Today, a friend sent me a link to Unclutterer, a blog about getting organized. The posts preach minimalism: the less stuff you own, the less stuff you have to organize. Every Wednesday the site mocks “unitaskers,” items that only serve one function while taking up valuable space. These products are often the worst of the “as seen on TV” club, and invariably enable you to do things that you can easily do without them, such as washing your feet or cracking eggs.
I admitted earlier this week to owning my own unitasker, an awesome cappuccino maker that, after a scroll through Unclutterer to see the ridiculous things that other people own, I’m liking more and more. While preparing dinner tonight, however, I realized that I’m actually the proud owner of two more unitaskers, both of which I needed for the substantial amount of produce in my CSA:
- The Oxo Good Grips Strawberry Huller, which pierces the strawberry, scoops out the hull and releases it in a couple of quick moves. Using a knife to cut out stems is tedious and a bit slow, and poking a straw into the center of each strawberry simply makes a mess and often doesn’t remove the entire stem. This unitasker is also small and easy to clean, so it stays.
- The Oxo Good Grips Corn Stripper, which strips and collects corn kernels as you move it down the corn cob. Sure, it does what a good sharp knife will do, but it does it without making a huge mess. Stripping corn with a knife results in flying kernels. The easy-to-clean container on this gadget is what makes it worth having. Fill it with corn kernels, dump them out into a bowl, then start filling it again.
So, in my kitchen a unitasker must perform its task much better than other multitasking accessories can and it must be easy to clean. (In fairness, apparently it also must be an Oxo product or an Italian import.)
I have this paranoid idea that most unitasker products are given as gifts by people who are hating on the clean, efficiently run kitchens of their recipients. What other explanation is there for the s’more makers that rampaged across American Christmas shopping lists a few years ago?
Entirely Adequate 
We own a number of them. One I grew up with was the egg slicer. But I’ve tried to cut thin slices of egg with a knife. It’s damn near impossible without crumbling the yolk. But the one I’m most ashamed of is the apple core-er. Now that’s just unnecessary. But it’s so -fast-!
Funny. I have never heard those things called unitaskers. Like you, I have that amazing cappuccino maker which I cannot live without. My cherry pitter is pretty awesome too. I did have a bagel slicer that I ridded out but like Jim, I can’t let go of the aple core-er.
I had an apple corer, but it was poorly designed and almost took the tip of my thumb off one day. Out it went. I don’t mind the small unitaskers that serve a function (just try to pit a cherry or olive without a pitter), but it’s things like the Teapot Teabag Rest (from Crate & Barrel — if you’re lucky you may still find the one someone gave me at a Mobile, Alabama thrift store) that simply must go.
I yearn for the days when I could move everything I owned in the back of my car and a borrowed pickup truck.