What items have you had for years that are still servicable/in daily use?

[longearedbat]

When I first left home and moved into rented furnished accomodation I bought a set of tins, one of which was a tea caddy. That caddy has been in daily use since, and that is coming on for 40 years. At the same time I also bought some kitchen utensils. The potato masher is still going! Every time I use it I idly wonder how many tons of potatoes I have mashed with it over the years.
What have you got that has lasted well? Not necessarily kitchen stuff, just anything.

My Nan was still using this yellow Hoover from the early 70s until a couple of weeks ago.

A wooden stepladder which is 52 years old and I have been using it today. It's had a couple of repairs but been used to do up countless houses. It tells a story. Still strong, safe and sturdy, yet easy to carry.

I painted it last summer to cover all the old paint and stains and now it looks good. It's the family joke.

I have a saucepan that belonged to my nan prob from about 1940 it's very useful

I bought my DD a really nice blue cotton velvet dressing gown from Debenhams for Christmas when she was 14. She still wears it now and it looks as good as new. She’s 35.
My mother’s Lloyd Loom chair, that was her bedroom chair, is now mine. She bought it in 1950, second hand, three years before I was born (to be quiet, possibly).
My best baking dish is a Portuguese ceramic one I bought in a department store in 1980. It was a really expensive buy for me then! I use it at least twice a month.
A travel hair dryer I bought for £5.99 sometime in the early 90s is still in regular use at home. When I travel I use the ones provided!

Our tea cosy still keeps the tea pot hot after many, many years.

Our Wallace & Gromit tea caddy is still going strong. I bought it before I met dh.

I have wearable clothes older than my relationship with dh I can't wear them at the moment though because I'm too big.

My pans and knives and forks were given to me and they were already 2nd hand.

My wrist watch is about 15 years old and is still as good as new.

My grandmothers small pine table, with a little drawer under the top, is in my bedroom. She had it made in the 1920's and it was stained with a thick dark varnish which I stripped off. It was in her living room when I was a kid, with the coal scuttle under it and the radio on top.

It is dainty, and a shaker style, very well made. I love it, it holds a lot of memories for me. It was the only item I had from the house when she died and so glad I saved it.

I’ve got a little portable fan heater from the early 1970’s that used to belong to my mum’s grandma!
It’s not used daily, but is used a lot during the winter to warm our tiny little toilet room which has no other source of heat. Plug it in just outside the door and it blows an impressive amount of heat into the room and it stays warm for ages Lovely to not sit on an ice cold loo seat in winter!

I still use a saucepan that was one of my parents wedding presents, if they were still alive they would have been married 70 years this year. It is a brilliant pan, never burns.

My nan had one of those Hoovers too, she was still using it when she died in 2012.

I have a cut glass fruit bowl that was a wedding present of my great-grandmother's. She would have got married in the 1920s.

My dolls house. My dad made it for me back in 1982, it's been played with by me, my younger sister, 3 younger cousins, dd1 (now 19), my nieces, and is now in residence in dd2's bedroom (she's 9 and starting to outgrow it now)

Our milk pan. I was allowed to take it with me to my first flat. That was in 2002. The pan had been my grandma's apparently, part of the set she got as wedding presents, almost 80 years ago! I should not be allowed to use this pan, I ruin pans frequently (newer, crappy pans that have only lasted DH 25 years), but this little pan is still going strong.

I'm feeling quite betrayed as I noticed today that the collar on one of my t-shirts is going.

I've had it 24 years

My PIL’s day to day crockery, cutlery and towels were all wedding presents, 50 years ago. Ours too, but we have only bet. Married 19 years

Two feather pillows from the 1950s. And a chest of drawers my parents gave me when I left home in the early nineties- because they'd had them for years, and they were really cheap ones!

We have a set of really cheap stainless steel pans purchased from poundstretcher when we got our first house 17 years ago. They are like new still! I keep meaning to replace them with some proper, grown up, pans. But there really is no need, and I’m quite sentimental about them by now.

Also have a washing machine by some random make (gorenje anyone?) DH was fuming that the salesperson obviously did a number on me & convinced me it was the new Miele! 10+ years of heavy use later & it’s still going strong 🙂

Dinner service that was a wedding present of my parents married in 1958 , warming plate bought as a wedding present 1992 storage jars, loads of glasses also wedding presents and my trusty tin opener bought 1991 used every day

Our bed is the in laws old bed - bought in the 1970s!

@DocMarteens beat me to it

My parents Le Creuset cast iron cookware that they got as a wedding present in the 60s. My parents stainless steel teapot that was also a wedding present. A Milkybar towel I collected token for in the 1980s.

DH's school swimming towel, now in use by our DC. DH is 50. Towel still has his name tag securely stitched in, which was a bonus!

Pyrex kitchen dishes and a small knife, belonged to my great aunt in her job as a housekeeper in the 1960s.

A few items of clothing that I bought 20ish years ago when a young professional.

Oh yes, like a pp, a dolls house and some train bridges that my grandad made for me in the mid 70s - were in daily use by my children, now on shelf for the next generation. My children also had some 1980s lego.

A green striped throw, it's at least 25 years old and was on my mum's bed when I was little. I have it on my sofa now, it's lovely.

I also have a tray with an old-fashioned French advertising poster printed on. My nan always had it under the kettle, and my kettle now sits on it. Again, I remember it from early childhood so at least 25 years old.

I have my nan's mixing bowl too, unfortunately it has a crack it it which is gradually worsening so it has recently "retired". My nan's 1950s glass rabbit jelly moulds are still in service though!

My favourite arm chair was DH’s grandad’s. He died 30 years ago and I reckon it must have been 20 years old at least at that point. I wonder about reupholstering it but my Dad did the same with some similar vintage and sentimental chairs and they’ve never been the same level of comfort since. We have various kitchen utensils which DH were given when he first left home which I believe are handmedowns from his grandparents.

Our spare duvet - which was our duvet when we had a double bed - has recently come out of storage bags for use. I thought I’d look at the label to see what tog it is (it’s a handmedown from ILs). The label says copyright ICI 1977 so it’s a fair bet that’s older than i am...

I use my grandmothers cake stand which was a wedding present given to her in 1937.

I have a pair of walking boots that are 25 years old and still going strong.

Amazingly I have a Pifco battery operated nail manicure set that I got for my birthday when I was about 12 - 40 years ago!! It still works 👍 I use it every couple of weeks or so.

I have my grandmother's china tea set (probably from early 1930s if not earlier) and we use if for coffee after dinner. I have a hall chair belonging to my grandparents also. I use paring knives every day that were given to me 27 years ago as a wedding gift (also have loads of other wedding stuff in regular use).

I wear a ring given to my husbands great grandmother at the turn of the century by her cousin. It is lovely.