Homeowners can make their kitchens more practical by opting for time-tested tools rather than specialised equipment, it has been suggested.An article on Lifehacker.com claims that despite the huge amount of new goods and designs released into the market every year, you can greatly simplify your life and cut down on the clutter from the kitchen to the bedroom to the garage by choosing classic designs.It referred to the book How to Cook Everything by the American food journalist and author Mark Bittman who observed that the best way to stir-fry is to use a relatively antiquated, flat-bottomed cast iron skillet.Mr Bittman had noted that while woks are marketed as the ideal pans for stir-frying, this is only the case if people have a special stove-top burner for accommodating a wok, which the vast majority of people do not.Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the director of Sex and the City 2 decided on a retro feel for the home kitchen of lead character Carrie Bradshaw.