I have a fun, simple, and easy-to-remember system for evaluating new kitchen equipment and gadgets. FUN is an acronym for:

F - Features

U - Usability

N - Nice to have or necessity?

I give between zero and five stars for each area, with five being the highest, and zero, obviously, the lowest. N gets five stars if it's an absolute necessity, zero if it's completely frivolous.

A rating of 12 - 15 stars would tempt me to run out and get it immediately, since a rating that high means I probably can't live without it.

A rating of 7 - 11 stars means I should plan to buy it sometime or put it on my Amazon wish list for someone to give me as a gift. (Yes, I'm one of those rare individuals that loves to get foodie gifts!)

A rating of 6 or less means I probably won't buy it.

The beauty of this system is there is no right or wrong. You rate items for yourself, based on your own personal cooking and lifestyle preferences. What may get five stars from me might only elicit two stars from you. My best friend might give 15 stars to the can opening, trash compacting, feed-the-dog-and-clean-up-after-it kitchen gagdet, whereas I might give it a 5. To each her own.

Use this system to evaluate any new piece of equipment you are considering buying for your kitchen, and you'll be able to decide which items to buy right away, which items you can wait for, and which things you think are a good idea, but you'll probably never use them.

As an example, I'll use my FUN system on the green food storage bags that are so popular on television commercials.

F - Features.

They keep food fresh, allegedly much longer than ordinary plastic bags. They advertise that they can be used over and over again. You simply wash them out after each use. I'll give it 3 stars. They look like any other green bag to me.

U - Usability.

I'm still not convinced that the green bags are so much better than any other bag. Besides, I take my vegetables out of the bags when I get home and store them in the crisper of my refrigerator. For me, Usability gets a 0.

N - Nice to have or necessity?

These are certainly not a necessity for me. Especially not when they cost $19.95. For plastic bags. In fact, I don't even think they would be nice to have. My crisper works absolutely fine, thank you very much. I give it a 0.

Overall, the score for the green bags is a 3. Definitely not something I'm going to buy. Now some of you dear readers may be using these green bags and think they are the world's best new kitchen item. If so, you go! It's all about what works for you in your kitchen.

Using this system, I invite you to check out the newest kitchen equipment and gadgets with me, and have FUN!

Picture: Star, by J. Durham

Suzanne Pitner loves to cook, knit and teach. She has won several Editor's Choice awards as a feature writer for Suite 101 and she maintains the TeacherWriter blog.