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)?

I have my mum's microwave, which is over 30 years old. All the new ones I bought have broke, so tried and trusted. Don't replace anything unless it breaks, not just if I fancy a change

@Badabingbadabum

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.

I had the same ironing board frame since I moved in with dh in 1993. It was 3rd hand from MIL and already a bit rusty when we got it.

Last month ds(17) leant over it with all his weight to get to something, buckled it and when we tried to straighten it again the leg snapped at a rusty bit, so had to buy a new one.

52 years old and my first new ironing board and Wow! What a difference, it is much higher and I don't get backache using it, it is also wider and so much easier to iron.

Just waiting for my 22 year old iron to break now 🤣

@BonnesVacances

I was just thinking about cutlery only the other day. We've had ours for over 20 years. Teaspoons come and go, where do they go though? But the rest is all as we bought it years ago.

I think teaspoons must end up in the kitchen bin or recycle caddy where do socks go through I would say a good pestle and mortar if I hadn't lost the pestle realise this is a niche item though.

@HopeHappy

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!)

Oops - that link doesn't go as "new" as 2002, but the others are here - web.archive.org/web/20191024135743/argosbookofdreams.co.uk/

How are you all keeping hold of your cutlery? I swear, ours disappears into a black hole, or more likely, DH takes it to work and doesn’t bring it back. I’ve been married 10 years and have bought two top up sets. Although we have inherited some weird spoon that he’s brought back from work.

My towels are old but comfy. DM buys new towels all the time. When guests come over, she gives them a matching set all nicely folded on the bed. But they’re all new and too fluffy. She’d be horrified by my mismatched scratchy towels but they do the job.

I've just bought new cutlery! All of a sudden our forks started disappearing and we only had 4 so I bought a new set. I've not got rid of the old stuff though just added to it.

I still use the saucepans which my husband took to uni over 20 years ago. I am a good cook and cook a lot but they are perfectly serviceable. I do have fancy frying pans and stock pots and le creseut casseroles etc on top but the small, medium and large saucepans are absolutely perfect and are used daily.

I am just about to replace my cutlery after 15 years together. It's a bit meh and we've lost loads of forks (why forks!?) so I am going to buy a new set of 20 of everything and have nice matching stuff.

Crockery was a wedding gift from a local pottery place and I've just recently gone round to order a few extras where they have been broken over the years. really nice to be able to keep it going (although not cheap).

@EvenRosesHaveThorns

I have my mum's microwave, which is over 30 years old. All the new ones I bought have broke, so tried and trusted. Don't replace anything unless it breaks, not just if I fancy a change

My 20 year old Whirlpool microwave just died; I've got a service contract on it, and they're replacing it free! I have some MDF bookshelves that we bought from Woolworths when we got married in 1975, and they're still fine.

Cutlery set - went from a bit mismatched to a set and kept old ones for spares. Some went to the charity shop

Towels, tea towels, dusters, underwear, socks, tights, bedlinen- tend to use them until grotty then put them in the textile recycling

Crockery - all white apart from mugs. Ones that are nice but beyond using get used as plant pots or pencil pots
Ones that are no longer used go to the charity shop.

I think my pyrex bowls and Stellar saucepans will outlive me.

I’ve had quite a few cutlery sets over the years for day to day use but only one cutlery set for special occasions when I dress the table really nicely which is a couple of times a month. Any cutlery set that’s replaced becomes camping cutlery.

Crockery - I always have matching crockery on the go and and theyre filtered down in use when the set of twelve becomes a set of 8 perhaps and I then buy a new set of twelve. The older set would then be used casually - if I had all of my grandchildren round usually.

Christmas Day and Eid or if someone’s getting married/engaged for eg I get the dinner service out that I’ve had for many decades.

Towels and bedding I buy a few times a year and by the time I’ve bought for all the bedrooms and bathrooms it’s back to the beginning again. So each room is probably bought for every 2 years.

