Lékué lemon squeezer
Orange peelers from Farringdon
Are fish-boning tweezers strictly necessary in life?
Avocado slicer and pitter
Fish boning tweezers
Pickle fork
Professional potato ricer
Cherry pitter
Lobster crackers
Salad spinner
Mushroom brush
Pie weights
Orange peeler
Tea bag squeezer
Electric peppermill
Is it just me, or could all of the above be performed by existing multi-purpose kitchen implements such as, say, a knife? Do tea bags need to be squeezed or can they be pressed against the side of the mug with a teaspoon? Could pastry be weighed down with dried beans? Can’t an orange be peeled with your hands?
In the same shop, I also spotted a sort of silicone bag that was described as a ‘lemon squeezer’ (you put the lemon inside and squeeze it, as opposed to just squeezing it without a big) but to be fair, the same company, Lékué, also produces stretchy tops for jars that can be used instead of Clingfilm, which will be going on my brightly-coloured-plastic-gadget wish list.
Surely the days when people were looking for gratuitous reasons to spend money are over. After months of fine tuning my own budget and cutting out non-essentials, now I find a whole shop of things I can easily live without.
If anyone can come up with a convincing argument for why any of the above are necessary in life, I’d genuinely love to hear it.
Stretchy lids from Lékué
HOW TO BE UNEMPLOYED 
A friend of mine just told me her mother can’t do without grape scissors.
Grape scissors? Sensational!
Salad spinners are good.
I don’t have one, but I always envy those who do.
Dry lettuce is much more sophisticated than wet.
You dont get water around the edge of your plate.
The dressing stays on the leaves rather than sliding off the water as it separates from it.
They also make a very satisfying noise.
OK, I’ll concede the point on salad spinners, even though they take up a disproportionate amount of room in relation to frequency of use. But surely not a specialist avocado slicer? Or the new contender, grape scissors?