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)?

Ironing board. Not the covers but the frame.

I'm worried our freezer is going to last forever. Two of the doors are split and it's too small for us really. But it just keeps going! Replacing it when it works feels like a waste.

Epilator. Mine's still going strong after 15 years. No David Bellamy impressions for me.

I hate tin openers, even the ones that cost a tenner don't work.

Swanky down duvet that cost a grand and washes, won't ever die.

We replaced our cutlery after ten years, it was a set of 8 and some had been lost so not enough. We gave the remains of the old set to a local organisation that puts together packs for homeless people, asylum seekers etc moving into emergency accommodation that are one bowl, plate, knife, fork etc so they are happy to take odd numbers or incomplete sets. They also took our incomplete crockery set, the almost new bed linen set that was surplus because we bought a bigger bed, all that kind of thing.

This is something I've consciously tried to be aware of as an adult. We never replaced anything. I eventually replaced my mum's manky old cutlery my self.

I have nice crockery, cutlery, towels etc now. I recently replaced all our crockery as we'd broken a fair bit.

Although not sure I'll need to replace my quilt. Was expensive and heavy for winter.

When we moved from the UK to the other side of the world, I left DP in charge of packing up the kitchen things. Huge mistake. He took all of the decent kitchen things to the charity shop (such as a lovely and expensive mortar and pestle set). And shipped the enormous heavy box of shitty mismatched cutlery which he had accumulated before I met him.

What he hadn't factored in was that it was all being sent by sea freight so it took 3 months to arrive. Guess what we had to buy when we got here?

We now have enough cutlery to last several lifetimes.

We've been married for 38 years and still use some of our original cutlery. Unfortunately, over the years, most of our cutlery has disappeared into a black hole so I occasionally have to buy new sets. I do have one complete set for Christmas and special occasions (when I want it all to match) that I keep hidden away the rest of the time).
We're still using our 38yo cheese grater, glass measuring jug, trifle dish, ironing board and kitchen utensils. When we married we were given 3 glass Pyrex mixing/storage bowls and I broke the last one a couple of weeks ago - I could have cried.

My kitchen knives are 25 years old, made of all stainless steel, I sharpen them regularly and never put them in the dishwasher, I plan to have them forever. The stainless steel pans I bought at the same time were only changed because they didn't work on induction otherwise they would have been a one time only purchase.

Pyrex measuring jugs, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowl, lemon zester and squeezer. I've owned most of my metal or glass kitchen equipment for decades. My braun multipractic died last year after 30 years, I was starting to think it might live forever.

The last time I replaced crockery I bought all white so I can just buy new individual items and even if the shape doesn't match it won't be as obvious as with a coloured or patterned set.

My mum had a gorgeous canteen of cutlery as a wedding present. Came in a fancy case. It was saved 'for best' and I remember it being used maybe half a dozen times.

When I first moved out my kitchen stuff was the cheapest of the cheap. Flimsy pans that burnt everything, cutlery that bent as soon as you put any pressure on it, etc. But we've gradually replaced most things over the years with much better quality items, e.g. Alessi cutlery, Le Creuset pans, and I hope not to replace things again or at least for a good number of years.

Saucepans, 33 yrs ago I bought a really expensive set of white saucepans with detachable handles so they converted into casserole pots, could put them in the oven.
My mum fell in love with them so we swapped and I had her stainless steel set (I'm not much of a cook🙄)
33 yrs later I'm still using my mums old saucepans 😁

We had a beautiful set of silver plated cutlery for our wedding which is kept for best (won't go in the dish washer...). Our kitchen cutlery was my DHs before we got married (25 years ago) and he had his Gran's old set so I really have no clue how old it is. It's still complete, but the knives really aren't as sharp as they should be and I was only thinking the other day, perhaps the time had come to retire them.

We had to replace our 23 year old crockery a couple of years back when too many pieces had been broken to make it workable without having to do the dishwasher after every meal. We couldn't find anything we liked so ended up with a very basic (cheap) IKEA set to 'make do'. Three years on and it's still there - it will probably last another 20

My spare shoes for driving that I keep in the car (just in case I'm wearing inappropriate footwear while out with DH and end up having to drive home).

I've had them nearly 20 years now. They're just rubber soled comfy slip ons. They look disgusting but they still fit fine, are not worn down and they do the job.

I was a little embarrassed last week when my Dad saw them and asked why I haven't got rid of them yet - and my Dad is somewhat of a hoarder himself!

I have never understood the logic in matching towels. You use them to dry yourself. Are they also meant to be ornamental?

