Unitasker Wednesday: Onion goggles
Say goodbye to the dreaded vapors (syn-propanethial-S-oxide) that make your eyes water when you are cutting onions. The first time I encountered this phenomenon was as a small child watching my grandmother work in her kitchen. She was tearing up and I asked her why she was crying. She explained the reason behind her onion tears and I learned a valuable lesson. That lesson? Always wear protective goggles while cutting onions.
Yes, my grandmother could have avoided the toll onions took on her tear ducts by investing in some Onion Goggles, but I’m pretty sure these are fairly new, so she never had a chance to use them. Poor grammy. Fortunately for you, now you have the chance to overcome this obstacle in onion slicing. Don’t let your eyes tear up uncontrollably again! Take control of the situation and slip on some Onion Goggles.
Thanks to reader Katy for bringing this unitasker to our attention.
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Sep 24, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: 2-liter pour thing
Lifting a 2-liter bottle is SO DIFFICULT! Thankfully, I have found the 2-Liter Pour Thing.
Okay, so I realize that this may come in handy for someone with a physical handicap, but who else might invest in this contraption? Maybe you feel the need to buy this for your children to effortlessly pour their own soft drink? Just be willing to accept the consequences of a caffeinated child bouncing off the walls. From the “Why We Love It” section of the Solutions site:
No need to haul a beverage container to the counter when you want a drink – keep a bottle in the Pour Thing and store it right in the fridge! Or set it on the table during a meal so your family can help themselves.
Meal time will be much simpler when you invest in the Pour Thing!
Thanks to reader Shruti for bringing this unitasker to our attention.
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Aug 6, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: The Ultimate Professional Drink Maker
What does one do when a craving strikes for a delicious slushy or smoothie? You can head over to your favorite smoothie joint and partake in their wide variety of flavors or you can invest in the Ultimate Professional Drink Maker. That’s right, now you can have your very own icy concoction 24/7. No need to travel out of your home to enjoy that fruity sensation. You also can use it to make some alcoholic drinks in the form of a tasty margarita or daiquiri.
So what is the catch? C’mon, you knew there had to be a catch. First off, the size of this unit is not very small. Weighing in at 55 pounds and measuring 13″ x 17″ x 30″, it has a pretty hefty footprint. The other catch is the price tag. It will set you back $2000. You must really like your homemade smoothies to own this monster!
Thanks to reader Samir for bringing this unitasker to our attention.
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Jul 16, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Microwavable S’Mores Maker
Summertime is the right time to sit around a campfire and eat S’mores. I’m not a huge fan, I’m quite happy with a solitary marshmallow, but now you S’mores fans can have them regardless if you are near a campfire or not. The Progressive International Microwavable S’Mores Maker lets you enjoy a S’more whenever the mood strikes you. What more can you ask for? S’mores on demand is quite the incredible luxury. Forget summer cookouts, enjoy these bad boys in January! From the product description:
It is easy to make smores at home using the Microwave S’mores Maker from Progressive. Just fill the base with water, stack your smores, lower the arms, and microwave for approximately 30 seconds. The graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate will heat quickly and evenly while the arms hold everything in place. It’s great fun for kids and adults alike.
Have any of you ever put marshmallows in the microwave for 30 seconds and then tried to eat them? If you have, then you know that if you wait more than a minute for them to cool, they turn into rocks. Yummy, teeth-breaking, sugar rocks. Enjoy!
(Thanks to reader Christine for sending us this suggestion.)
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Jul 9, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Peanut butter and jelly spreader
How long has the human race been using a plain old butter knife to spread peanut butter and jelly on bread? I’m not sure, but the time has come to make the switch to the Peanut Butter and Jelly Spreader.
This breakthrough in spreading technology cannot be overlooked. It is two sided and color coded for easy, no-nonsense, sandwich making. The old days of making a PB&J sandwich with a butter knife are past. Spreading peanut butter and jelly with the same utensil is totally uncool. No more accidents transferring some jelly into the peanut butter jar and vice versa. Such messiness would no doubt ruin both jars! Do yourself and your children a favor and invest in this spreader. Please, think of the children!
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Jul 2, 2008 |
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G&S Design Compactables
Collapsible, or in this case “compactable,” is always a nice feature to have when looking for kitchen tools. G&S Design has a nice selection of common kitchen tools that compact down into a more convenient size that makes storing them a little easier.
First up, are the Compactable Steel Tongs (pictured). Traditional tongs want to spread their arms in an attempt to keep drawers open and be as cumbersome as possible. These tongs, however, collapse neatly into a compact position and don’t make things messy.
