Genius inventions we no longer use

[Grumpypants78]

Inspired by a chat with a friend after struggling back from the corner shop yet again with the mountains of stuff my family can't survive without. My gran in the 70s used to have a little shopping trolley on wheels she'd take with her. You never see them anymore but what a brilliant idea. They sell them in Amazon, I'm going to buy one and be like my gran only without the curlers and housecoat 🤣
What else do you remember your DPs/DGPs use I can be inspired to invest in?

I always think the Sinclair C5 was too ahead of its time. It needs releasing again now.

I had one made. Cost quite a bit, but worth it. Keeps Gauls off the lawn.

Tax disc holders!

My Aunt still uses her shopping trolly.

Carpet sweepers, ewbank and bissell were both makers. Been over taken by cordless vacuum.

All sorts of genius tech has been overtaken including cassette (audio & video).

One of these statements is a lie....🤣

@ofwarren I have a carpet sweeper. Bought it in Dunelm. Made by Addis I believe.
@WhenPushComesToShove this may be a London thing but you can't turn around without tripping over a copy of the Metro newspaper.
@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles I use my trebuchet daily.

You can buy them still, I have one, bought at one of those discount shops. They're actually really useful.

People build their own these days.

People are recommending Ewbanks/ carpet sweepers on some of the money saving threads as they don't need electricity .

A shopping trolley would also be helpful here wouldn't it - easier to shop without your car (saving petrol).

We have one, we made it for a Home Ed project and it has pride of place now in our sheep field. DH however is no fun and won't allow is to besiege the neighbours

Everyone and their dog has a shopping trolley where I live! I've got one but rarely use it because I'm 5'7 and the handle to pull it is a couple of inches too low so I walk like a hobbit when I do use it!

I saw a youngish fella with quite a funky leather granny trolley just yesterday.

My 17-year old was thinking of getting one for the Reading festival.

On Shopping Trolleys: I spent some time in Barcelona during the summer. In the local Mercadona there was a Shopping Trolley park. People locked their trolleys up, took a supermarket basket or trolley around and did their shopping, paid and made their way back to their ST where they loaded up and headed back out on the street. It was always pretty busy!

How about that common companion of the shopping trolley, the rain mate?

Handy portable, packable solution to getting your hair wet on the rain.

Waitrose give them out at the checkout. Very useful for lighting the barbecue, putting on the table when painting, wrapping up the dead flowers when changing the arrangements.

I never read it though, it’s full of Guardian and BBC apparatchiks’earning’ a few extra £ ‘s. No wonder their groceries are so expensive if the shoppers are subsidising Clare Balding and Phillip S.

They have hydrogen fuel pumps at the petrol stations here in Germany.

I was just saying to a friend I'm going to get one of these so when the kids go to school (first time I will be child free for 2 whole days a week/ever in 9 years) so I can walk to lidl to try and save some money and get some exercise at once.

Anyone recommend a good one for long walk, heavy items but can be worn maybe as a back pack when empty....if they exist?

OMG the rainmate, all the rain must have dripped down the back of your neck wearing one of them.

I'd gone to my Grans as a kid to get changed for a school Christmas party she tried desperately to get me to make use of her rainmate to get back to school - Eh no thanks!

I think mangles could be very dangerous to small children due to way it pulls but I agree could be useful but drying by rolling suddenly something I'm aware of and feels like should be useful as well.

We went to a Georgian town house - and one of the kids asked about small wooden round things - turns out it was part of a drying table - rolling items in clothes and round these wooden pegs things- then saw a you tube washing her Edwardian style dress and using a cloth to roll it dry - an then ironing the rest of the damp away. Did think that had potential - and you tube did remind us about blueing which we had cause to try.

I suspect my heated air dryer and dehumaniser is probably more practical for us.

People use those trolleys all the time where I live! I have one and I'm 30! So much easier than carrying everything home in bags.

One of the houses we looked at before buying our house (on the same road as our house in fact, just a few doors up) came with a mangle! Now I'm kind of wishing we had gone for that house instead though there is a public mangle down by the lake, at the rug washing place, maybe I could take my washing basket down there

I have a shopping trolley, was tempted for years and finally got one a couple of years ago. Its made of reflective material so its a safety feature when shopping on dark winter evenings as well as handy!

dehumaniser - hmm that was supposed to be de-humidifier dehumaniser is the effect the washing pile has on me.

You and your trebuchets - it's only a trebuchet if it comes from the Trebuchet region of France - otherwise it's just a sparkling catapult.

In terms of other inventions, why can’t you buy proper feather dusters on a stick anymore? My nan used to have two - they were great for getting to high-up cobwebs

You can still get them. I've got a baby pink one on a very long stick. It's useful for removing those annoying cobwebs ... but its real value is in camping up the housework.

This is a never ending source of fun in my family-brings back memories of my gran and her fondness for a rain mate 😂