Things my kitchen urgently needs:

[conuly]

1. A dishwasher, for the love of god
1a. Someplace to put said dishwasher
2. A new stove with working oven and FIVE burners, all of which function properly
3. Left-handed kitchen shears
4. A secondary pair of left-handed scissors, and a pair of good quality right-handed scissors
5. A new small size pot, for when both small size pots are in use but I don't want to use a big one
6. A new medium-large skillet, for the same reason
7. A NEW AND IMPROVED LIGHT FIXTURE OMG

So, 1, 2, and 7 are long term goals, but does anybody have recommendations on the middle ones? I don't want to be bummed by the crappiness of my lefty shears, after all.

Comments

[senmut]

Members Mark (Sam's Club) does those ambidextrous shears, and bonus? They come apart at the hinge for better cleaning. Cheap enough for a two pack I won't sweat it if I replace them every year, but they are working fine for me and Yena, who is a lefty.

[movingfinger]

Fiskars have served me better than Wusthof, for kitchen shears. If you're going to be cutting up chicken with them, get a pair that comes apart for washing.

If you want a nonstick type skillet, the Greenpan line (I got a couple at Target) have been performing reasonably well and are oven-safe if you get them with metal handles.

I hope you find a light fixture you like soon--of the infrastructure items, that is probably the easiest!

[ranunculus]

New pot. Check with Asian kitchen supply stores. Often they have good but really inexpensive pans. I have a small stainless steel pot with a nice heavy bottom that I got super cheap and have used happily for almost 20 years now. Also garage sales and thrift stores.

[conuly]

There is no such thing as ambidextrous scissors or shears. Unless they are joined properly they're pretty much unusable for me. What people call "ambidextrous" scissors are inevitably righty scissors with weird handles. They're joined in the righty way.

[luscious_purple]

Do you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you? That place might have used dishwashers for a small fraction of the list price.

https://www.habitat.org/restores

In my county we have a place called Community Forklift (https://communityforklift.org/) that sells all kinds of used home improvement stuff. It sells dishwashers for as little as $25. I already have a hookup from my previous dishwasher, though, and I suspect creating a dishwasher space with the plumbing and electrical hookups from scratch is the really expensive part. :-(

[bibliofile]

If you know anyone who lives near a well-off suburb, ask if they'll shop yard sales for you. Someone I know has a lot of really good pans that they picked up at yard sales. (I don't know if they're still hitting yard sales, and also they don't live near you.)

Seconding Habitat ReStores for dishwashers and also light fixtures, both used and occasionally leftover new stuff from contractors etc. . Some stores also put inventory info online.

OTOH, box stores stock fairly inexpensive LED light fixtures and you can shop online at any time.

[conuly]

All stoop sales have around here ever is toddler sized clothes and Christmas figurines.

[conuly]

I'm worried about the same thing being expensive, yes.

[baronessekat]

I feel you on the stove. I only have two working burners on my 45+ year old stove. The oven died almost 6 years ago.

But it's a monstrosity of a drop in range that will cost more than I can currently afford to rip out and replace.

And I would love to get rid of the ancient banquette of harsh fluorescent lights that are the "more than spot lighting" and make LOTS of noise.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

You need to hit either estate sales or a thrift store. People that do buy good kitchen items tend to move with them. I've stopped garage sale-ing as much because unless it's a settled All Neighborhood, where people may be clearing out Retro Items, yup it's outgrown tykes or Super Mass Produced culling.

[quirkytizzy]

I, too, yearn for a dishwasher. My apartment doesn't have one and we've been doing dishes by hand for 10 years now. *sigh*

Also it is so hard to find good left-handed stuff. My sister and her son struggle with that all the time.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

You probably are better off with making the wash up area as inviting as possible. After all, dishwashers (mechanical) are very hard on dishes that aren't Cornelle or Ironstone. They'll take the paint right off glasses.

