42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home + Photos!

It’s June – the month of weddings, graduations, and tornados. This list of 42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home is designed to provide you with a list of basic kitchen needs whether you are a bride-to-be, newlywed, cooking enthusiast, recent graduate moving to a new home, or starting over as we did in October 2007 when we lost our home in a wildfire.

If you know someone starting out, starting fresh, starting over, why not put together a surprise package of these basic kitchen essentials as a gift? Since 42 kitchen items are quite a lot to purchase as one gift, why not get together with other friends and family to give this list of goodies to the intended recipient for…

a wedding shower or bridal gift
a housewarming gift for someone just starting out or starting over
a birthday or Christmas present for the cooking enthusiast

Not only is this a great list for shopping for someone else (or even yourself), you can use this list to start your household inventory for emergency preparedness – always a good thing!

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A Brief History of Hope {Hope Chests, that is!}

Do you remember hope chests? Maybe not because they are such an old-fashioned idea. But, even in my day (and, I’m really not that old), we had hope chests and I started mine in high school. I collected things needed in a kitchen and other areas of a home and put them in a chest given to me as a gift by my grandparents. I gave a hope chest to Tiffany and one to another niece for their 16th birthdays many years ago. Even my husband, Charlie, had a hope chest when I married him. It wasn’t a hope chest in the traditional way, but it was a cedar chest gifted to him by a relative.

Even though they are out of fashion in recent times, gifting a young person a hope chest isn’t a bad idea with the cost of furnishing a house or apartment from scratch these days. Although originally intended for brides, thus the “hope” part, maybe we should rechristen them “new home” chests instead so that the stigma of “hoping” to marry is removed. Not only do women need kitchen supplies, linens, and other basics to get started in a new home, but so do men!

I know – let’s call them “new home footlockers“ and maybe men would want one, too! After all, a chest, trunk, or locker is a very versatile piece of furniture. Why not use one as a coffee table or side table in your new home?

In our old country home, the one we lost in the fire, we had an old Louis Vuitton trunk from the late 1890s that was in sad shape. A gift to us from Charlie’s aunt, it was a family heirloom she shared with the hope it would stay in the family. We covered the lid with glass and used it as a side table next to our sofa.

I loved that old trunk even in it’s worn and tattered condition. It “spoke” to me of times past and the many journeys and travels it must have made on its way West across our country. It was one of many heirloom things lost in the fire that can never be replaced by a modern replacement. I know I sound sad, but I’m not – I’ve “let go” of the “stuff” from the past and just savor the memories. The photo above is not the actual trunk we had but a close facsimile of it. Even the worn elements of this trunk remind me of our trunk!

What are kitchen basics?

To me, I classify kitchen basics as the basic kitchen tools, gadgets, and equipment I need to start over because I’ve done it more than once. Started over, that is. Not only did we have to start over after the fire, but I started over when I moved from one state to another, and I’ve started “fresh” when I moved out of my parents’ home for the first time.

When we moved into our rental condo two weeks after the fire, we had nothing except for the few things we took in the evacuation (clothes, my father’s irreplaceable artwork, our cat, Coco), and nothing we took included kitchen stuff. So when I went on my first shopping excursion, one of many, to furnish our rental condo, I started only with the basic things I needed to make meals. So, every single item on this list is something either needed to prepare food, is useful in multiple ways, or used to clean up afterward (except for the coffeemaker; enough said!).

What do I need for my first kitchen?

This universal question can be answered with the infographic below. This photo includes a thumbnail picture of each of the 42 kitchen basics included in the list that follows below. It’s pinnable so save it to your Pinterest board for future reference. Or send it to your family as a “wish list” of things you need before your move.

This list of kitchen items is a streamlined version of the things you need in a kitchen. I’ve selected each of these specific kitchen items because of their versatility. For example, item #32, a fine mesh strainer, can be used as a strainer for hot foods with liquid, canned foods that need to be drained, to rinse fruits, vegetables, and herbs, to strain homemade soup broth, or as a sifter for flour or powdered sugar.

