Six Of My Favorite Inexpensive Kitchen Items

These inexpensive kitchen items are small and easy on the budget while still making time spent in the kitchen easier and more organized. From practical tools such as a microplane zester, to aesthetically pleasing embossed labels and pinch pots, these are all items that I personally own and use in my coffee shop and home kitchen.

I’ve spent a lot of time cooking in commercial kitchens, as well as owning a restaurant, coffee shop, and food truck. I love trying out new gadgets and tools to make my time in the kitchen easier. Even better if you can make little swaps and additions without breaking the bank!

If you’re new here, I recommend heading over to my Essential Kitchen Tools for Home Cooks post. It lists five of my all time favorite essential kitchen tools that I think everyone should own, with links to my favorite brands of each.

I would never recommend products if I didn’t believe in their usefulness. For transparency, this post does contain affiliate links to my favorite products. If you click a link, we make a small commission off the sale with no extra cost to you. Head over to our Affiliate Link Disclaimer for more information, or shoot us a message to discuss!

Dyno Labeler

This little embosser is an easy, affordable way to label your jars, basket and cupboards. It comes with two rolls of black tape and one of red. I labeled my entire coffee shop without using up one roll. They’re sticky and have lasted on my jars through multiple washings. Plus, they just look so cute!

It’s a very simple design with no batteries or cords. Six months later, and it’s still working great.

Sustainability: I’m all about reusing glass jars, so I have a large collection of them from the coffee shop. I wash them well, remove all the stickers, and then label the jars with this Dyno labeler. It creates a nice, uniform look to a bunch of mismatched, recycled jars.

Kitchen Rails (and hanging produce bags)

Rails > open shelving. Shelves get dusty, things fall off shelves, and I can never keep them looking cute while still being functional. I grabbed three rails, a few baskets, hooks and bags at Ikea for under $50 to complete my set up. Everything that is hanging on there is used regularly, so it never gets dusty or dirty, and the baskets are easily thrown through the dishwasher. Plus I’m short, so if these were shelves, I would struggle to get items down.

I love showing off my produce in these bags, and it’s a good reminder of what I have on hand. I’m guilty of throwing produce in my fridge and forgetting about it, and this helps a little!

The rails are the Ikea Hultarp ones, and you also can find the matching hooks, produce bags and baskets there as well.

Microplane zester

I use a lot of citrus zest in my baking and my salad dressings. I love the fresh, vibrant flavors it adds to my dishes. If you zest a lot, I highly recommend getting a microplane zester. These zesters are so sharp and easy to use! Other zesters I’ve used pull the zest from fruits off in long strips, leaving me to have to go over it with a knife again.

Marble Rolling Pin

I got my marble rolling pin at a HomeSense store, but they are easy to find anywhere. This one on Amazon is identical to the one I own. I love mine because it’s very heavy, meaning less work on my arms. As a bonus, I put in the freezer for 15 minutes before rolling out the dough, and it will help keep the dough chilled.

Tiny Sifter

Sometimes I don’t want to wash a giant sifter, and sometimes I need to dust little treats in icing sugar such as these Strawberry Linzer Cookies. They are also great for straining cocktails or catching seeds when you juice citrus fruits by hand.

You don’t need anything fancy. I have multiples, but my most recent one was this one purchased from Amazon.

Pinch Pots

I fully understand that this might just be a “me” problem, but I don’t want to measure my salt and pepper when seasoning dishes. What I want is salt and pepper easily accessible beside my stove for adjusting dishes as I cook. I have salt and pepper grinders, but they are not convenient for seasoning large dishes or salting pasta water. However, I’ve often gotten myself in hot water by pouring salt directly from the box. It’s hard to unsalt a dish! Enter, the pinch pots.

At work, I use 250ml mason jars for the size and because they have lids. At home, I’m less concerned about cross contamination and so I use little pottery bowls. It’s easy to grab a pinch of salt or pepper from a pot, as opposed to turning a crank or trying to judge how fast the salt is going to pour from its little metal spout on the box.

You can use whatever little dishes or jars you have lying around. However, if I was going to invest in some small pinch pots, I love these terracotta ones from Amazon. I would personally pick something easy to clean and stay away from wood. If you’re dipping your fingers in them often, you want them to be easy to clean.

Tell me your favorite small kitchen tools

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my six favorite small kitchen tools. Also, I love trying out new kitchen tools! Let me know if you have any other recommendations for me to try.

If you missed the first post in this series, head over to my list of Essential Kitchen Tools for Home Cooks.