The Compactable Pizza Cutter is a smaller alternative to the usual ridiculously large restaurant-style pizza cutter.
The Compactable Can Opener collapses down to a very small 5″ x 2.75″. Other devices in the G&S Compactable line include:
I hope you like blue, because that’s the only color offered right now.
Posted by Matt on May 22, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: The egg cracker
I used to have a difficult time cracking an egg and not including at least a couple of pieces of shell in the egg as it dropped into the bowl … and then I turned 10.
Seriously, cracking an egg is not difficult. Unless you don’t have hands or have severe arthritis, there is no need for a gadget like this to take up drawer space in your kitchen. The makers of the Egg Cracker wouldn’t agree with me. So, I guess, thank goodness it is dishwasher safe.
If I had one of these, I’d find that it fit nicely in a drawer next to a butter cutter, mango splitter, and the pickle picker.
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Apr 9, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: The condiment gun
In the wrong hands firearms can have dire effects on the people around them, but in the right hands they can dispense delicious condiments on your hamburger or hot dog! Yes, that’s right, you can now dispense condiments out of a barrel of a gun.
You may be interested in this if you enjoy your eggs in the shape of a .45, but you may just enjoy feeling the power of a gun as you drench your fries with ketchup. Finally, condiments are fun again!
Think of the boring chore it is to add a line of mustard to your hot dog. You may want to invest in two condiment guns so you can dispense your mustard and ketchup more freely without having to change cartridges. You can then pretend you are in the wild west as you hold your six shooters on either side of your apron. Your fun will never stop!
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Apr 2, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Pickle picker and unitaskers explained
We realized last week that we haven’t ever explained the Unitasker feature on our site. So, before we delve into the goodness that is this week’s item, we wanted to take a few seconds and talk about it.
At their most basic elements, all Unitasker posts are intended to be funny. We joke about single-use items to remind us that organizing doesn’t have to be so serious. It’s good to pause and remember that what we discuss on the site isn’t brain surgery or rocket science.
Often times, the things we mention are things that are in our homes. I have an ice cream maker, a juicer, and a few other items that have been discussed. Matt has the snowball maker. We were both oddly tempted by the martini shaker!
When we mention an item as a Unitasker, we do it knowing that someone out there probably finds some use for the item (well, except for the kitty wigs … we’re still completely baffled by those). For most people, though, the items we name wouldn’t be anything but clutter in their homes. It’s totally fine if you choose to own a Unitasker. There aren’t any Unclutterer Police coming to take it away from you or judge you over it. We’re just talking about stuff, things, objects — not people or their choices. We love our readers and hope to entertain you with the Unitaskers. And, we love it when our readers send us ideas. Some of our best items have come from you! — Erin
So, without further ado, we bring you this week’s installment of Unitasker Wednesday:
Pickles can be tough to round up out of a jar. There is no need to use a fork or your fingers when you can buy a utensil specifically designed for the task of picking up a pickle! The Pickle Picker is just what any pickle lover would want:
Forget squeezing your fingers into a jar trying to grasp a pickle to no avail. This nifty pickle picker does the work for you. Simple and easy to use, the picker is great for any jarred item that is difficult to grab. Just push down on the plunger, grab the item out of the jar and release.
Did I mention it can also pick up banana peppers and be used to annoyingly poke your little brother? (Maybe it’s not a unitasker after all?!) Regardless, if something is in a jar and you don’t want to waste a perfectly clean fork or your fingers on such a task, then this is the tool that can get the job done.
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Mar 26, 2008 |
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Overwhelm yourself
My wife and I have accumulated quite a collection of glassware over the years. It is quite ridiculous, to tell you the truth. We entertain on occasion, but we have no need for the amount of glassware currently in our possession. Even when we do have a party we only use a small fraction of the glassware.
As I have mentioned in the past, we are downsizing our living space and we must reduce the amount of stuff that we have. The kitchen was the room we tackled last. I came up with the idea of removing every last item from the cupboards to assess what we had on our hands. The end result was quite overwhelming.
You don’t really get a grasp of what you have stored away in those cupboards until you have it lying out for display. I got the same feeling when we had our yard sale last summer. I asked myself, “Where did all this stuff come from?” The accumulation of stuff is gradual, and it tends to sneak up on you. My wife and I have been married for almost nine years now and we have just recently become more conscious of all of the things we have brought into our home.
It is much easier to prepare a plan of attack when you can see the whole of your problem. The final result was a successful paring down of our kitchen inventory.
