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Original poster

Shit items that you never replace.

316 replies

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 06/12/2022 22:01

We have 2.

A washing up bowl bought 7 years ago for 3 quid. Part of it’s melted. It’s bleached and cleaned properly every week. The other day Dh suggested we buy a new one. We were both staggered by it😲

A shit mirror we took from Dmil house when she died. We painted the mahogany frame white. But it looks shit. You can see the mahogany. It’s just shit. And l like my interiors. But this peiceof shit hangs there. I suggested we buy a new one tonight. Again we were shocked that we hadn’t thought of it before.

A plastic seive that’s melted and broken . Yet we continue to use it🤷🏼‍♀️

OP posts:
BeyondTheLetterOfTheLawTheLetter · 07/12/2022 09:02

Blueeyedgirl21 · 07/12/2022 09:00

@BeyondTheLetterOfTheLawTheLetter woman at my work has a mini tennis ball for a nob ! If what you’re talking about is the same! Like a small gear stick type contraption?

Good idea, thank you! (Yes that's the thing I was trying to describe)

bigbadbarry · 07/12/2022 09:02

thepenismightier · 07/12/2022 08:58

Nodding along at all of these. I melted a chopping board into a most peculiar shape, and it's still going strong, complete with a kind of mountain of meltedness at one end.

Oh god the wobbly melted chopping board that won’t sit flat on a surface! Makes me angry every time I use it. Yet I still do use it.

AutisticLegoLover · 07/12/2022 09:02

Husband.

user16480478 · 07/12/2022 09:03

My car key has been held together with electrical tape for a couple of years now, a replacement is quite expensive though

BeyondTheLetterOfTheLawTheLetter · 07/12/2022 09:05

user16480478 · 07/12/2022 09:03

My car key has been held together with electrical tape for a couple of years now, a replacement is quite expensive though

My mum's got a chunk out of the back of her car (it is structurally sound, obviously!) that is fixed with duct tape. Blends in quite well, as it's a silver car 🤣🤣

maranella · 07/12/2022 09:06

These are hilarious - I'm just reading through from page 1 now. It's rare on MN that someone comes up with a thread idea that no one has come up with before (I don't think?), so well done @ArseInTheCoOpWindow!

I've just counted up - my school towels are from 1985. I still them when I wash my hair.

BirmaBrite · 07/12/2022 09:08

DH proudly brought home a new wooden spoon, it has never been used, it doesn't feel right, the old trusty slightly bent and burnt one does ! I have occasionally used the new spoon to unblock the toilet so it now lives under the sink.

CaramelizedNuts · 07/12/2022 09:11

LucySno · 07/12/2022 09:00

Plug in the bath that has no chain or any way to grip it and pull it out to drain the water. So to get the plug out, you have to force once side of the plug right down to make the other side stick up a bit, then use your nails to pick the plug out really awkwardly. Takes about 3 attempts on average.

5 years, and many many baths due to small dc.

Ah same here. I use a hair clip to get mine out. Saves the nails !

Han99 · 07/12/2022 09:13

A microwave we could only open the door of by sticking a wooden spoon into a hole to release the catch. We did that for 5 years until my dad turned up with a new one!

user1471538283 · 07/12/2022 09:18

Years ago I had a lamp, it was all I could really afford and I hated it. I put up with it for years because it still worked and the glass hadn't broken. The first time I moved it to put it in the bin it broke. So it was clearly just waiting all these years ...

I have some towels older than my adult DS and I love them all! I bought some new ones recently - towels are expensive! My kitchen caddies are as old as him and only 2 out of the set have survived.

Tangled123 · 07/12/2022 09:19

A washing machine that leaks all over the floor when we use it. Should really fix that before we get mould but I don’t know how to fix it and don’t want to spend money on a new one since that is already pretty new.

A dishwasher that doesn’t clean well anymore and will randomly decide to keep running for hours rather than end its cycle (will replace this asap).

A floor brush from Tesco that leaves more dirt on the floor than it picks up.

