Kitchen counters are among the most precious and limited spaces available to home cooks and thus the small appliance industry has been trying to sell us space on those counters for decades. We've got waffle irons, electric egg poachers, quesadilla presses and single serve blenders. Essentially, there are no limits to the number of kitchen gadgets we can buy and the average kitchen drawer is a graveyard of impulse buys that were used two times and then put away. While the mess may be overwhelming, a few small appliances really are worth taking up some of that counter space. They save a considerable amount of time, produce results that cannot easily be replicated with other tools and are used regularly throughout several months and/or years instead of occasionally.

This article is designed to help separate the truly useful from the extremely expensive gimmicks.

How To Evaluate ANY Small Appliance

There are three easy questions that quickly filter out the marketing hype surrounding any small appliance. First, will this perform a function I am unable to accomplish fairly efficiently using my current equipment? Second, will I utilize this product at least weekly? Is this addressing a problem I experience less frequently than monthly? Finally, does the end result justify the added storage space, cleaning time and expense of purchasing the product? If an appliance scores well on all three areas, it is a worthy purchase. An appliance that scores well in only one area -- typically the first area, since new products are exciting -- generally proves disappointing after usage.

Appliances That Have EARNED Their Place On The Counter

Stand Mixer

Anybody who bakes frequently will tell you that a stand mixer is the single most justifiable major appliance for a kitchen counter. The mechanical differences between hand mixing and stand mixing are more than mere convenience. Stand mixers allow users to cream butter and sugar together for a full eight minutes until lightened and fluffy. Users can develop bread dough to the proper gluten development without tiring themselves out. Users can also whip egg whites to stiff peaks with virtually no effort required. Good stand mixers last forever, accept a variety of accessories (such as pasta rollers, meat grinders, vegetable spiralizers) and provide services that both hand mixers fail to offer or offer poorly. The counter space taken by a good stand mixer is significant, but for a regular baker, the benefits far outweigh the space requirements.

Change your mind-set however if you bake infrequently. Occasional bakers should consider a hand mixer. Hand mixers accomplish approximately 80 percent of what a stand mixer accomplishes, but take up only 1/10th the counter space and cost only 1/10th the price.

Immersion Blender

The immersion blender -- also known as a stick blender or hand blender -- probably offers the greatest bang-for-your-buck in terms of value-to-counter-space ratio of any kitchen appliance. The immersion blender is cheap, fits in a drawer, needs almost no maintenance (simply rinse under running water while blending), and removes the hazard associated with transferring scalding-hot soup in batches to a countertop blender. In addition to soups, it whips sauces right in the pan you cooked them in, purees smoothies in the cup you plan on drinking from, creates mayonnaise in under 60 seconds in a tall jar and purées baby food, humus and salad dressing without getting rid of additional appliances. It is difficult to come up with a legitimate reason why someone would not own an immersion blender at any cooking skill level.

Electric Kettle

An electric kettle is not a luxury for anyone who drinks tea or coffee -- it is simply an efficiency upgrade that pays for itself in weeks. Electric kettles boil water roughly 3X faster than boiling water using a stovetop pot and consume dramatically less electricity doing so because the heating element is located directly inside the water rather than heating a pan surface prior to doing so. Models that have variable temperatures open-up an entirely different world of possibilities for anyone seriously interested in tea or pour-over coffee brewing: Green tea brewed at 100°C will taste bitter and astringent whereas brewed at 75°C it will be sweet and complex. White tea, oolong and high-quality single origin coffee follow similar principles. At its simplest an electric kettle is simply a rapid way to heat water. At its best it provides precision control for extracting the optimal flavor from your hot beverage.

Food Processor

Full-sized food processors eliminate the time consuming tasks of making pastry dough (cold fats need to be mixed with flour rapidly so as not to warm the ingredients), shredding large quantities of vegetables evenly, creating smooth textured hummus, grinding nuts into nut butter, etc. However, as with most appliances, volume is critical: Food processors will earn their place as long as you cook for multiple people daily or do any type of batch cooking. As a single person preparing simple week night meals for yourself, most of the functions offered by a food processor can be accomplished using nothing more than a sharp knife and an immersion blender.

Rice Cooker

Rice cookers are grossly misunderstood by western cooks and thought necessary by many parts of asia -- which is closer to reality. Rice cookers produce perfect rice every single time (no matter how inexperienced you are) with minimal supervision (no burning at the bottom, no boiling over). Most rice cookers also keep rice warm for extended periods without drying it out. Some higher-end models include steaming vegetables/fish above the rice during cooking thereby providing multi-functionality. Households that eat rice more than twice per week will greatly benefit from a rice cooker eliminating an entire class of relatively insignificant day-to-day cooking stress. Additionally, these types of appliances are affordable enough that they could fit in most kitchens regardless of how much counter space you have available.

Countertop Convection Oven / Toaster Oven

Quality countertop convection ovens will earn their place on your counter primarily due to energy savings and speed. Preheating a full-size oven to roast a single chicken breast or reheat leftovers wastes significant amounts of energy as does waiting 15-20 minutes for the oven to reach desired temperature. Quality countertop convection ovens achieve temperature in 3-5 minutes, waste much less energy overall and often yield better results than their larger counterparts.