Long stand floor mat (the sort that 14 hour shifts are tolerable on; because you won't take THAT long and with one it won't even feel like it)
Rinse basin, drying rack with way for the water to return to the sink via gravity.
tunes and/or wine.

Disclaimer:I am my dishwasher. I fit in my kitchen and require no additional plumbing and my house's drains tolerate me. I grew up with exactly one mechanical dishwasher between three households-admittedly it was the one moved from the trailer to a house.

I have to admit, I'd only buy a 'used' dishwasher if it was really a bash and ding- sometimes ReStore gets appliances because a remodeling contractor couldn't get a unit to fit but there was no return option, etc.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Lights are an easier change out. Given that they are ancient that will take an electrician, but many of the replacements will not.

[thewayne]

I was very specific to get ambi shears, and ones that easily come apart w/o tools for running thru the dishwasher.

[gatheringrivers]

At least here, there are "can lights" (for those recessed "cans" in the ceiling) that are available in standard, halogen, and LED bulbs. No change of the "cans" needed - the plugs are compatible.

Fluorescent-style tubing using LED's MIGHT be available in a drop-in replacement for old florescent tube fixtures by now?

But I'm not sure. The last time we looked (a few years ago) they weren't, and he didn't want to replace the fixtures AND the tubes, so we just got like 3 boxes of tubes and called it good. There ARE "more eco friendly" (uses a bit less power) versions of drop-in tubes, though - that's what we got the 3 boxes of.

There are *hanging* tube lighting replacements - "shop lights" here - that are strictly LED's - we've got some from this company, but I don't know what's available in your area (might be able to find an equivalent via Amazon, worse comes to worse.)

So if your current ones croak in the meantime, the hanging style (just would need to screw in a few things to hang them from) might work as a stopgap.

(There's minor amounts of noise - if your hearing is extra sensitive you might notice, but most people generally won't, and it's not annoying enough for me to notice most of the time.)

[gatheringrivers]

I'll ping a friend of mine who's a lefty and see what he says he would recommend for something like that.

[conuly]

As I said upthread, there's no such thing as ambidextrous scissors or shears. Lefty scissors are jointed one way, righty ones another. They can't be jointed both ways at once, and so called "ambidextrous" scissors are just righty scissors.

[conuly]

We're at MINIMUM 10% of the population. Probably more. This shouldn't be so hard!

[conuly]

A quick google search suggests that what there is isn't quality.

...I wonder if I'll have to go to a specialty producer. Man, I'll pay through the nose if I do.

[maju]

We bought some Fiskars left handed scissors a few years ago thinking it's a good brand, but they are AWFUL. (At least for kitchen use, which was what we bought them for.) We also have some right handed Fiskars scissors which seem to be far superior. Unfortunately we are both left handed. I have never tried to buy left handed kitchen shears though.

ETA: Have you heard of this site: https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/left-handed-kitchen-scissors.html

[greghousesgf]

if you have no objections to amazon they sometimes have good deals on kitchen stuff.

[pwcorgigirl]

https://www.leftyslefthanded.com/

Many of my cousins are leftys and my son uses his left hand for some tasks and the right for others, so there is useful stuff at the link. I want one of their lefthanded measuring cups myself because I always hold the handle in my left hand and pour liquids with my right, which means the measuring marks are always on the wrong side.

[conuly]

I have, but some reviews of their kitchen scissors suggest they're not good quality.

[conuly]

Tried that, alas, no luck on the shears front.

[conuly]

And rulers always go the wrong way too, have you noticed? I am *very* good at subtracting from twelve....

[maju]

That's a shame, because I was thinking of buying some kitchen shears from them.

[conuly]

And it's unlikely to be some disinformation campaign because it's not like there's much competition.

Screw it. I'm emailing all the companies that make good quality kitchen gadgets and asking why they aren't in on this.

[gatheringrivers]

Well, the friend didn't know, but here's what came up in my googling: Lefty's True Left-Handed Scissors

Currently $17, which is less than what I paid for my last pair of Fiskar's rightys from the fabric store.