How to Find the Best Kitchen Appliances for your Home

Are you moving into your dream house but unsure of what kitchen appliances will go to your new home? Do you need a coffee brewer or should you just buy that Keurig? Let us be your guiding voice in finding all the best kitchen appliances for your home!

Must-Have Kitchen Appliances

Must-Have: Cooking Stove

Your new kitchen cannot go without a reliable cooking stove. How else are you going to prepare delicious meals for your family without one? However, with the number of cooking stove available on the market today, you might find yourself overwhelmed with the number of choices.

The struggle is there isn’t just one kind of cooking stove. There are actually gas and electric variants which you’ll have to think about. Here are some of the options you’ll find when you’re shopping for a cooking stove:

1. Gas or Propane – Made for serious home cooks who love being in total control of the heat levels. One of the setbacks when you choose a gas or propane powered stove is how expensive it can get.
2. Electrical (Coil) – Cook tops that use electricity use coils that gets heated up. The latest designs have a smooth ceramic on top of them where you can safely place your pots and pans. The older design just lets you put your cooking containers directly on the coil. Sure electrical stoves are cost-efficient, but what it cannot provide is the control of heat that a gas stove can give you.
3. Induction – Induction cookers also use electricity to cook your food but what sets this apart is instead of coils, it runs on electromagnetic field to produce heat. That said, it is important that you use a cookware that lets electromagnetic waves pass through them otherwise, there is no use cooking your food with an induction stove top.

The induction stove top is the best compromise between gas and electrical powered stove top. It offers you the heat control that is similar to using gas stove top without breaking your wallet since it uses electricity. Nevertheless, using induction stoves require induction stove-compatible cookware which, can be quite expensive.

Must-Have: Fridge

In terms of importance, another irreplaceable kitchen appliance will have to be the fridge. Without a fridge, you’re going to risk food going bad and even getting sick from eating bad food.

Saving up your leftovers is, of course, a very important task especially if you’re on your way to saving up your hard-earned money. Not to mention that about 133 billion pounds of food went to waste in 2010. Without a trusty refrigerator, your home could be contributing to this wastage statistics. Yikes!

As such, when you’re shopping for fridge, you might be confronted with a gazillion choices. They would all look so pretty and high tech, which will make you think, what factors should you consider before buying one. We’ve got you! So before you start buying a fridge, ask yourself this:

How big is my kitchen space?

We definitely think that the biggest question you’ll have to answer before going about buying your refrigerator is the size of the kitchen or simply the size of the area where you’re going to place your appliance. There are so many different kinds of fridge-single door, two-door, mini, cooler only, cooler with freezer, smart… It’s just endless!

To prevent headache and heartache, do measure the space where you’re going to place the fridge before buying one. This will help save time which in turn, helps you save money.

Must-Have: Multi-functional Oven

Next in our list of indispensable kitchen apparatus is a multi-functional oven. Saying that a microwave oven is essential was truly debatable and so we settled by awarding a multi-functional oven as an indispensable kitchen apparatus.

Let’s just say we truly want everyone to save money and as such, a multi-functional oven would be a great way to do so. Having a multi-functional oven will let you have your favorite TV dinners, reheat your leftovers, and even roast meat!

Multi-functional ovens are designed to have the different cooking elements combined in one. Some of these ovens would even allow you to cook different dishes at the same time. Can you imagine all of the hours you’ll save with just one appliance? Cook a pizza, roast chicken and vegetables, while baking some desserts. Such capability comes in handy especially when you cook in large batches, or simply, during the holidays!

We love this appliance because it is multi-functional! It allows you to have more space without sacrificing the purpose or function that you are looking for.

Must-Have: Slow Cooker

There’s nothing like a good pot roast especially when it’s cooked at home. However, the challenge comes in with the length of time it takes to actually cook the pot roast. To save you money, we definitely recommend having a slow cooker at home.

