I bet you read that headline and were already running for the toolbox ready to yank your dishwasher out of the kitchen shouting aloud "I'll do it!"

Let me put that post title into context.

As some of you know from previous articles, we've been going through a kitchen extension building project for what seems forever, albeit 12 weeks of my life. As I've said before it feels like my wife took revenge on my studio build, or should I say raise the stakes. This project has made my studio project seem like a weekend DIY project.

If you've ever been through the process, I'm sure some of you have, then. I'm surprised someone hasn't started a support group to help with the stress and strains. Someone recently asked in the comments what would I do without my builders for content? Let me tell you a project like this has enough analogies to draw on to last me a very long time but rest assured I'll spare you this ad infinitum!

It's funny what you miss when you have an extended period without so many of these things. There are things you thought you would miss a great deal and don't and others that really start to grate. So about four weeks into the project and already tired of taking dirty kitchen stuff up to a small vanity sink in our guest bathroom it was the dishwasher! Imagine being twelve weeks into the washing up from hell routine.

At this point, I would have given anything to have a dishwasher, even my beloved 1176!

It got me thinking about the stuff in my studio, what would I miss a great deal were I to be told to work for 12 weeks without it. I suppose like me it goes without saying that the computer and the DAW would be essentials, but beyond that how much of the stuff really matters and could I do without it?

It's a hard call, but even in their short life in my studio, my monitor speakers have become something that you take 'from my cold dead hand.' I rarely buy gear these days, partly because I've seen so much of it that I'm somewhat jaded by 'the next big thing.' That may sound odd coming from someone who spends a lot of time extolling the virtues of studio equipment, but in some ways, it means I'm far less likely to revert to the stereotype of a 'gear evangelist' to hype the sh*t out of everything. Thankfully my clients make great products, so it makes the entire task of shouting about them a great deal easier. But back to the monitors, as I said I rarely buy gear these days but I put out thousands for these and I don't regret a penny spent. Since owning them, I've not had a single mix sent back to be changed and frankly amends, while part of the job, are best avoided if one can help it.

So if you can imagine that the essential piece of equipment is like a stone dropping into a pool of water, then what are the concentric circles of importance moving out? 

Second, as I've written in a previous article is the microphone, then the headphones. Then I think some critical pieces of software I depend on, but after that, I wonder how vital most of the stuff I have is, and could I live without it if push came to shove?

It is so easy to fill our studios with loads of stuff, like some audio arms race, but I can't help but wonder what our 'dishwasher' is? We all have one; I wonder what yours is?

There is no right answer, despite a recent spat on the blog over cable winding, suggesting the world is made up of absolutes, it rarely is. So feel free to share yours in the comments free from having your head bitten off.

By the way, if you are already thinking about how you are going to tell your partner you are swapping your dishwasher for classic hardware compressor (a what!), then I suggest you put your screwdriver down and save the argument for another day.

I have a dishwasher back in my life, calm has been restored and the 1176 isn't going anywhere!