Smart shopping: avoiding unnecessary household items

Deep fryer

This purchase is all fun and games when you think about the onion rings and French fries you can make. But it definitely won't see enough use to justify its size, cost, and labor.

Electric egg cooker

Appliances for very specific purposes are often justified by promising the perfect boiled egg and the like. But, in reality, you rarely use them, and they take up a lot of space.

Mosquito zappers

There's actually no evidence what mosquitos are attracted to ultraviolet light, which is the lure that backyard bug zappers rely on to draw and eliminate bugs.

Space-saving vacuum bags

In theory, these bags sound like a good idea. But in practice, they just don't work properly. With hard-to-use zippers, to air slowly entering, anything inside is likely to become a wrinkled, smelly mess.

Filing cabinets

Buying tons of filing cabinets is just an invitation for more paper clutter. The amount of paperwork you should keep is definitely a smaller amount (think tax returns, real estate records, and important contracts).

Popcorn machine

It's not even worth counting the amount of popcorn you'd have to make for this personal popcorn machine to be cost-effective. It's another single-use item that will only gather dust.

Electric can opener

Electric can openers can be convenient and easy, but not every kitchen has space for a good one, which come in bigger sizes.

Salad spinner

With a push of a button the salad is tossed around and dried. However, these salad spinners are usually huge and made of several parts, making it more practical just to wash your salad in a normal bowl.

Exercise gadgets

Countless homes are littered with untouched exercise gadgets from New Year's resolutions. Try instead to commit to a free-equipment exercise before splurging on new weights.

Paperweights

Unless you work outside in the wind or surrounded by super powerful fans, there's no use in keeping a paperweight. This is by far the most useless thing on your desk.

Egg separator

A dedicated egg separator seems especially superfluous when most of us have long used the shell itself to isolate the yolk and the white. And you don't have to wash any extra item later.

Banana slicer

Considering its shape and size, it would work if bananas were always the same size and curve, which isn't the case. In the end, it's easier and quicker just to slice a banana with a knife.

Coffee pods

Sure, coffee pods are convenient and quick to use, but they're expensive, bulky to store, and create a lot of unnecessary plastic waste for the environment.

Bottled water

This might be one of the more expensive and unsustainable habits in the long run. So if you don't like the taste of tap water, buy a filter.

Label maker

These might make sense in an office, but at home do you really need to label everything? In most cases, this gadget will only be left in the drawer.

Ultrasonic pest repellents

Plug-in rodent and insect repellents claim to blast pests with intolerable invisible currents that drive mice and bugs from your home. However, these claims have not been backed by science and show little evidence of actually working.

Sources: (Cheapism) (Wall Street Insanity)