Why You Should Never Buy A Knife Set

Whether you're furnishing a new kitchen or renovating your current one, it can be tempting to deck your space out with all kinds of cool kitchen utensils and gadgets. Shiny new air fryer? Handy-dandy spiralizer? The fanciest KitchenAid stand mixer on the market? Yes, please.

That being said, it's important to recognize that not every kitchen appliance or tool needs a place in your home. In fact, many of these items are simply dumb products Amazon brainwashed you into buying. A banana slicer, for example, is entirely unnecessary if you own a knife. The same goes for a grape cutter or pickle picker.

And those giant knife sets — think along the lines of the $160 12-piece knife set, complete with built-in sharpener, sold at Target — are equally excessive. Seriously, no matter how into cooking you are, you don't need 12 different kinds of knives. However, that's not the only reason you shouldn't bother buying a knife set.

Although a big, fancy knife set may catch your eye at the store, keep walking. You don't need it, we promise. For starers, that Target knife set we mentioned contains six steak knives, which are fine if you have a steak-loving family but won't be of much use for actual kitchen tasks. It also includes both a chef knife and a santoku knife, which are a similar size and can be used for the same cutting actions; whichever one you choose just depends on your preferred blade shape. Finally, three different small knives — such as a paring knife and utility knife — are unlikely to be necessary in most home cooks' kitchens.

So, instead of buying a bulky knife set with utensils you might not even need, consider buying just a few individual knives. According to Bon Appétit, you'll be much better off investing in one small knife, one bigger knife, and a serrated knife. Furthermore, as noted by The Kitchn, it may seem like a great deal to get, say, a 12-piece set for $160, but a good chunk of that money is going to go to waste if you're only using two or three out of the dozen. Plus, it's easier to ensure you're getting a high-quality, comfortable-to-use knife when you're buying them one at a time. When it comes to kitchen knives, less is truly more.