Another example is item #19, a glass 9″ x 13″ pan. This pan can be used to bake cakes and make other desserts, make casseroles, roast a duck, marinade a London broil, dredge French toast, and more!

So, if you have limited funds (money) when starting out or starting over, think outside the box when choosing your basic kitchen stuff.

42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home

While this list is far from everything you need in a kitchen, it’s a good basic list of kitchen items to get you started. Here’s the list of 42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home:

Kitchen towels
Kitchen sponge
Kitchen scrubber
Hot pads
Oven mitts
Kitchen timer
Plastic cutting board
4″ paring knife
8″ chef’s knife
5″ serrated knife
Kitchen shears
Honing steel
Roasting pan with rack
10″ non-stick frying pan
2-quart saucepan with lid
8-quart stockpot with lid
Cookie sheets
Cooling racks
9″ x 13″ x 2″ glass baking pan
Wooden spoons
Slotted spoon
Slotted spatula turner
Sauté spoon
Classic spatula turner
Glass mixing bowl set
Measuring spoon set
Measuring cup set
Liquid measuring cup
Rubber spatula/bowl scraper
Hand mixer
Box grater
Fine mesh strainer (to also use as a sifter)
Colander
Manual can opener
Bottle opener
Corkscrew
Coffeemaker
Plastic or glass storage container set with lids
12-cup muffin pan
8″ or 9″ square baking pan (either glass or metal)
Blender
Kitchen twine
Vintage-looking trunk (just in case you were looking for one!)

Wonder why I chose certain types of items over others? Such as a glass mixing bowl set as opposed to a stainless steel mixing bowl set? Because a set of glass mixing bowls can substitute for serving bowls, storage bowls (if you buy the set that comes with lids), a salad bowl, etc.

Wonder why I have left some important tools off this list? For a couple of reasons:

I wanted to “brand” this list with 42 for the “4 Two” in the name of “Toot Sweet 4 Two” and
because you can use other things in place of those important tools, such as –

Whisk = could use a fork
Vegetable peeler = could use a paring knife listed above
Toaster = could use the oven
Spoon rest = could use a small plate
Tea kettle = could use the 2-quart saucepan listed above
Double boiler = could use the 2-quart saucepan plus a glass bowl, both listed above
Cookie scoop = could use 2 teaspoons from your flatware
Shaker bottle = could use a glass jar with a screw-top lid (saved from spaghetti sauce or jam)

Besides all the reasons above, I’ve created 55 lists of 42 things on this blog and 15 of them are all about the kitchen! So, be sure to visit the other kitchen lists to check out all things kitchen!

Are you working on your own home inventory project, whether for personal use or as the result of a homeowner’s insurance claim? I’ve created an eBook to help you see it through. The Complete Book of Lists: Room-by-Room Checklists for Your Household Inventory Project combines the 55 lists on this blog plus 20 new lists and rolls them up into one eBook with 75 different home inventory checklists – all for the low price of $9.99!

Check it out!

And for the ultimate list of kitchen tools, gadgets, utensils, accessories, etc., just subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll send you a freebie: 650+ Kitchen Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide for a Well-Stocked Kitchen. Look for the sign-up box towards the top of this post and also at the bottom!

If you haven’t yet figured in out, blue is my favorite color. I have lots of different tools in my kitchen in various shades of blue because I love working with kitchen tools and gadgets that make me happy. And the color blue makes me happy! If blue is your color too, here’s a link to blue kitchen tools on Amazon! But, if blue isn’t your thing, just use the link to get to Amazon and type in “red kitchen tools and gadgets,” or whatever your color is, to find things in your favorite color for your kitchen.

Throughout this post are several photos made especially for your Pinterest board! Will you do me a favor? Will you share my post on social media? The pinnable images scattered throughout this post are for your Pinterest boards so that you can bookmark this post and come back to it later. Thanks for sharing!

And don’t forget to sign up to receive my newsletter in your inbox. As a thank you, I’ll send you that freebie of 650+ kitchen essentials! Look for the sign-up boxes near the top of this post and again at the bottom of this post. Thanks so much!

Tootles,