20 Common Household Objects You Really Don't Need

This week is National Simplify Your Life Week. While this simplification process is obviously broad enough to incorporate every aspect of your life — from your stressful daily routine, to your (lack of) work-life balance, to how to maximize your free time — the easiest place to start is with clearing out the objects that surround you every day. So, we've set about simplifying our own lives this week by really looking at all the things we have in our home and getting rid of all those items often considered "essential," which we don't actually need.

If you have a cell phone then you can clear some space on your nightstand by throwing away that old, noisily ticking alarm clock.

Unless you're a real mathematician, you're computer or phone can do all the math you would require a calculator to do.

When was the last time you played a CD? It's time to get rid of those disks and that rather unwieldy and unattractive CD rack you're storing them in.

There is nothing a cheese slicer does that a knife can't do. This is not as essential a piece of kitchen equipment as you thought.

When did you last buy a DVD? Exactly. There is absolutely no need for DVDs or a DVD player when you have Netflix and a laptop.

You may believe that your poached eggs are superior when made in your egg poacher, but just set aside some time to learn how to poach eggs properly. You'll find that all you really need for the best poached eggs is a pot and water.

To learn how to perfectly poach an egg, click here.

No one else you know has a fax machine: You will never, ever receive a fax. We have email, text messages, and Facebook these days — you need to catch up.

Do you really need a special piece of equipment to mush up your garlic? Chop it with a knife, or smash it with the knife's flat blade, and we promise your cooking will taste just as good.

For nine great garlic recipes, click here.

When did an actual person you know last call you on your landline? Unplug it, throw it away, and save yourself from the telemarketers.

Even if you don't have a smartphone and are adamantly sticking with your old-school cell phone, we're pretty sure it can set an alarm or start a countdown timer, meaning your kitchen timer can be thrown away.

We know that you think you need a microwave, but we're pretty sure you've never used it for something your oven couldn't do. Create yourself some extra counter space, and say "hello" to that multi-talented oven.

They may be necessary for all those fancy, fine dining dinner parties you will host... one day. But in reality, you probably never will. Also, napkins can cope without being squished through a ring. You could even learn to fold then fancily if you ever need them to look special.

While this may be a tool that you've been using since childhood, it is only used because that's what you automatically think to do. But in fact, a pair of scissors will do an equally good job, and they have the benefit of being able to be used for other purposes, too.

You may think that the only solution for portion control is one of those special portion measure tools — for which you seem to need a different one for every form of carbohydrate — but you know what would do a better job? Kitchen scales. Buy a set of those instead.

We dare you to go straight ahead and throw away your printer. You'll soon realize that you don't need to print out every email you've ever received anyway, and if you do need to print a special form, there's nothing wrong with that printer in the office.

A sandwich maker is essentially a grill pan with a weight on top. Hang on; we think we can recreate that "essential" sandwich maker using a grill pan with something heavy placed on top. Genius.

If you are a total health nut who is addicted to eating zoodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, your spiralizer may be worth the space it consumes on your counter. If, however, zoodles are a rare meal in your home, say "goodbye" to the spiralizer and "hello" to the much smaller, more versatile julienne peeler, which achieves a very similar result.

Kitchen tools really don't need their own resting place. Your spoon will be perfectly happy resting on the clean counter, which will need to be wiped down after you've finished cooking anyway.

If you've invested in a trash compactor, then shame on you. Use your foot and the weight of your body to compact that trash, not some enormous machine.

Unless you've bought a stunning, architecturally designed wine rack that doubles as a sculpture, then you can get rid of it. Your average bottle of wine is fine kept standing up for a few weeks. Unless you're storing your wine for many years (in which case you should wrap it up in newspaper, and keep it on a flat surface in a dark space), it really doesn't need to be on a fancy rack.