We are too used to Central heating..

[Dampclout]

Until the 1980s very few houses had central heating. Most people heated one room, had hot water bottles at bedtime and wore warm clothes. I can recall quickly going out of the warm front room and shutting the door behind me, if I wasn't quick enough there would be be the shout of ‘shut that door’
Nowadays I wear a tee shirt in winter and keep my house at 20c… I think I will be going back to my childhood ways this winter..

We got our first house with central heating in 2011. Before those horrible horrible boxy storage heaters on the wall and the economy 7 electric tariff.
I was shocked moving to the UK in the 1990s how few flats had central heating.
I know don’t even consider caravan holidays without it!

YAWNNNNNNNN....... 🙄😴 Yeah God FORBID your husband wants to put the heating on IN WINTER. What an utterly unreasonable git.

Jeeeez, some people on here are insufferable.

Exactly. When does the call come to get rid of indoor plumbing ?

What I hated about not having central heating most was getting out of the bath. There was a good reason for limiting many washes to the sink!

My point was that just because things were done or not done a certain way in generations past doesn’t mean we should have to go backwards and happily do without as OP suggests. A lot of people rely on central heating or have homes in conditions where it’s essential, they’re not just ‘too used’ to something which shouldn’t be a luxury.

I had this as a student, only one room had a gas fire in a particularly cold building. I remember tucking next day's clothes, shampoo and toothpaste in beside me in bed so they wouldn't be too cold in the morning.

I thought the Brexit nostalgia for the post war years was bizarre, but now it seems we yearn to genuinely recreate every aspect of it. My mind is blown.

OP didn’t have Mumsnet in the 80s either. I assume she’s giving up her smartphone and access to the internet since she’s so keen to go back in time.

I didnt say it was an open fire, it was an electric 3 bar heater and we had to put the money in a meter - no money.. no heat. Further info.. the toilet was actually at the bottom of the garden, but feel free to use the bucket.

My mother lost her first baby to cot death in the early 70's. Following all the research that has emerged over the years, she is as certain as she can be that it was probably the fact that the room was very very cold, so the baby was wrapped up too warmly that was a large factor in her baby's death. No one should be so concerned about using central heating that they put their child's life at risk like that.

I remember being sooooo cold as a child, just unpleasant and horrible. I love central heating. Unfortunately, for so many children, it won't be possible to have it on. I didn't hate my childhood, but that abiding memory of just being so darn cold and not wanting to move in bed as it was so freezing if you did has made me love central heating and dread having to turn it off more.

I was a poor child of the 90's.

I loved having a coal fire in the living room, mainly because me and my brother used to mess about with it 😂

crisp packets up the chimney or tissue, then we would play "hot poker" literally shove the poker in the fire and get it red hot and see who could get it the hottest. And my all time favourite coal spitting chicken. Just as the embers would start to spit out we would kneel Infront of the fire and basically play chicken, whoever moved/flinched first lost. 😂

I can hear the pearl clutching fro here. But I'm happy to report me and my brother survived, and only got the odd minor burn from a coal Sket 😂

I'm always in woolly jumpers, hoodie, or fleeces from September so don't really have much sympathy for people wanting heating on in winter. What?! Some people can put jumpers hoodies or fleeces on and still be cold

Back in ‘the good old days’ of the 70/80s - some wains were still taken away from unmarried mothers, aids victims were treated like shit, men were paid more than women etc etc………we’ve moved on from 40/50 years ago, we shouldn’t be going back to these times when people bathed once a week or sat wrapped in blankets. Oh and the house we lived in 1976 when I was 12, had central heating.

I'm already a total skin flint when it comes to heating. But it's not good for me to be cold.
It makes me ill.
In winter I wear three to four layers of fleece, fingerless gloves, fleece socks and fleece slipper boots and a hat
I have a heated throw that I didn't use last year due to having a cat with a fleece fetish.
Started a thread here on how to use it (because I am going to need it..) and was advised to get a duvet cover which I have done so hopefully I will be able to stay toasty while I work on the sofa without being electrocuted by cat with fleece fetish.
It's going to be a tough winter and we will have the heating on a minimal amount.
But it should not be like this;

www.mumsnet.com/talk/ninety_days_only/4620110-idea-for-making-energy-price-raises-irrelevant?reply=119537184

Everyone I knew had heating in the 80s

That's not funny and also why you have those keep away from fire labels on pajamas.

It wasn't the dark ages. I grew up before central heating too. I don't know anyone who had chest infections - certainly not from a lack of central heating anyway. Nobody had "mould induced asthma". In fact unlike today asthma was quite uncommon where I was. And we were all dirt poor with coal fires. We also had antibiotics, flushing toilets and, shock horror, my mum had FREEZER as well as a fridge.

What people do now is their business. They have to pay the bills. But the 1960's - 80s were not feudal times, and whilst we didn't have some things available now, we also didn't have some other things like dangerous levels of air pollution, or kids who don't know how to play outside. Times change. Sometimes for the better. But seldom entirely so.

I also lived one year much farther up north in a two up two down with a small electric heater and there was a lot of snow that year. It involved wearing a full set of clothing to bed every night and shaking with cold til eventually, you warmed up just a little bit. I hate to think anyone is going back to that. Electric blankets and oil-filled radiators are the way forward if you don't have CH but they cost money, not all will have.

Jesus why do people keep posting this shit? It’s called progress for fucks sake. Every generation before us had a much better standard of living than the one before. Going back to what my Grandparents - two generations above me - lived like as a children isn’t something any of us should have to suck up and deal with.

If that’s your attitude, don’t use the internet, a smart phone, any other tech or antibiotics or anything else that didn’t exist prior to 1950.

TBH most houses had central heating in the 80's. Maybe not in the 60's though.

Nowadays I wear a tee shirt in winter and keep my house at 20c

What do you advise for people who don't?

Yay, the blitz spirit lives on! We'll be fine, huddled around a gas stove, wearing fingerless gloves and with our liberty bodices stitched to our bloomers to keep the draught out.

If you're the sort of dickhead who's been wearing nothing but a t-shirt in January then yes, you probably will need to give yourself a little shake and put a cardigan on this winter. I don't think we need to looking back to the 1960s for inspiration, just using common sense will suffice.

Think my dps and ils put central heating in their houses mid 60s

It's never been as awful as it is at the moment in my lifetime

Yeah let’s go back to the good ole days when kids went up chimneys and knew the value of a hard days work. Eurgh.