Things you buy once and then make do with for the rest of your life

[Ubiquery]

Cutlery sets. Has anyone ever changed their cutlery set? If so, why and what did you do with the old set. I reckon I will have mine for the rest of my life and never change them.

DP has just chipped another bowl this morning. Most of our crockery set is chipped so I'm toying with breaking them all up for crocking and buying a new one. It'd cost about £25 but feels incredibly wasteful and decadent.

My mum has had the same towels all of my life. None of them match. They are threadbare and patchy. I find it so sad. I wonder why she doesn't just use them all for rags and buy a brand new bale so that they all match and are clean and fluffy.

What things have you bought once and reckon you'll never replace even if you should (my mum's towels) or could (my cutlery set)?

@lemony I have those pyrex too!

I have an original tupperware box that I keep crispbreads in, must be over 50yrs old!! Cant seem to part with it!

We were given a set of cutlery as an engagement present but they were showing signs of wear and tear after a few years so, when a relative who was moving house offered us a box he had no use for (he had received them as a gift), we changed them. I can't see us changing again.

We were also given a set of pots as an engagement present, which we still use but have bought others since which are used far more often. And I have replaced my stock pot as the old one got a large bubble on the base making it unstable.

But we are generally very slow to change almost everything. I had to talk hard to myself to take out first 2 sets of (cheap cotton) sheets out of circulation a few years ago - we had bought and been given as gifts 3 other much better sets over the previous 3/4 years so had enough. I couldn't just throw them out though, so they became the absorbent cotton middle layers (4 layers in each) of baby dribble cloths I was seeing for a few expectant friends and linings for tote bags I was making for DNieces.

I love to still use the 2 roasting tins that I inherited from DGran - you can't get good sized solid ones anymore like these.

Great to see the pyrex love on here.

lalallama - I have the exact same 'set' of teaspoons! (Except the long one - what is that?) The round-handled one I gained from my DP, he hated them as they swivel in your hand. My favourite ones are the second from left, they feel nice in your mouth, but I also recognise the floral-handled one which I got from (I think) my mum's set

@lorca I love that you have the same ‘set’ as us If all of us teaspoon-acquirers got our spoons together we could probably make quite a few actual matching sets. No idea where the long handled one came from but DS refuses to eat yogurt with anything else now.

I've remembered that I still have my Mum's old wooden rolling pin (she made beautiful pastry) and a hand whisk which has two whisks which you operate by turning a handle on the side - both of which date from the late fifties/early sixties and still going strong.

@Woodhill.

Where I live people have very strong famial connections with the East Coast of Africa and it’s the norm for extended families to join forces and send a container load of ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ to their families there. The beauty of it is that by sending to someone you know there the items go to those who are known to be in need and they don’t end up on market stalls being sold for a profit like much up the donations sent from abroad. I’m not sure people have much use for continental quilt covers but once in EA they’re usually picked apart and turned into sheets and pillowcases and dresses for children. Have you ever seen the little girls dress that can be made out of a pillowcase worth of fabric without much work at all? I have a friend here who has a group of other friends making them and theses are sent to orphanages where loads of very simple clothes are needed on a day. I’m useless with a needle so I collect things instead.

My mother always bought new. But she never got rid of the old, as she'd then feel like she had less.

Bloody waste of money, especially when the new things only got used once or twice before she went on to the next purchase.

[quote Thecurtainsofdestiny]@lemony I have those pyrex too![/quote]
I had them as well till I tried to heat a tin of beans up in one of them on a gas cooker burner. It blew up and flew everywhere and my friend who was having a kiss with her boyfriend at the time almost bit the tip of his tongue off.

I've got a bracelet, not gold or diamonds probably Woolworths, that was my grans. She gave it to me when she was dying in 1970. I couldn't part with it.

Got my Pyrex from Woolworths in the 1990s I think. As long as I don't drop it, it will last forever. Cutlery I won't need to replace as it's solid as a rock, wedding gift 2010.

I got new good quality cutlery. I got 100 pieces in a nice oak box. Old ones were mismatched.

Just realised my hunter wellies are 30 years old and still perfect

DH had a Lands End Squall winter parka that wasn't new I met him. We've been together since 1997. Last year the zipper broke in the tumble dryer and he rang them to buy a new one. They couldn't find his original order since it was so long ago, but gave him a $40 credit on a new one and 40% off on top of that.

He now has a lovely new, light blue Squall parka to face the winter in.

I've still got all my 'wedding crystal'. Full set of cut glass glasses, jugs, decanters etc. Never used it as it's too easy to break and doesn't go in the dishwasher. Been carted from house to house for decades. Silver plate cutlery and gold leaf crockery similarly sits in cupboards

I got given a set of crystal when I moved into my first home at age 20 - a dozen goblets, tumbers, decanters etc. I still have them all; as pp says they are impractical and don't get used often.

The thing is, I hate them. I would have never bought anything in this style for myself and feel that it would be difficult to justify buying something different I would have loved, treasured, also kept forever, but actually used as well.

Our old cheese grater fell apart, and I've just bought new crockery so we have 8 matching non chipped sets... But we've still got the chipped old faithfuls for when we forget to turn the dishwasher on.
Cutlery though, yes, had mine for about 18 years. Plus DH's which he's had for 30 years. Reckon we're all set on them!

@Ubiquery

Cheese grater. Can't see that changing. I've got through a few tin openers though. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Buy cheap buy about six just this year! (Tin openers) Bain of my life

We had one of those growing up as well @lemony - there were some smaller individual dishes too - still in use up until a couple of years ago .

One thing interesting is that a serving dish for 4 in the 1970s would just do for the two of us now. I have a slow cooker which I had from my grandmother's in 1995 and it's about half the size of those sold now .

@ArblemarchTFruitbat

I've got a comb that came free with a magazine in the 1990s - there was a thread here a while ago about 90s magazines and it turned out loads of Mnetters had one that they were still using.

I have a pyrex bowl from my parents' house that must be 50 years old.

Was it Just Seventeen by any chance? If so I also still have that comb

I've had the same hairdryer since I was 16, and it was a gift. I'm early 40s now!

I have a cutlery set for "best" that my parents handed down to me and that they'd had for as long as I can remember, I think it was a wedding gift?

@Otherpeoplesteens further to my previous post I checked said cutlery that has been around for 45 years and it's Viners

My first cutlery was the cheapest I could buy so it fell apart in a few years. The one I have now is good quality so I don't see it needing to be replaced for many years.

Good quality kitchen knives, salt and pepper mill, Le Creuset casseroles and saucepans I expect to last. Also cast iron pans.

Other things that I would expect to last the rest of my life are my piano, nice lamps and rugs, stone dining table and coffee table.

So frustrating when things are not built to last so I have tried to collect things slowly that are good quality.

Also bought 14 of each item of our crockery set so that if there are breakages over the years and it is no longer available we will still have enough.

Oh and I bought some silver wine goblets a few years ago. Only used when I have guests but because they aren't breakable I expect I'll have them forever so well worth the money!