What is the origin or earliest known use of the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink”?

Question

What is the origin or earliest known use of the idiomatic phrase "everything but the kitchen sink"?

I have searched the internet, but I cannot find an origin or etymology.

The earliest known use I found is 1918 according to knowyourphrase.com.

http://www.knowyourphrase.com/phrase-meanings/Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink.html

Is there a known origin or known use earlier than 1918?

Answer 1

OED

The Online Etymology Dictionary has a citation a little earlier than the OED:

Phrase everything but (or and) the kitchen sink is 1944, from World War II armed forces slang, in reference to intense bombardment.

Out for blood, our Navy throws everything but the kitchen sink at Jap vessels, warships and transports alike. [Shell fuel advertisement, "Life," Jan. 24, 1944]

Earlier

I'm not sure if these are definitely examples of the phrase or coincidental, but here's some earlier quotations.

The Washington Times (Washington D.C.), February 20, 1914:

Having "blown in' his sav ngs on a complete new set of scenery, Jerry was logged out this day like a circus horse. He had on everything but the kitchen sink and the door mat.

New-York Tribune, February 19, 1919:

We Sell Dependable Merchandise at Prices Lower Than Any Other SiSre. but for Cash Only Store opens 9:00 A. M. and closes 5:30 P. M. | Pots and Pans! To say nothing of rolling pins, clothes bask ets, wash boilers, per f. colators, casseroles, I towel bars, cloth venti lators, china, cut ^lass, earthenware well, in fact everything but the kitchen sink is included in this

Answer 2

Its use in that citation sounds a little too literal to be an authentic example having the meaning, in the OED’s definition, ‘everything imaginable’. The OED’s own earliest citation is from 1948, an extract from Eric Partridge’s ‘A Dictionary of Forces’ Slang’:

Kitchen sink, used only in the phrase indicating intense bombardment—‘They chucked everything they'd got at us except, or including, the kitchen sink.’ ‘The kitchen stove’ was also used.