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)?

Teaspoons get thrown in the bin inside an empty yogurt pot.

Socks get stuck in the corners of fitted sheets.

I still have the chrome roll-top bread bin that my flatmates bought me as a wedding present in 1975! It's indestructible.
They also bought me another matching thing but I can't for the life of me remember what it was and it has long gone. Might have been a pedal bin?
Another friend bought us a Prestige hanging kitchen utensil set in brushed SS which is still going strong and looking good.
In those days people bought household essentials for newly-weds; we had no furniture when we moved into our home except a dining table we bought in a flood sale and a (single) bed a friend gave us. We sat on my boarding school trunk to eat.

I have an IKEA Extending dining table that I bought around 1990. It now lives in the garage in pieces and only comes in at Christmas. It is so solid that I can’t see us ever getting rid of it.

I really don't know what has happened to our cutlery! Got a nice set when we married (27years!) but we have constantly had to add to it . Partly I think it's when we've taken salads or leftovers to work and the cutlery to eat it with hasn't come home, and other pieces have been scraped into the bin with leftovers .

We certainly couldn't give visitors matching sets.

Cutlery - we were given a beautiful canteen as a wedding present. It's used for entertaining and at Christmas.

Day to day we use an assortment of kitchen cutlery - what I had as a single girl and what's been inherited from grandparents (their every day stuff) etc.

Saucepans - again wedding presents- fab quality. Same goes for colander, grater, etc.

Wooden pepper mill bought in 1981!

Fancy China - Wedgwood Bianca simply not used beyond the first five years.

Kitchen China- Wedgwood white replaced as we go and have found some bits in TKMax.

Carving dish and knives.
Sharp knives - can people not use a steel?

Things that get replaced are the milk pans, frying pans, pudding basins, etc. And breadboards that break no matter how much one pays except I have my grandparents' which was one solid piece of wood with a carved wheatsheaf but I don't use it for it is a little thin in the middle.

Damask cloths and napkins that were my grandparents'.

I think regularly used China does need replacing about every 15 years no matter the quality because even if not chipped the glaze starts to mark a little. I've a set of Denby Wedgewood boxed up for one of the DC when they start a home - it's beginning to come back in again I think?

Salad servers - never have I had a decent set.

Table mats for the kitchen - I keep replacing cheap and they are awful.

I collected cutlery for my 'bottom drawer' for 17p per item from a supermarket offer back in the 1980s. It was used daily until a few months ago when I decided to retire it as bits had become tarnished (regular dishwasher use over 20 years). We still had 4 or 5 of most items, having found a soup spoon in the compost bin, when digging it out one time, but only 1 teaspoon. We did have 11 out of 12 cheap teaspoons though. We have now started using half of the set I bought for 'best' about 20 years ago. I think that will see us out!

Not Denby Wedgewood - Denby Memories.

@ancientgran

I've still got my address book and birthday book that I bought when I was 12. so 56/57 years ago. The address book is well worn, well falling apart really but it has so much stuff in it that I'd hate to lose. The birthday book is in better condition. I can't imagine ever changing them.

Oh that reminds me! I still have my pencil case I bought when I was 10!

We are using the saucepans that my parents received for a wedding present in 1972. They gave them to us when they got a new hob. They're great!

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

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)

Same here @prokupatuscrakedatus - I'm always baffled by charity shops being able to specify being given stuff that still looks new. Unless I've put on weight really quickly, my clothes and homewares are always given a battering so only suitable for recycling. I'm not really one for 'decor' though and I make sure any Christmas presents are things I've specifically requested, to avoid waste.

Pheebs2021 you can take them into any police station, they will take them off you, that way you know they won't get in the wrong hands. We have a community knife collector where I am, off his own back, as so many stabbings going on.

We're probably on our third set of everyday china and also towels though some old bath sheets are still in use by my son and my husband has old hand towels for when he'scycling in the garage.

Every Christmas I promise myself and family I will replace the cutlery 😂Every year it doesn’t happen!!

@Lemonsyellow

It was probably some 'research' from the Duvet and Pillow Marketing board, but I once read something that after 10 years, 50% of the weight of a pillow or duvet is dust mites and dead skin cells

I have a hole punch that my parents put in my Christmas stocking when I was ten. So fifty years old. Prestige pans that were wedding presents 33 years ago and still as good as new. Ditto cutlery.

We've just replaced the carpet and sofa in the living room - carpet from when we married , sofa about 18 years old . Still have kitchen and bedroom units and all upstairs carpets fitted 27 years ago .

I imagine people replace things more frequently when they move house .

I wouldn't replace things that are still serviceable eg towels, bedding, crockery , cutlery etc as it would feel very much like unnecessary expense and waste.Bedding on my bed today ie duvet and duvet cover are over 30 years old and under pillow cases much older. Pillows ,sheets,tea towels etcdon't last as long but towels we got as wedding presents are still good ; again over 30 years.We topped up our plates a couple of years ago and cutlery about 15 years ago . It is a little bit easier to get rid of things one doesn't like of course.

I have casseroles and serving bowls from my university days - bought from Habitat on the King's Road in the 1980s. We still have the odd thing from our first flat shares and generally don't replace unless something breaks but will add things to existing stock. We've recently added new towels to our 28 year old wedding present towels but hung on to the old ones to use for mopping up, hair dying and drying the dog.

My stapler is the one I bought in 1980 to go to university.

Prestige serrated bread knife, bought in a second-hand shop in 1970. DH and I were living in a bedsit then, but it has come with us as we climbed the property ladder!

I lost my favourite potato peeler last year (bin I suspect) and couldn't remember the brand....I spent hours looking online for an exact replacement. Eventually discovered it had been a Brabantia, and bought one on Amazon. Like PP it was the best one I'd ever had.

Only a small item but my potato masher. Given to me by my lodger when she moved out as her boyfriend already had one. Over 40 years later I'm still using it and doubt it will ever get replaced.

My Kenwood food processor was my mum's old one. She had it about 25 years and gave it to me when I bought my house 20 odd years ago. The bowl is cracked so she reckoned she'd replace it, give me the old one until it died. My old one is still going strong and she's replaced her new one twice. She still jokes that she's taking it back. I honestly don't think I'll ever have to replace it at this rate

@cromwell44 oh yes I remember that shop. We still have two metal trays white with a motif in the three primary colours - and two dark green oval serving dishes.

I have had my own home for 40 years. Except for the first 4 I have never bought a tea towel. My mother buys me at least two every Christmas. She's 85 and I imagine I've enough tea towels to see us out.

What is "crocking" and why do you break up plates for it?