“Everything but the kitchen stove”
“Everything but the kitchen stove” is an expression that means absolutely everything (except one, such as a sink or stove that is attached to the house). The New York (NY) Herald published on December 2, 1894:
“It can readily be seen from this description that any combination of materials is fashionable this season, and, to quote the old saying, ‘Women can wear anything and everything but the kitchen stove on their heads and feel serenely conscious they are in the front ranks so far as being in fashion is concerned.’”
A similar saying is “everything but the kitchen sink.”
[This entry was prepared with the research assistance of Christopher Philippo and Hugo of the American Dialect Society listserv.]
2 December 1894, New York (NY) Herald, “Picturesqueness Reigns in Hats,” fifth section, pg. 2, col. 1:
It can readily be seen from this description that any combination of materials is fashionable this season, and, to quote the old saying, “Women can wear anything and everything but the kitchen stove on their heads and feel serenely conscious they are in the front ranks so far as being in fashion is concerned.”
25 May 1897, Evening Telegram (New York, NY), “Telltale Tracks of Two Thieves,” pg 2, col. 6:
Two thieves—and one of them was a woman—who entered the apartments of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Richard, at No 397 West Twenty-first street yesterday, carried away nearly everything except the kitchen stove.
17 July 1904, Sunday Telegraph (New York, NY), ‘New York’s Tea Room Girl,” pg. 8, col. 2:
You who are only here ‘to see’ do not realize who she of the waving plumes may be—Miss Mathilda Van Sponge, if you please! She has spent three solid hours in donning for this occasion—tea at the ‘Called Off,’ according to the Ladies’ Home Journal and the newsboys’ vocabulary—everything portable in her uptown home but the kitchen stove.
Chronicling America
17 November 1913, The Evening World (New York, NY), “Everything But The Kitchen Stove,” pg. 3:
All of which is prefatory to saying that the Horse Show is just about the most distinguished assemblage of well-dressed people that these United States can produce. Of course some of the women have on everything but the kitchen stove (this is being written by a man) and some of the men bat less than .003 when It comes to a coat or a waistcoat but, as a gathering of thousands, the Horse Show sessions afford one an opportunity to see not only the last cry but the very best taste in personal adornment, masculine and feminine.
Chronicling America
19 June 1914, Washington (DC) Times, by Florence E. Yoder, pg. 3:
He completely lost his head in the sixteenth century, and wore everything but the kitchen stove, and today—yes, long suffering women, rejoice—today he promises to array himself once more in those colors which stamp him unmistakably and irrevocably as the VAIN MALE.
Google Books
December 1919, House & Garden, pg. 32, col. 3:
It is a compact little kitchen “with everything in it but the kitchen stove,” and fills the need of the worker in the badly planned and equipped city kitchen and the unplanned kitchen out of town.
14 April 1928, New York (NY) Times, “Giants’ Rally Beats Braves” by James R. Harrison, pg. 14:
A little lightning calculation will reveal that the Giants scored five runs in the eighth, hitting three Boston pitchers with everything but the kitchen stove