How often do you replace large household purchases?

[Silverclocks]

Things like three piece suite, other furniture, curtains, carpets.

I've just realised that my living room curtains, that I think of as "new" are more than 15 years old

The sofas must be nearly 25 yo (I know they're older than DS1, so they've been through the wars!)

I has disappointed to see my stair carpet has a bald patch, but it is 20yo

I recently replaced a 30 yo dining table and chairs, which actually was still fine, but it was cheap when new, the first thing we bought for our first home and I decided to upgrade.

I do like to buy good quality in the hope it lasts, but are these timescales reasonable/normal?

Or do "most" people modernise more often?

I was think of buying some new bath towels the other day and thought 'No.. ours are still good ' ( we brought them with us when we moved to this house 16 years ago ).. And
last night I made up bed for Dgd and her mum recognised the duvet cover from when she had it as a girl ..
Perhaps I should replace some stuff ....

We don't have a 3 piece suite but our sofa and chair is about 20 years old, and no plans on replacing soon. The curtains are probably 10 years old, dining table and chairs 8-10 years old.The thing we seem to replace most frequently is the fridge or dishwasher.

@Laska2Meryls

I was think of buying some new bath towels the other day and thought 'No.. ours are still good ' ( we brought them with us when we moved to this house 16 years ago ).. And last night I made up bed for Dgd and her mum recognised the duvet cover from when she had it as a girl .. Perhaps I should replace some stuff ....

DS2, now 19yo, is still using the duvet cover that DH had on his Army bunk in 1989

And I'm extravagant compared to my mother with these things, she's using towels that came from her mum's house. DGM died in 2000 and they would have been old then

When they break or wear out. We have a microwave from about 1990. Only got rid of a towel last year that I "liberated" from a student drying/laundry room when nobody claimed it for weeks in 1995.

Your timescales are perfectly reasonable, after all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

However, many people prefer to change things much more often, which is wasteful unless they sell the items on.

But I'd just do what you want, and suits you, and don't worry about what other people do, after all, why would you?

Usually when they wear out.

Our dining room table and chairs were left by previous owner, so we had the, nearly twenty years old. They only got replaced when we inherited lovely furniture from the in-laws, which are over thirty years old themselves.

Curtains - we purchased off previous owners - so fifteen years plus. We have replaced some when we redecorated a room.

My parents still use a lot of bedding, towels etc I remember from my childhood.

@BarbaraofSeville

Your timescales are perfectly reasonable, after all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

However, many people prefer to change things much more often, which is wasteful unless they sell the items on.

But I'd just do what you want, and suits you, and don't worry about what other people do, after all, why would you?

I'm not worried just interested

We have a 22 year old ikea sofa...we have new loose covers and it looks good as new....most of my other furniture is mid century ercol and g plan....so I have had new covers for the easy chair cushions but the table and chairs and cabinets look as lovely as they likely did in the 1960s so we won't be replacing them ..... rugs and blinds are all relatively new as we moved 5 years ago and got rid of old ones

@BarbaraofSeville

Your timescales are perfectly reasonable, after all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

However, many people prefer to change things much more often, which is wasteful unless they sell the items on.

But I'd just do what you want, and suits you, and don't worry about what other people do, after all, why would you?

I don't think OP is 'worried' .... bit of an odd comment 🤔

As a pp. When they break or wear out.
We really need to replace the carpets in the house (they are over 25 years old and an absolute disgrace) but it's going to be so disruptive we keep putting it off

Hardly ever, although I replaced some towels recently. Two were my university towels so as I'm over 60 they were starting to wear out. We use sheets given to my parents as a wedding present in 1956. The quality is fantastic.

A lot of our furniture is antique so never replaced. Fridge, oven etc when they cannot be repaired.

I'm another who generally keeps things until they wear out. Occasionally my parents will be replacing something that's newer/better than my version and they'll give us the old one, but even then I'll Freecycle the old one if it has any life left in it.

I did go nuts and bought 3 new towels about 5 years ago, for a grand total of about £15!

I just hate waste and hassle, to be honest!

We gradually replace things as they wear out, if we can afford it.