I finally got myself a new measuring jug when all of the numbers had totally disappeared from the side. Still kept the old one though, obviously 😂

We just bought new towels last Christmas after the my husband literally ripped one of our old ones in half after a shower! They were only about 8 years old too- still felt new to me! @Ubiquery why don't you buy your mum a lovely new fluffy set of towels for Christmas?

The cutlery drawer insert (like this one) bought in 1978 when it was the height of fashion. It has survived six house moves and two kitchen refits.

We have five sets of cutlery. A set of six (also harking back to 1978) and a set of 8 mixed up for every day to which we have added a dozen extra teaspoons. A nice heavy set which we should really start using. And two sets gifted by PILs - one set we use at Christmas and one not used at all.

Cutlery- DH parents were given a set for their Silver Anniversary which they didn’t use so gave it to us. It is over forty years old. DS2 gave us a new canteen of lovely cutlery but we use it for good. Christmas to New Year back away on the 5th and if friends are coming for dinner.

I am on my third set of diner set. The second one was pretty and I found a friend who had the same so I offered it to her. She was thrilled especially as I had things like the sauce boat. It meant she had enough when her grand children came around.😃
I have Sarah’s Garden now and pick up pieces when I see them because the stopped producing it. DH thinks 20 pasta bowls was excessive when I bought 15 on holiday in Yorkshire and an Antique dealer had them as she used to work for Wedgewood and bought up stock cheaply at the end.
I have Christmas Set which I started with money my aunt gave me and add a piece every year. I need to stop soon.

I have a few other things from when we were first married. Oh and I have had DH for a long time 44 years though he has nearly been put out a few times.

‘Lemony’ you are one of my people!

I have a theory that a fair bit of cutlery ends up in the bin by mistake. I've caught myself a few times having scraped a plate and then absent mindedly dropping the fork in too. When the kids were little and teaspoons were taken out for baby food on the go, they'd get left somewhere too. Perhaps on the day of reckoning there'll be a test involving a mountain of mismatched cutlery.

Definitely agree re cutlery. I bought a decent set when I set up home after a breakup with my ex back in 2002 and I still like it now. Only 1 dessert spoon as gone missing - I'm certain I must have taken it to work but someone else must have taken it from there as it's not here.

When DH and I moved in together he brought his cutlery that he'd inherited from his nan so the drawer is a real mismatch. He doesn't like my cutlery and I don't like his, so we each have different sets for dinner! We could just buy one set that we both like of course, but that's just wasteful. DM thinks it's hilarious when she comes to stay and I'm sure deliberately sets the table with mismatched cutlery to amuse herself!

DPs have a lovely canteen of cutlery that will come my way one day. It's saved "for best" so only comes out at Christmas, but is really just a decent quality, every day set of cutlery. I suspect we'll make our current set(s) last until that day and will then create a BBQ box, like a PP.

Going off tangent - incidentally (and annoyingly) my cutlery set has marks from the dishwasher but Dh's don't. Does anyone know how to get rid of them and make them look like new again?!

I still have the stainless steel saucepans from Argos that my mum bought me when I went to university almost 30 years ago. They are still going strong and I hope I never have to replace them as they are a nice link to the past.

@moretea

I have a theory that a fair bit of cutlery ends up in the bin by mistake. I've caught myself a few times having scraped a plate and then absent mindedly dropping the fork in too. When the kids were little and teaspoons were taken out for baby food on the go, they'd get left somewhere too. Perhaps on the day of reckoning there'll be a test involving a mountain of mismatched cutlery.

That's where I reckon my veg peeler went... excellent peeler it was too, so I did have to replace that, even though we have a few in the drawer from all the "bad" peeler purchases that came before it.

We've had loads of sets of cutlery though thanks to MN, my last investment was a set from Robert Welch and I'd imagine that those are going to last us now for a very long time. I've also bought a knife block and set of kitchen knives.... they're so sharp it's a miracle that my fingers are all still attached.

Fecking teaspoons disappear at a rate of knots in our house too...... I bought 24 instead of 12 and we've already lost 3 or 4 of the feckers.

As I set up my previous home from scratch in 2002, a lot of it came from Argos. It's interesting to go back through the Argos catalogue from that year - here retromash.com/argos/ - and see how much of it I still have (an awful lot of it! still got much of the solid pine bedroom furniture as well as kitchen stuff and an iron!)

We’ve bought several dinner sets and replaced the cutlery a few years ago. We still keep the old stuff as we never seem to have enough. Often replace towels as well and the old ones get used as rags, for sitting on car seats with muddy clothes, soaking up floods in the kitchen etc.