Learning how to make kitchen purchase decisions.

What to buy (and mostly not buy) for your kitchen.

Years ago, as a beginner in the kitchen, I fell into a common trap: believing I needed a full arsenal of fancy tools to succeed. Before I even knew what kind of cooking I enjoyed, I was buying specialized equipment for recipes I might never make again. Did I really need a slow cooker as an 18-year-old? An entire silicone baking set? Well, at least that second one was a gift.

The answer is definitely no, even though the purchases were sometimes fun. It turns out, all you really need to get started is a sharp knife, a sturdy cutting board, and a reliable skillet. I even wrote an article a while back helping readers narrow down the amount of pots and pans you need.

So many folks who don’t think they have enough kitchen cabinet space are really just storing things they never use. So, how do you decide what you need beyond the basics?

I needed to understand my cooking style before investing in anything. Once I began to see patterns in the kinds of meals I genuinely loved to prepare, I could then acquire tools that I'd use regularly and splurge on higher-quality items.

Invest slowly. Buy items that genuinely bring you joy and that you know you'll use often. Think about the dishes you cook or bake most often. Is there anything that would genuinely make those processes more enjoyable?

For instance, do you need a food processor to make pesto? No. Perhaps you prefer the traditional method of pressing basil leaves in a large mortar and pestle, enjoying the ritual as much as the result. For me, I prefer the food processor. My partner prefers to make pesto by mincing all the ingredients on a cutting board with a knife. Learn your preferences, and buy (or not buy) accordingly.

Even better: Inherit, borrow, thrift, gift, and re-gift.

Maybe you love baking cakes. A beautiful cake tin might be a well-worth item for you and not for someone who doesn’t bake cakes. If you enjoy a hunt, thrift stores are filled with some pretty awesome baking tins.

A friend of mine recently shared how she inherited a mountain of kitchen gadgets from her brother, who's always chasing the newest gadgets and trends. She admitted she hardly uses any of them! It's a great example of why hand-me-downs are fantastic. You can try them out, see if they fit your cooking style, and then decide if it's something truly valuable to you... or better, something else might come to mind. If they’re not for you, let someone else give them a try.

Borrow from friends and neighbors. I used to live in the same apartment building as my friend Angelique, who has a huge arsenal of kitchen gems. I would borrow until it made sense to buy, which wasn’t often. I tried everything from her spiralizer (decided I hated it) to her KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment (loved it). I must have borrowed it 6 or 7 times before deciding to buy my own for my then-new stand mixer, another common appliance people buy who don’t usually need it.

Thrift shops and Facebook Marketplace are also great ways to find high-quality kitchenware at a fraction of the cost because someone else realized they will never use it.

Building a functional and enjoyable kitchen is a journey. I’m 20 years in and still figuring it out. Embrace slow, intentional kitchen building. I love finding items at thrift shops and accepting hand-me-downs. It's about investing in tools that bring me joy and that I know will be well-used, rather than just filling space for one-time experiences. And if something no longer serves me, I'm happy to pass it along, knowing it might bring joy to another cook. (This is great to do with cookbooks, too!)

If you have a kitchen tool you've found indispensable for your cooking style, I’d love to hear about it… Drop it in the comments along with its story if you have one.