When we were younger and first having to buy furniture, we could only afford cheap IKEA furniture, supplemented by some hand me downs from family.

Over time these are looking more and more tatty, so we’ve been replacing bit by bit with better quality stuff, which should last a lot longer.

Our dining table is next in line for replacement - I’m hoping to get good quality solid wood (possibly second hand) that will last indefinitely.
Also planning to get dd a proper wardrobe instead of the clothes rail she currently has.

I’m in my 40s and my children’s swimming towels are the ones we took to the beach when I was little.

My dressing table mirror belonged to my great grandmother and the chest of drawers in dds room belonged to DH’s grandparents, but most of the rest of our furniture is fairly new as we move quite often for DHs job and stuff doesn’t always fit.

We're with you. Our carpets and curtains are 25years old, ditto dining room furniture and kitchen. We are on our second 3 piece suite though.

From the contents of skips over the years I suspect we are the only house in our road still with its original kitchen though.

When they wear out, which for most stuff is pretty much never. We've replaced sofas once in 30 years because the fabric was sun damaged and split (checked and it would have cost more to have recovered than buy new). We bought new carpet and curtains/blinds when we moved because the previous owners taste ran to 1970s hotel reception.

Other than that, pretty much every stick of furniture we have is original (to us), and things like towels and bed linen were wedding presents 'cough' years ago.

We do have to replace our frying pans frequently as DH appears to use them for digging the garden.

Things like sofas, maybe every 8-10 years or so but the old ones often go into another part of this house or one of our other houses. I buy new duvet covers more often, just when I see ones I like. We have mainly hard wood flooring but in the few places we have carpet we probably change them every 5 years. I buy towels quite often as they seem to get used for the dogs or get left at kids friends. 🙄

I've just replaced my curtains in the front room and bedroom as they were also 15 years old!

Sofa -we had stuffed about 5 years ago. Looking at getting in re covered soonish.

I recently had to get rid of a towel with my Aunt's name on from boarding school - she died recently at 94.

When they break or wear out.

When we got married (11 y ago) we bought quite a lot of solid oak furniture which we expect to have forever tbh.

We are currently looking a new sofa/curtains/carpets but only because we have a new house with entirely new decor. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have changed then just yet as they were all 8-10 y old and in decent condition.

I would expect to replace kitchen appliances every 10 years or so but other things far less often.

We had replace most of our curtains when we moved here 21 years ago. I've just replaced in a couple of rooms that get the most sun but the rest are still fine. Most of the carpets were here when we moved in and aren't worn out yet.

Electrical items I only replace if the repair is more expensive than a new one.
My sofas are over thirty years old, but they were high quality ones when bought. I've just had the seat cushions re-padded last year.
I had all the carpets ripped out around 15 years ago and replaced them with solid wood flooring.
Soft furnishings, such as curtains and duvet covers etc, usually every few years if I want a colour change.
I don't do ' trends '.

When they break or start to look shabby. Our sofas are looking knackered now (same age as D.C. who is off to university) but they have been knackered by the cat. Whilst we still have her here scratching things, I’m not replacing it!

When stuff wears out and never before.

We replaced curtains that were 15 years old with blinds before Christmas.

Sofa is also 15 years old, do want to replace two TV stands but can’t find anything I like. We have an Ercol dining table and chairs that DH grew up eating his dinner at in the 1970’s and three other bits of furniture he inherited including a very nice 1920’s tall boy.

It’s bloody white goods that need replacing in 25 years we are on second dishwasher, third washing machine and third refrigerator.

We replace when we need to.

We bought our first house 13 years ago and still have the same sofas, dining table, bookshelves etc. We had to have the frame of one sofa repaired after 13 years of people chucking themselves onto it- cost £60 I think. Some of the curtains moved with us, the ones that fitted got put up and we had some made to match where they didn't.

We've still got towels we had at university but they are now the DC's towels and we bought some new recently to replace ones that had fallen apart- DH cut them up to use as rags.

Bedding gets replaced when it has worn out too, though we have put aside the bedding the DC had as toddlers as it's not cool anymore!

But then I don't change my wardrobe with the fashions either.