Things your parents never threw away

[DareIask]

My dear parents.

Their 3 piece suite lasted them all their married life (albeit with loose covers)
Their mid century teak dining room furniture
Their beds

My mum has the same prestige saucepans all her married life

We live in such a throw away world.

What did yours keep?

Most kitchen items such as pans, cutlery, crockery.

But the thing that sticks out most is

When we were kids my mum used to wash and reuse the cling film, at the end of the week by lunchtime my sandwiches were dry as there was no cling left. Lol

Love my mum’s orange Le Creuset casserole dish thing she’s had forever. It’s been all over the world (my dad’s job meant we lived abroad in various places when I was young).

Lots of blankets and travelling rugs (!) have been around since I was a baby.

My late DM kept frilly pillowcases she got as a wedding present, unused. She thought they were too good / fancy. Makes me sad

Late DF, a short man, used to have to cut bits off his trouser legs to make them fit. Found the cut-off bits in a drawer when we cleared their house.

When we were kids my mum used to wash and reuse the cling film, at the end of the week by lunchtime my sandwiches were dry as there was no cling left. Lol

I don't use clingfilm anymore but I do wash out sandwich bags and haven't bought a new one for years!

I think my parents kept everything they ever bought. Including things that were not really of use but they considered maybe useful again one day. For example . A whole drawer in the kitchen with empty margarine tubs in. Magazines they had subscribed to filed neatly.

Their house was always clean and tidy but two people in a 4 bed house; the extra rooms were just full of storage for things that would never be used again .

They both grew up in the war and I think the idea of make do and mend, and not throwing away something that may have a possible use one day was just part of their make up.

It was heartbreaking going through their house after my dad died and mum moved into a care home (dementia) that the majority of their belongings had to be thrown away .

It also comes naturally to me to keep things 'just in case' but I'm trying to be quite stern with myself now as I don't want DC to be in the same situation that my sibling and I were .

I use baby food scoops in my sugar and instant coffee and have a few in the drawer in case needed. My children are both in their 40s.
My Dad made their dining tables, when he made a new one I got the old one which I use as a sewing table (drop leaf). When they died I got the newer one (70s), which I now have as a dining table. My suite is the only one I ever had from new and it is now 25 years old. I have added extra stuffing and, although clearly not new, it certainly doesn't look 25 years old.

The Christmas tree lights. It mattered not how unreliable and stress inducing they were, like an elderly relative you cared for them and never gave up hope.

I’ve had many items including my food processor and hand mixer since I was married 32 years ago, I’ve never thought of replacing them since they work perfectly, I guess we all get attached to our belongings.

This Hoover. It had a huge bag that hung from the handle, you'd unzip it and retrieve your toys, it was like the worlds grimmest bran tub

I have bath towels that originally belonged to my nan that must be at least 50 years old, they were used for beach towels( I have seen the photos) and were kept in the built in wardrobe. She must have had hundreds of towels in there 😂 don't think I have had to buy any new towels since she died 14 years ago!

My mum still has the Denby crockery (Gypsy Rose pattern) that her parents gave her when she was married in the 70's. It hasn't been used in 20 years and honestly it was old fashioned then! Actually she was cleaning out the cabinet yesterday and said she's toying with selling it but doesn't know if anyone would want it. I don't know why they would - it's chunky and makes an unpleasant sound when scraped and it looks nothing, absolutely nothing, like the sort of crockery people use today.

If anyone in Cornwall wants a Denby Gypsy Rose dinnerware set, please give me a shout!!

@FurrySlipperBoots

My mum still has the Denby crockery (Gypsy Rose pattern) that her parents gave her when she was married in the 70's. It hasn't been used in 20 years and honestly it was old fashioned then! Actually she was cleaning out the cabinet yesterday and said she's toying with selling it but doesn't know if anyone would want it. I don't know why they would - it's chunky and makes an unpleasant sound when scraped and it looks nothing, absolutely nothing, like the sort of crockery people use today.

If anyone in Cornwall wants a Denby Gypsy Rose dinnerware set, please give me a shout!!

Check out eBay!

My parents kept EVERYTHING as I found out the hard way when I sorted their house out.

Mum had a hard upbringing, her mum died young and her dad was abusive so she never had much 'stuff'. As a result she took comfort in stuff all her life so nothing was got rid of.