You may think that the slow cooker is a one function kind of appliance, but it really isn’t. A slow cooker has the ability to simmer on lower temperatures and thereby, cook your food even as you leave the house. You can use the slow cooker on a ton of recipes such as:

1. Chicken Stroganoff
2. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
3. Georgia Pulled Pork Barbecue
4. Gooey Brownie Cake
5. Chocolate or Cheese Fondue

With the number of fun recipes you can cook with a slow cooker, we think we can all agree that it is a valuable kitchen apparatus that you and the rest of your family will love and appreciate. So much so, that you’ll be using it almost every night… Guaranteed!

Must-Have: Coffee Machine

Another kitchen appliance that we definitely think is a must-have is a coffee machine. This is especially true if you’re a self-confessed coffeeholic. These coffeeholic will go the distance just to get their fix and so, wouldn’t it be more comfortable to sip your precious ristretto or espresso within the comforts of your home.

A coffee machine will let you have the simplest brewed coffee (SO GOOD) or specialized coffees with the help of machines that are capable of doing it. We have a complete guide on the best coffee machines to purchase which includes manual press coffee to the very high-tech ones that you can link to your phone.

We concluded that in order to find the best coffee machine, all you have to do is to get to the root of your wants and needs. Moreover, it is important to look into whether you’re willing to spend on installation costs if you want a built-in unit.

Bonus Must-Have: Rice Cooker

Our rice-fanatic readers, this is definitely for you. A kitchen apparatus that rice-fanatic homes cannot go without is a rice cooker. The number of times this gets used in your home will probably exceed the number of times that an oven is used. Rice is just so good!

Rice cooker do not only make perfect rice every time. There are so many recipes which you can do with a rice cooker. You’ll just need to be creative. You can cook soups, steam dumplings, steam vegetables, or even make a cake with this one simple kitchen appliance!

When you’re buying a rice cooker, you will be confronted with the most basic ones to the most complicated ones. Being your guide, just make sure that the rice cooker that you’re going to buy will fit your needs.

If you live in a big family, definitely start with a rice cooker that has the capacity to cook up to 8 cups of rice in one go. You don’t want to start eating a delicious meal, then deciding that you’re going for round 2, and then finding out you don’t have any rice left! Que horror!

Prevent this horror from happening by making sure you’ve got the rice cooker with a sufficient cooking capacity.

Kitchen Appliances You Can Live Without

Better off Without: Baby Food Maker

To new moms it may be hard to adjust to the new addition to your family. Babies have very particular needs that you have to meet among which is nutrition. We understand that you want nothing but the best for your baby and that includes gathering all of your resources to provide them with the best care possible, whether it’s the best baby mattress or simply a kitchen appliance called a baby food maker.

To be honest, a baby food maker is just a re-branded food processor. That’s it! Parents before the invention of a specialized baby food maker have survived without this apparatus, which begs you to question its actual usability over time.

Consider: Save yourself from buying an expensive baby food maker by using a blender/food processor or a food mashing tool. If you don’t have any of those, a simple spoon and fork will do! The trick to making baby food is to boil or steam the vegetables into a workable or in other words, mashable state.

And, instead of investing in a baby food maker, try investing in storage wares that will help keep your baby’s food fresh and free from any harmful toxins and bacteria.

Better off Without: Sandwich Maker

Unless you run a sandwich food store that requires you to make warm sandwiches on the get go, we just don’t see the point of a very specific appliance such as a sandwich maker. A sandwich maker only does one thing and that is to warm a sandwich.

Consider: Without a sandwich maker, you can still get the sandwich of your dreams by assembling your sandwich, buttering the sides, and then browning it off on a pan over your stove. If you want it flat, you can always use a spatula with a little bit of pressure. If you really want it super flat, you can put a foil over your sandwich and put a casserole over it. Add some weight to get the desired thinness of the sandwich.

Better off Without: Electric Citrus Juicer Machine

If you’re not a fan of coffee, you’re probably a freshly-squeezed-orange-juice kind of person. This preference probably makes you consider buying an electric citrus juicer machine. Let me stop you right there by saying, you don’t need to get yourself such an appliance if you want to get your freshly squeezed orange juice.

Realistically speaking, an electric citrus juicer machine is another kitchen appliance with a single purpose and that is to extract orange juice. Again, unless you’re running an orange juice bar, an electric citrus juicer machine should be considered unnecessary.