My Kenwood Major is about 40 years old and still going strong and I have egg cups that belonged to my mum.

I'm in my 60s.

Cutlery was a wedding gift (early 1980s) so still using it. I have bought extra teaspoons.
My china was also a wedding gift and still going strong. I replace the occassional broken item.
Furniture - I recently bought a new bed but still have lots of pieces that I inherited.
Clothes and shoes - some pre-date the birth of my now adult children but sadly I am now growing out of a lot of them (bizzarely even my feet have grown)!
I still have my grandmother's kitchen scizzors and her food mixer (both are bright orange in colour dating from the 1970s!)
My kitchen pans I have also had since the 1980s with the occassional shiny new addition.
Most of my glassware got broken over the years so they have been replaced with cheap charity shop glasses.
My bedding is now over 20 years old so thinking of replacing it. Towels are equally old so again hoping to get some new fluffy ones in the January sales.
I like old things, even every day items, because they bring back memories.

Lots of things - when I first moved into a place by myself (no partner) I had a good job and bought high quality things to replace everything we'd split etc.

So, cutlery, glasses, mugs, dinnerware, cookware are all from that time and I can't see that changing in my lifetime, tbh. So's the dining table which is now old and battered and I keep thinking I should replace it but I actually quite like it being battered as it means it can be used for everything without worry (dumping shopping, artwork, grooming the dog ).

I still have two Pyrex bowls that my Mum gave me when I bought my first home in 1983 and they were bought by my Mum sometime in the late fifties. They are pale blue with little little flowers on the outside and a perfect size for baked rice pudding or jam sponge pudding, which is what my mother used them for (I can remember this from my childhood) and what I use them for regularly. Many years later my Mum was incredulous that I still had them and used them. I am going to bequeath them to my niece in due course. 😀

My microwave is from the 90s and still going.
My fridge freezer was over 20 years old before it stopped working.
Oh my sofas - nearly 20 years old and still great. Can’t see me replacing these.

I always think of parents and in laws buying their “last” sofas just pre retirement. And I don’t know if it’s a thing.

We use everything until it no longer fits its purpose and throw nothing out because we do not like it any longer ( a waste of money and ressources - but of course bad for the economy)

I still have duvet sets from my childhood, now 48. My towels are all from when I moved into my first home at 19 or when I got married 10 years later, all totally threadbare, but never had the free money to purchase new ones. Cutlery from wedding. Saucepans and pyrex dishes, knives and ladles all from my bottom drawer for my first house.
I regularly replace pillows and duvets, crockery from the wedding is on last legs. Tool box my first valentine present from DH when we started seeing each other (1996) is still going strong.

I've just bought a new cutlery set, but I've made do with a complete mismatched set for the past 30 years. I can't believe at nearly 50 I've just bought my first new set

I've also just bought my first new dining room table at 46, and my first new tv at 47

My mother in law’s mother’s griddle. It’s cast iron and weighs more than a car (slight exaggeration). It fits perfectly on the wok stand on my hob. Great for making Welsh cakes. I’m going to try Derbyshire oatcakes on it this weekend (I watched the Hairy Bikers last night). It think it will be here when the sun goes super nova in 5billion years.

Yes agree about cutlery sets, we bought ours, and the towels when we moved into our first home in 2005! I've never actually thought of replacing them! I have added to the towels, but only probably 2 or 3, a full set even though we could afford it would seem very decadent!!

Our TV is also from 2005, won't be replaced until it breaks!

Denby

I have a couple of Mason Cash mixing bowls that belonged to my husband's Mum, and she's been dead over 50 years. I did have 3, but one fell out of the cupboard a couple of months ago and broke.

@Lalallama

I have been asking the same question lately. Where do the teaspoons go?!

They all come to our house. The one on the very left is part of our proper set, which we have 12 of. All the others - absolutely no clue.

I recognise at least three of those, Lalallama!

Explains a lot...

Old fashioned tea cups and saucers