Hasta La Ideas

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

First things first, go and read this wonderful article from yesterday’s New York Times about professional chefs and the unitaskers that languish in their home kitchens, “Must-Have Gadgets for the Kitchen? Think Again.” It is so comforting to know that even the highly trained get sucked into buying unnecessary gadgets and gizmos. Also, don’t forget to come back!

Welcome back, and now onto this week’s doozy of a unitasker. It doesn’t slice, it doesn’t dice, and it most certainly doesn’t julianne. In fact, the reviews for the Peel-a-Meal indicate it doesn’t even de-skin six to eight potatoes very well in 30 minutes:

The Amazon reviews are pretty tough on this device, and I kind of felt bad for it after reading all of them. (I have a soft spot in my heart for poor designs. It’s a good thing I don’t work at the US patent office.) Apparently, it only works on perfectly round potatoes, like Yukon Golds. It doesn’t work with Russets or even on Yukon Golds that have dimples in them — you still have to pull out your hand peeler and labor away on the indented areas. Since it only does six or eight at a time and it takes close to 30 minutes to peel that small amount of potatoes and you still have to touch-up the potatoes after the machine runs AND it’s supposedly really loud … a regular peeler hardly seems like much work in comparison. Plus, a hand potato peeler is super easy to clean in the dishwasher.

If you have a large family, everyone can pitch in and peel their own potatoes in less than 30 minutes. If you run a restaurant, you should really be using a professional grade peeler to process the load and be up to code with your equipment. People who have arthritis could probably benefit from a Rotato Potato Peeler, which at least looks like it takes up less counter space and has significantly more positive reviews. Oh, Peel-a-Meal, you have such a cute name that I’m sorry you don’t work quickly or efficiently or really do much of anything except for take up space and make a lot of noise.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.