How do you know what to purchase for your kitchen when you are first starting out – what those must have kitchen items are? How do you know if a kitchen gadget is really worth buying and taking up space in your kitchen? Don’t worry, I’m going to make your life easier with this list of basic kitchen needs.
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The Kitchen Essentials List You Need to Have
When my husband I were first married we lived in a duplex with a small kitchen. I had no pantry to store excess tools and appliances.
As you move into bigger homes, you have a little more leeway with what you can have in your kitchen. Today, I want to give you a list of the most important items for your kitchen – the must have kitchen items list. Obviously, if you are someone who doesn’t cook you will be able to eliminate several of things things.
After being married over 12 years, these are the kitchen tools I use on a weekly (if not more frequently) basis. Everyone of them except for the first three items under the possible baking essentials list.
If you have a little extra room in your house, I highly recommend you check out the list of my Favorite Kitchen Tools and my Favorite Kitchen Appliances! Not everything on those lists I would consider essentials, but they are all things I love and use on a regular basis!
Basic Kitchen Needs List:
Cooking Kitchen Essentials
- Vegetable Peeler
– Don’t get the cheapest one out there. They hurt your hand and break much sooner.
- Box Cheese Grater
- Soup Ladle
- Slotted Spoon
- Non Slotted Spoon
- Can Opener – Buy a decent can opener. They cheap ones are a pain. I have this
one. My sister has this one
and says it is amazing.
- Kitchen Shears or a Pizza Cutter
- Colander
- Cutting Boards
- Food Storage Containers – I love my Pyrex
- Good Knives. Start with just a couple decent knives. A bread knife, a paring knife, and one or 2 chef’s knives.
- Good Pots and Pans. Start with an 8 and 10 inch skillet, 1 sauce pot, and a stockpot. You can add to your stash after you know what else you will use. I’d recommend stainless steel for your sauce pot and stockpot at least. Your skillets you’ll have to decide on stainless, non-stick, cast iron, ceramic etc.
- Silicone Spatula You need this! Great for making cookies or things like scraping out pots and bowls or the last of the peanut butter. Mine is from Pampered Chef and it’s amazing.
- Pancake Flipper Considering my kids are pancake fans, we use this multiple times a week.
- Mini Serving Spatula These are the perfect size for brownies and bar desserts. I used mine tonight for lasagna too.
- Blender – This may or may not be an essential. I mainly use mine for smoothies, oat flour, and salsa. (I’d suggest looking for a great deal on a Vitamix or Blendtec.)
Possible Kitchen Essentials:
- Potato Masher
- Pasta Fork
- Whisk
- Ice Cream Scoop
- Microplane You can get by without this by using your knife for mincing garlic and the small side of your box cheese grater for zesting lemon peel, but I do find myself using the microplane frequently.
Baking Kitchen Essentials
- Airbake Cookie Sheets
- Cooling Racks
looks nice. If you are short on counter top space, check out the stackable ones
- Mini Muffin Tins
– This is the pan I have. I prefer having 2 12 cup pans over 1 24. I recommend mini over regular sized ones because they make the perfect sized muffins for kids and when you bring muffins or cupcakes to a function a lot of the time people won’t finish an entire regular sized one and it always makes me a little sad when food I’ve made gets tossed. They are also great size for appetizers
- 9×13
- Measuring Spoons
- Measuring Cups
- Liquid Measuring Cups
- Glass and Metal Mixing Bowls
- Stand Mixer – If you aren’t a baker, you can skip this one but I use my KitchenAid 1-3 times each week. It definitely makes kneading dough a lot easier. Don’t get anything small than the 5 quart one.
Possible Baking Essentials:
- Pie Pan
- Jelly Roll Pan
- Pastry Brush
- Rolling Pin – I have a traditional rolling pin
- Bread Pan – This is an essential if you are going to make homemade bread. Otherwise you can just use the muffin tins for quick breads. If you really want bread pans for quick breads I love this size
. Otherwise I use stainless steel bread pans
- Wooden Spoon – this is another item you can do without, but I use mine frequently for stirring sourdough, making cookies, etc. One is plenty.
Other Kitchen Items:
- Silverware – In my opinion there is no need to buy silverware that is $50 a setting. One the other had, don’t buy the the cheap stuff. It bends easily, tarnishes, and hurts your hand. We purchased a middle of the road set that we really liked from Bed Bath and Beyond. Using one of their 20% off coupons made it a great purchase. A service for 12 cost under $200.
- Dinnerware – Fine china was something that I didn’t want. When you are in a small house you most likely won’t have space for storing plates that seldom get used. I love corelle
- Glasses – If you are limited on space, make sure your glasses will stack otherwise they will take up a lot of space. Ours came from Ikea and they work great. Next time we’ll most likely purchase something a tiny bit thinner.
- Hot Pads and Trivets – One or two trivets would be plenty. Hot pads or kitchen towels could always fill in on the occasion you need more. You will want at least 2 hot pads.
- Wash Clothes and Dish Towels – Enough to get you through to the next wash day. I dislike drying my dishes with the cheap microfiber towels. Look for something that will absorb the water easily.
Don’t forget to hop over to the Favorite Kitchen Tools List and my Favorite Appliances List for more fun kitchen tools! (You’ll also get to hear about my all time favorite appliance. You might be surprised. A total splurge item, but I love it. The kids do too. 😉 )
What items do you consider kitchen essentials?
Originally published April 1, 2014. Updated list and graphics April 30, 2019.