I did replace my Tesco mop recently with a Vileda but I find the mop head too small so starting to think replacing my old one wasn’t worth it. (It does dry better than the Tesco one though)

miceonabranch · 07/12/2022 09:20

Kitchen scissors. We can never find them and they're old and blunt. I went to IKEA and bought a new bunch of scissors, but I can't bring myself to use them because they're new. They're in the drawer and we continue to struggle with the old pair Confused

subtleartofnotgivingafuck · 07/12/2022 09:22

primeoflife · 06/12/2022 22:20

Oh and a tumble dryer you have to hold the door shut! We don't tumble much so we just crack on with it

Baby lock window clips (the super cheap ikea ones) - work a charm at keeping the door closed - says the voice of experience

Tangled123 · 07/12/2022 09:23

Also, our bathroom fan doesn’t work. I think my husband tried to replace it already but wasn’t sure which one to order. I’m happy not to because the noise from bathroom fans drives me crazy.

icebearforpresident · 07/12/2022 09:23

A silicon spatula, the type for scraping absolutely everything out of mixing bowls. The handle is broken to a stump so you can hardly hold it and you can actually pull the silicone off the stump of a handle. sometimes water gets trapped inside it and gross old water trickles out when you take it out the drawer. I will almost certainly never replace it, despite them costing about three quid and my husbands work selling them.

Retrotowel · 07/12/2022 09:26

I still have my beach towel I took to Zante in 2001 👍 I bought mine from Woolworths though and it says ‘[email protected]’ on it because, you know, anything to do with the internet was so modern and cool.

Retrotowel · 07/12/2022 09:27

That was @SisterAgatha

meatyryvita · 07/12/2022 09:28

Our stove, it's a range stove and is slowly dying. The fan keeps breaking, which puts pressure on the element and so the big oven element 'pops' at least twice a year. Thing is, we don't want to buy a new one as we're about to embark on a build and so we keep having someone come and replace the element (it's not one we can do ourselves, it's quite a tricksy one) and so I've probably spent the equivalent of half of a really nice range on repairs!

HashtagShitShop · 07/12/2022 09:38

Feelinfestive · 07/12/2022 00:26

The pop up mechanism for the plug in our bath broke about three years ago - mid bath. After having to bail out the bath and lever out the plug with a butter knife we made a temporary fix by cutting out a piece of plastic carrier bag and poking the sticky out bit of the plug through it, creating a plastic border that you can grab to pull the plug out. The plastic has started to deteriorate and we were both inexplicably horrified at the idea that we might have to consider replacing it with a new bit of plastic bag, let alone a new plug

Xmas19 my mum and I had to use the top floor bathroom of my brother and sister in laws new house. You couldn't use the shower just the bath.... But no way of pulling the plug out.

Brother was literally amazed when next visit (Feb) we came with string for the plug because we knew neither of them would fix it. The string is still there even though the shower now works 🤣

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 07/12/2022 09:49

Electric kettle I usually have to wiggle it around the base to get it to work. I keep saying to dh that we need a new one, but neither of us ever thinks to get one when we’re out.

ISaidDontLickTheBin · 07/12/2022 09:49

We've got a shit toaster that we got for free 10 years ago and still haven't replaced, even though on the browning settings '2' is barely crispy and '3' is full-on burnt.

petridishmystery · 07/12/2022 09:50

The post up thread about a cupboard door coming off its hinges reminded me - my dad and BIL had to take the door off the airing cupboard to do some work in there, this was one of the last things my dad did before he passed so must be around January 2010. Never got around to putting it on as he was too busy dying so….it’s just still off its hinges. We do know how to put it back on but I rarely go in there so I just prop it closed with a chest of drawer I have at the top of the landing for my bedsheets. One day…one day I’ll fix it.

my dad would be horrified, he was not the type of person to just leave stuff but me and mum just don’t really notice!

Lolapusht · 07/12/2022 09:51

rainyskylight · 06/12/2022 22:18

The handle of one of the most-used kitchen drawers fell off - the screw holes had become too big. For over a year, in order to open that drawer you have to open the one above or below and sort of reach in behind and flick the broken drawer. It is a very uncomfortable movement. We use the drawer maybe 20 times a day.

Apologies if someone else has suggested this, but swap the drawers! Remove one of the drawers you have to open in order to get Defective Drawer out then swap it with Defective Drawer.

StarryKnight · 07/12/2022 09:56

The toilet flush in the upstairs loo snapped off just before lockdown. You have to yank the whole thing up to flush the toilet, but because it still works, it keeps getting pushed down the ‘to sort out’ list

Shit items that you never replace.
JudgeJ · 07/12/2022 09:56

DontBuyANewMumCashmere · 06/12/2022 22:15

Oh and two of my three laundry baskets have cracked handles/sides but also they still work for carrying large loads of clothes so... I just put up with it!

My wicker laundry basket, it's coming apart, it has bits sticking out so by the end of the week it looks like a Christmas tree decorated with dirty pants that I didn't throw accurately but we bought it in Morocco and used it for our first baby's stuff and she's now 45!