What normal things did you not have or not have in your house growing up?

We didn't have a bathroom in one house we lived in. This was 1970/71. We had a tin bath that was hung up in the back yard, an outdoor loo, a bucket to use during the night, and a little heater on the wall near the kitchen sink as a hot water source. Ice on the inside of the windows, black mould all over the bedroom walls. The toilets at school were outside in the playground and used to freeze over in Winter! We moved from there to a new build which was sheer luxury!

I get what you mean about paper towels. My mom used a dish cloth and tea towels. If there was a mucky spill there was a pile of rags in the cupboard. Basically they were really old towels that had been cut into smaller pieces or pieces of tshirts or whatever. And after being used they were washed. But most people did the same at that time until paper towels became standard at some point.

The thing we always laugh about is store bought biscuits. Mom made her own which were very nice but we'd see an ad in a magazine and ask for the store bought ones. So once she bought some lemon puff biscuits and they were vile. No one wanted to eat them but she swore that she wouldn't buy anything else until we ate these ones. That lasted several months - a miracle with a family with 4 young children.

As a young child:
No central heating, so frost on the inside of the windows in the winter. We did have a coal fire in the lounge, and a couple of wall mounted electric heaters but their use was limited as we had electricity on a meter which required coins to be inserted.
No washing machine - we had a weekly trip to the launderette.
The relatives who lived with us didn't have a fridge - they had a larder which had a square of marble in it to keep milk cool.
No telephone.
Shared bathroom in a shared house - we lived with relatives, so you had to wait your turn for a wash.
No shower in the bathroom. You either had a bath or washed at the sink.
Hot water was limited - we had to put the immersion heater on, or boil the kettle.
No hair conditioner, and no fancy washing unguents, just shampoo and soap (Vosene and Pears, Sunlight or Coaltar soap)
No duvets - we had blankets and 'candlewick' bedspreads.
Certainly no kitchen roll and no paper hankies - cotton squares for blowing your nose.

As an older child we moved to a house where we had more room, central heating and a washing machine. This meant we had constant hot water. We still never had an actual shower, just a hose attachment on the bath taps, but we didn't have to share a bathroom with relatives.
got a telephone, We got duvets ("Continental quilts").
In my teens the bathroom then started to fill with fancy soaps, bath pearls, conditioner and all sorts, usually courtesy of the Body Shop.
Our relatives moved with us, and enjoyed most of the same but they never bought a fridge!

No TV til I was 9 years old
No fridge or freezer
No phone
No car
No double glazing, or central heating, so you froze in winter
No sofa or cushions

Life's so much better now

In the 70s we had no heating (none, not just no central heating), TV, washing machine, sofa, car, microwave, freezer, hot water (used to wash doing strip wash from kettle), vegetables (I am the product of a largely baked bean diet in childhood), shower, hairdryer, duvets - and obviously no hair conditioner or kitchen towel! We had meat once a week, fried mince and onions (sometimes liver) on a Saturday.

Once we had a chicken but after that it was judged too expensive.

I do not recall ever eating fruit at home as a child - though there was milk at school in the pre Milk Snatcher era!

It was a different world then! We did have a house phone, which I do not have now, ironically.

In the end actually we did get a form of heating- the church lent us one of those gas heaters with some sort of gas canister (?) in it, and paid for replacements. Strong communities in those days.

No fridge (and even then only a tiny basic one) until I was 7. There was one shelf in the pantry made of marble called the "cold shelf."

A coal fire in the living room, a coke stove (anybody remember those?) in the kitchen/dining room combo. A bar heater on the wall of the bathroom.

I still know how to lay and light a coal fire; I keep wondering whether I'll ever get another chance to show off this esoteric skill!
We were middle class in some ways (one of the few families in my peer group at primary school to have a landline) but there were strong hints of genteel poverty.

I had a similar experience but it taught us to be more resourceful. We washed our hands with washing up liquid, we had cushions etc.
Sometimes I had to cut the top off a sock for a hair bobble.

I didn’t use conditioner until my teenage years. My kids don’t know they’re born in comparison but wouldn’t be well off, they have everything they need and a bit more.

Door bells were definitely posh!

Also never had a new school shirt for each day, always wore them more than once.

Sounds very similar to me childhood. Mum used to put a bit of vinegar into our final rinsing water when washing hair. I remember Mum's old copper and her knob of blue to make the whites whiter. Everything got put through a mangle. We also got a week by the seaside each summer. No car so we went on the train. I never felt I was missing out though by because all my friends had the same as us. My Mum did eventually get a twin tub which was her pride and joy.

Kitchen roll here too.

Also a toaster - my parents always used the grill, and still do...even though they have a toaster that they keep in the cupboard.

No kitchen roll in the sixties that I can remember.

Friends - we weren't allowed to have our friends round. If they called for me they were allowed in the door but no further.

Conditioner and a hair brush! My mum had poker straight, silky fine hair that she was always trying to get volume into (it was the 80’s) and she couldn’t seem to grasp that my frizzy knotty hair needed different treatment, so I suffered through her trying to yank the knots out of my hair with a comb for years. When I was about 8 I think I must have said something to my grandmother as she presented my mum with a bottle of conditioner and a brush to use on my hair. Utterly amazing (although I still hate having my hair touched!)

No central heating, just one warm room with coal fire. Simple food but enough for all,of us.

We didn’t have a freezer or central heating or double glazing - but neither did most people - unless they were wealthy

lots of my clothes were homemade and we got one set of school uniform a year

A mother who showed any love.

I've never bought kitchen roll, just don't think I'd use it!

Nothing major was missing as such, just that we generally had a lot less stuff and we had a black and white tv until well after colour was the norm.

Early on (1985 and before) we had no:

• TV
• Washing machine (laundrette visits!)
• Phone
• fizzy drinks (my friends had those, I was jealous!)
• shower (bath with tap rubber shower attachment)
• Kitchen roll
• hot water on demand, without boiling the kettle

It seems like Bridget Phillipson calls this ‘poverty’. Which it really wasn’t. We went to school, got an education (of sorts), were well fed, warm, loved, supported by family etc. Had a brilliant happy childhood (I’m 50).

Ofc we have all of these things now. My kids go to private school and couldn’t imagine life without well, much I suppose.

.

I was 60s/70s but much the same, but all my friends were similar as far as I know. Never had a car, holiday, never went to the cinema, theatre or to a restaurant until I was in my own home. But we were always well fed and happy I think.