I Don't Have A Microwave, And I Can't Believe How Much It Upsets People

This is controversial, but ... I got rid of this counter-space hog, and you can, too.

There are kitchen appliances that seem indispensable to modern life. I don’t mean the big, essential ones, like fridges and ovens, but the smaller ones that make food prep and cooking faster, easier and more efficient. Stand mixers, blenders, food processors … if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, these may be the small appliances you can’t live without.

During my single gal days in Florida, a microwave was my go-to kitchen appliance, especially since I did very little cooking for myself. I’d use the microwave to cook a veggie burger, heat a single-serving frozen entree, reheat my Chipotle leftovers, boil a mug of water for tea, and simmer my rage (cue Fiona Apple’s ”Tidal,” please).

I’ve still got some low-level rage, but I jettisoned the microwave (and sadly, the Chipotle) in 2009, when I moved to Italy. In the whirlwind of things I had to adjust to when I downsized, changed countries, languages and cultures and started living with Paolo, my soon-to-be husband, not having a microwave barely blipped on my radar. I hardly missed it then, and, 16 years later, it’s become so unnecessary in my kitchen that I never think about having one.

That’s partly a result of me living in Italy, but it’s also because I’ve changed my cooking methods and, perhaps most important, my perspective: I just don’t need the convenience that a microwave offers. And you probably don’t either.

Microwaves take up a ton of precious counter space.