Posted by Matt on Mar 11, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Juicers
Why would someone invest the money and space in their kitchen for an electric juicer? I know I felt the wrath of the ice cream maker owners back when I suggested that an ice cream maker was a unitasker, and I’ll probably hear from the pro-electric-juice-making contingency on this one, but I don’t understand sacrificing counter space when you don’t have to.
Yes, I’ve enjoyed freshly squeezed orange juice and I can say that it is better than anything store bought, but I’m not going to run out and purchase a dedicated electrical appliance for my juicing needs. Isn’t a space-saving, hand-held, non-electrical juicer just as effective? Do you really save that much time? Can you even throw the electrical one easily into the dishwasher? I can’t justify the storage space for something that I can easily purchase at the grocery store or make just as well with a small, hand-held device.
I’m also curious as to how many oranges it takes to make four eight ounce servings of juice? I really have no idea. I’m sure Jack Lalanne could tell me, and he would gladly take my $130 for one of his electric Power Juicer models, too.
Posted by Matt on Mar 5, 2008 |
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Modular kitchen design
While looking around the web for multi-functioning kitchen tools and gadgets, I stumbled upon the following design for a modular kitchen. As you can see from the photos, the modular kitchen designed by Fevzi Karaman is an interesting concept for small spaces. It looks to be, at this point, just a concept. Hopefully, in the near future this modular kitchen concept will be available for purchase. Just about everything you need in a kitchen is packed into this small, rectangular counter top:
Obviously, this is intended for small living spaces and isn’t going to be very useful for larger families. For a small space, however, it is well done.
(via Tuvie.com)
Posted by Matt on Feb 28, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Food molds
You may have eaten a few hardboiled eggs in your day, but have you ever eaten one in the shape of a cute little fish? If you or you child have been waiting for a more exciting ways to consume hardboiled eggs, your opportunity is now. Over at Slashfood, they highlight the fish mold for all your hardboiling needs. Those folks in Japan think of everything don’t they?
Once you’ve had your taste of an egg in the shape of a cute little fish, you’ll most likely be craving for some more molded foods. Not to worry, the good people at the eBay Store in Japan have your sausage making covered with the Penguin Sausage Maker (pictured). Have you always wanted to have a little more fun when eating plain old sausage links? Your morning breakfast will be full of excitement when you take a bite out of a sausage link shaped like a lovable little penguin. Penguins not for you? How about sausage in the shape of a crab or an octopus? Either way, you’ll be living it up with your newly found love for molded foods.
Wait, what about your kid’s lunch? You’re covered there, too. Boring sandwiches can now be cut and molded into bears, bunnies, or flowers. Take your pick. Now, go forth and eat some molded food!
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Feb 27, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: So you think you know how to eat spaghetti?
Today’s Unitasker Wednesday item is a 2-for-1. Both of them will help you eat spaghetti like a machine. Each of them makes the tedious chore of eating stringy pasta easier — who knows what might happen if you use them at the same time?
First up is the Twirling Spaghetti Fork. For those of you suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome due to the fact that you have to twist your spaghetti noodles on your fork manually, your prayers have been answered.
Battery-powered fork takes the effort out of twirling spaghetti! Save your wrist with this battery-powered fork–it spins and gathers up the spaghetti, so all you have to do is eat. Fun and easy to use. Dishwasher safe.
Now that you have that magical fork, what else can you possibly want? Well, the fun doesn’t stop there. No, you are going to want the Spaghetti Shallow Plate to make the twirling fork that much more effective. The plate features a built-in “spinning zone,” the eye of the hurricane if you will, to make your noodle eating even faster. No noodles will be safe now.
This clever white melamine plate was designed to be used for spaghetti. Like other pasta plates, the shape is a bowl yet this piece features a small crater in the center which afford the user the opportunity to twirl the spaghetti using a fork only – no spoon required. Works wonderfully and a new essential for the pasta lover.
How on earth did we consumed spaghetti prior to these inventions?
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Feb 20, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: The pancake puff
Do you like pancakes? If you do, you’ll probably question why you have been eating flat pancakes all these years when you could be making pancakes in the shape of a ball. Yes, that’s right! Now you can eat pancakes that are easy to make, completely round, and taste delicious. Introducing the Pancake Puff.
Forget making those messy pancakes that your grandma used to labor over for hours (cue old woman spilling pancake batter all over the counter), now you can easily make a puffy ball-like pancake as easy as 1-2-3 — But that’s not all! You can choose the Chef’s Upgrade package that includes:
- Gourmet Flavor Filler
- Sugar Shaker
- Pastry Brush
- Professional Handle Cover
- 1 Year Supply of Flippling Sticks
Kiss those boring old pancakes goodbye and take your pancake making to the next level. Order today!
