Less is more: bringing back quality and simplicity to our kitchens (and our lives)

Our kitchen is the centrepiece of our life. We spend a lot of time there, preparing and eating the food that nourishes us, so we want it to be a pleasant & healthy space to hang out in. But caught up in an endless pattern of too much to do and too little time we swoop on the latest appliance or gadget that promises to do amazing things with the utmost ease in next to no time. And before too long our kitchens become cluttered with a bunch of stuff that we mostly don’t need, exposes us to toxic chemicals, might last five or so years and will ultimately end up in landfill.

We lap up the latest technologies, comforts and conveniences as quickly as they appear on the store shelves, but in our pursuit of quantity we’ve lost sight of quality and simplicity. Sadly, it seems these have no place in modern life. Appliances today are designed for disposal and it is increasingly difficult to get them repaired. And as we gradually stock our kitchens with new-fangled ‘time-saving’ appliances, one for every imaginable task under the sun, do you notice how we don’t ever seem to end up with more time, but rather just feel more overwhelmed and less fulfilled than ever?

The world is facing a waste crisis, our oceans are facing a plastic crisis and we are facing a health crisis and it’s only going to get worse unless we start to shift our mindset and the way we live. While I’ve only been on my anti-plastic rampage for the last 18 months, I’ve lived chemical-free and with a mantra of quality over quantity most of my life. I don’t have a bread-maker or a rice cooker or an electric fry pan. Hell I don’t even have a dishwasher or a microwave. No I’m not a weirdo. I just don’t need (or want) them. It’s time we bring back quality and simplicity to our kitchens, reconnect with what really matters and give our food preparation the time and honour it deserves. Because how we make our food is a reflection of how we treat ourselves (and our planet).

Our over-consumption problem

Recently, scrolling through an online catalogue for a major retailer of electrical appliances, I counted around 20 small kitchen appliances that a) I don’t own b) I don’t want c) I don’t need and d) nobody needs. Yet loads of people obviously buy…