@adviceatthislatestage

Like a previous poster, my mum has a Singer sewing machine she bought back in 1962.

She was a trainee nurse at Harefield Hospital at the time and couldn't afford to buy it outright. She still has the hire purchase agreement from a shop in Hounslow.

Some of the attachments have never been used!

I can beat that. My mum uses her mother in law's (my gran's) Singer machine which dates from the 1930s. We know this because my gran had to get a certificate exempting it from wartime salvage scrapping drives as she was a seamstress and it was essential for her work.

It jammed a couple of months ago and I stripped the bobbin/shuttle assemblage down to its component parts, cleaned everything, and reassembled it. Worked perfectly. Beautiful piece of design. Good for another 90 years I'd guess.

Correction: requisitioned for the war effort - not scrapped.

@adviceatthislatestage

Like a previous poster, my mum has a Singer sewing machine she bought back in 1962.

She was a trainee nurse at Harefield Hospital at the time and couldn't afford to buy it outright. She still has the hire purchase agreement from a shop in Hounslow.

Some of the attachments have never been used!

Just last year, I gave away the 1929 Singer sewing machine my Dad bought for his first wife (who died) then passed to his second. Mum had it for decades then she passed it on to me. Last time I used it the motor burned out but someone local wanted it anyway so I passed it on.

I still have the Prestige "Lifetime Guarantee" pans I bought in 1981. I'll wear out long before they do.

My mum kept all the things I had made her as a child, including a pottery hedgehog, a heart shaped pin cushion and all her Mother's Day cards 🥲

My dm text me yesterday asking if I wanted my 1994 brownies book and take that annuals. I left home 18 years ago and their house had a major fire 10 years ago and she's STILL got that kinda shit?!

Two years ago my mum moved in a retirement home. I honestly have never seen so much stuff.
Mine and my sister’s toys and clothes. But I don’t know where in the house they were, must have been stuffed under floorboards.

My mum has kept our plaster casts in a black bag up in the loft. 3 out of 4 of my siblings had multiple breaks (brittle bones) so she said she’s only kept the ‘important’ ones! Like it would be weird to keep them all. Madness.

@Tartyflette

My Mum got a Kenwood food mixer with all the bells and whistles in the 1960s. It's incredibly sturdy (and heavy), the blender goblet is really thick glass and she used to make lemonade by chucking in a whole lemon, a trayful of ice and some sugar. The noise was fearsome but the drink was delicious. I inherited it in 2016 and still have it. I also have her Good Housekeeping cookery book that she got when she got married in 1949.

I also have my Mum's Good Housekeeping Cookery Book from when she married on 1956. I wonder if they are the same? My mum's was a thick black hardback.

@FurrySlipperBoots

My mum still has the Denby crockery (Gypsy Rose pattern) that her parents gave her when she was married in the 70's. It hasn't been used in 20 years and honestly it was old fashioned then! Actually she was cleaning out the cabinet yesterday and said she's toying with selling it but doesn't know if anyone would want it. I don't know why they would - it's chunky and makes an unpleasant sound when scraped and it looks nothing, absolutely nothing, like the sort of crockery people use today.

If anyone in Cornwall wants a Denby Gypsy Rose dinnerware set, please give me a shout!!

After hanging on to it for several years after clearing out my parents house, we gave their (heavy, scratchy sounding) Denby Dinner service from their 1955 wedding to our Church, who fundraise through selling stuff on E-bay. They got £75 for it, plus buyer arranged transportation. This was about 10 years ago.

There's quite a market for it, apparently.

Talking about Singer sewing machines I once found one in a skip ( it was a 1959 model - you can look up the serial number online www.contrado.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Singer-Sewing-Machine-Numbers-compressed.pdf).

The machine had a major electrical earth fault that made it unsafe to use. I put in on eBay with the fact that it was only for spares or repairs - and a dealer from the US bought it for 200 quid. By the time he had paid shipping it was nearly 300 and he was as happy as Larry.

Moral? Throwing stuff away is silly.

My mum has linen which was from the war, handed down from her mum.

@Darelask @BackforGood

Thanks! Yes, I had a look at ebay last night. It seems like it's worth around £60 (I still don't understand why anyone would want it!!) but I don't have an ebay account. It would have to be collect only anyway and we live in the sticks so I don't know... I could try Facebook I suppose. Maybe it's the sort of thing people buy as an investment?