For sure, it’s the kind of appliance that you will forget in your cupboard over long periods of time. Space wasted, money wasted. Aside from that, think about the money spent on electricity that you’re wasting every time you’re using such an electric apparatus.

Consider: Instead of buying an electric citrus juicer, why don’t you get yourself a citrus juicer/reamer. It does the same job but only requires a little bit of effort from your side. With this kitchen tool, you won’t have to rush to plug the device at all. It’s simple and outright. Plus, it’s cheap, cleans so easily, and doesn’t take much space at all!

Better off Without: Electric Can Opener

Another appliance that has a high possibility of collecting dust is an electric can opener. An electric can opener is a single purpose device that allows you to open cans easily with the use of electricity (plugged in or battery-operated). It is without a doubt safe and easy to use, but the price tag on such a device that only does one specific thing just doesn’t seem to justify its existence in your kitchen.

These days, canned goods are often designed to have that opener tab/key which makes opening these food items so much easier. Think about it this way, canned goods manufacturers are helping you make it easier and safer to open their products so why bother with an electric can opener?

Consider: Aside from buying canned goods with an easy open tab/key, you can always use a manual can opener. It opens cans safer and easier. Sure it will require you to exert a little bit of effort, but imagine what you’re saving if you bought a manual can opener instead of an electric one. Furthermore, you can always do it the old fashioned way by taking a knife and running its sharp edge against the edges of the cans. Just be careful doing it to prevent any slight injuries.

Better off Without: Immersion Blender

The last appliance on our list of kitchen appliances that we think you’ll be better off without is an immersion blender. An immersion blender works in the same fashion as a blender or a food processor. If you’ve already stocked up your kitchen with a blender or a food processor, or if you fortunately have these two appliances, we highly doubt that you’ll need another item that seems to replicate the function of the other two.

Consider: The immersion blender was created to cater to smaller batches of whatever your blender has to make. But, all things considered, we highly suggest getting a food processor instead.

Assuming that you don’t have any of the three. The best one you can get is a food processor. This machine allows you to make all the things you can make with an immersion blender or a full sized blender. Whoever said you cannot make a smoothie in a food processor just hasn’t figured it out. The technique is to use frozen fruits instead of putting ice. You can begin your food processor smoothie journey with a recipe of green smoothie using kiwi, bananas, spinach, and chia seeds.

Three Factors to Consider Before Buying Kitchen Appliances

• Usability

When we talk about usability, we mean to say that the kitchen appliance will be used more than once. We highly advise that you don’t get a kitchen appliance or a gadget, for that matter, which you know will only be used for a limited number of times.

By thinking about the number of times that you’ll be using your kitchen appliance, you’re going to save much more money and space. On top of that, electric-operated machines often breakdown even when not in use. These machines also require maintenance which sometimes may cost you several dollars.

If you think you’re not going to use an appliance within the next 3 months, save yourself from buying it.

• Budget

The next important factor you’ll have to consider is budget. Appliances are expensive, no doubt. Even if you’re going to purchase a lower-end brand, it is still going to cost you. As such, it is important to put a limit to your purchase when it comes to appliances. By doing so, you’re not only trimming down your choices, you’re also going to have the ability to allot your budget on other more important matters at home.

• Space

The last key factor we encourage you to consider is the amount of space you have to house all of the kitchen appliances that you’re going to buy. Sure you’ve got the money to purchase high-end, single-function appliances, but what about space? Having a kitchen with enough space to work in feels very refreshing. Cooking entails a lot of movements and as such, having enough space will help you finish your tasks without the stress of feeling constrained.

Besides, having unnecessary appliances can be an eyesore.

Conclusion

Buying appliances is all fun and games. It’s like watching your dreams come to life. However, there are appliances that can be completely useless for your home even though they would add aesthetic value. It is best to come up with a game plan before going about shopping for appliances.

In conclusion, consider the three factors we have shared in order to make shopping for these appliances easier and smarter. Think about the appliance’s usability over time, your budget, and your kitchen space. Ask yourself questions that will help you reveal an appliance’s importance to your everyday and you’ll be on your way to fitting out your dream kitchen!

We hope that this guide will help you to better choose the appropriate appliances for your home. Be sure to visit our site for more informative tips and guides!