29x

Our blender gets most of its mileage in the summer during smoothie season. The rest of the year it may get used sparingly for a pesto or tomato sauce. Our blender turned eight this year. We said goodbye to our warranty, but it has replaced two blender cups and one base motor for us. We aren't complaining. To us, it's been well worth the investment we made. 

2nd place: Instant pot - 39x

Technically, first and second place are the same appliance. However, I separated them because even though we purchased it together as a bundle, they can be purchased separately. So because of that, it is possible to be a separate accessory which changes the entire use of the appliance. I've loved my instant pot since the second year we owned it - the first year was my learning curve...which was steep because I was too afraid to try it. After I got the hang of it, I love it. As you can see, the average use is over 3x per month.

1st place: Instant pot air fryer - 65x

Our air fryer earned its keep with flying colors last year. It averaged being used over 5x a month. We were really excited when we first bought it, and it's still very handy to have now. I have returned from taking my kids out, been crunched for time, and put lunch on the table in 10 minutes from entering the house. That's the power of air fryer convenience (and frozen food). 

Now air fryer vs toaster oven vs air fryer toaster ovens....that's a topic to ponder for another post. 

Any ideas on things I should track this year? 😀