If for some reason you aren’t interested in the Pancake Puff set, you should take a look at their site and watch the video. You will be amazed at the possibilities, and have a hearty laugh.
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Feb 13, 2008 |
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Are cookbooks a thing of the past?
Lucky for me, my wife enjoys cooking and baking. She has a shelf dedicated to her cookbooks, but she hardly ever uses them. More often than not she accesses recipes via the internet. The amount of information that is at your fingertips is astounding and the ease of accessing that information gets easier and easier.
One cookbook that my wife swears by is the Joy of Cooking. It is an encyclopedic volume of just about anything you can think of cooking or baking. She swears by its usefulness and relies on it quite a bit. Other than that, her cookbooks are seldom used. So are cookbooks obsolete? Why clutter up a whole shelf in your kitchen for a bunch of books that you never use? Here are the recipe sites my wife frequents instead of using a cookbook:
One site that I just happened upon is Supercook.com. The site lets you enter the ingredients you have in your kitchen and then gives you ideas on what you may be able to prepare. Maybe it’s time to let some of your cookbooks go?
Posted by Matt on Feb 12, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Double-Deck pizza oven
Excuse me if I’m a bit ignorant to the advantages of having a dedicated pizza oven in your kitchen, but this behemoth is a mystery to me. Measuring in at 16 3/4″ wide x 15 1/8″ deep x 16″ high, it is a space hog and it wouldn’t be the easiest appliance to store out of sight. What advantages does a dedicated pizza oven offer that a conventional oven doesn’t? I’m not entirely sure. Maybe an owner of the Double-Deck can let us in on the secret.
I read the four reviews of this oven on Brookstone and they all loved the “ease of use,” but one user left the following observation:
This product is a dissapointment. Cook your pizza in your regular oven, it’s far superior and doesn’t take up all the space this one does.
My thoughts exactly. Do your counter a favor and pass on this pizza oven overkill.
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Feb 6, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: How would you like your eggs?
If your answer to the title question is, “With as much fire power as possible,” I may have found an item for you. Have you ever eaten eggs in the shape of a .45? Well, now is your chance with Gun Egg Fryers, brought to you by the lovely folks at UrbanTrend.
In my quest to find ridiculous unitaskers, I often come across questionable and weird products. The Gun Egg Fryer is very perplexing to me and fits into the questionable category. Does food in the shape of a firearm taste better? Are the Gun Egg Fryers part of some bizarre national trend? Maybe weapon shaped food is the next big thing for 2008.
Can you please pass the bazooka shaped pepper mill?
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Jan 30, 2008 |
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How many salad dressings are enough?
Not to pick on my mom or my mother-in-law, but they both have an odd habit of collecting salad dressing in their refrigerators. The salad dressings may start out neatly lined up on the refrigerator’s door, but they somehow end up in the back of the main shelves never to see the light of day before they become expired. With a quick inventory of my refrigerator, I count two dressings. That is reasonable. If you’d like the choice of six to ten dressings, go to a restaurant. Stocking your fridge full of dressing is overkill.
It doesn’t take a lot of time to take inventory of your food supply. You may be a bit embarrassed when you find out how much you actually have in you fridge, but there is an easy way to curb your inventory. Stop buying more dressing. (Heck, make your own.) Before you head to the grocery store take stock of what you need and make a list. If you have more than one dressing per household occupant, then you most likely don’t need any more. So when you head out to buy groceries skip the salad dressing aisle unless you need more Ranch, of course.
I guess taking aim at salad dressings isn’t fair. I’m sure there are any number of groceries that can be over purchased in this country in over abundance. The main thing to take from this post is to make a shopping list when heading to the grocery store. Making a list and sticking to it will help curb your appetite for more food.
Posted by Matt on Jan 21, 2008 |
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Unitasker Wednesday: Electric garlic roaster
My wife and I love garlic. We generally go overboard on our garlic intake, but we tend to have a hefty tolerance for each other’s garlic breath so it works out okay. Even with our mutual cravings for all things garlic, we find this Electric Garlic Roaster ridiculous.
Roasting garlic isn’t rocket science. You put it in a conventional oven wrapped in tin foil with a little olive oil. There is no need for another small appliance. Unless, of course, you are pulled in by this gadget’s cool garlic shape. I guess the shape will help you remember what it is for when you find it in the back of one of your cupboards in 10 years. So, I guess, that’s a good thing.
**Unitasker Wednesday posts humorously poke fun at the single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Posted by Matt on Dec 26, 2007 |
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