What normal things did you not have or not have in your house growing up?

[Fairypowder13]

We ran out of kitchen roll today and it got me thinking, growing up we never had kitchen roll in the house. I can remember visiting people who did and thinking that it was quite posh.

I grew up in a very poor home and we were always warm, clean, clothed and fed, but also lacking so many basic things. My parents always had money for cigarettes and alcohol though 🙄

I can remember having to have my hair washed with washing up liquid at times, I had very long hair and my mum never bought conditioner so you can imagine how knotty my hair would be. I did eventually get access to hair conditioner after begging my mum after I’d seen it advertised.

No cushions on the sofas.

No family holidays or day trips. Didn’t see the sea until I was 16.

No fabric softener for washing.

Never had a bed or mattress of my own, had one that was given to us until I was old enough to buy my own, it was all broken in the end but it didn’t occur to my parents to buy one.

No birthday cake or celebration, we’d get one small cheap present but nothing beyond that.

No stocking for Christmas. We’d put out one of our socks.

No winter coat, I had to wait to be given one by my older cousin.

I’ve never had double glazing. Not even now.

Central heating (probably a common one for people of my generation). My father died in 1985, without ever having lived in a house with central heating. ( I'd left home about 5 years before this, and had warmer student flats than our home was)

I was born in '75 and we didn't have a vhs (dad had a Phillips2000), so we couldn't rent videos. I still have massive gaps in my 80s film viewing. Saw Top Gun for the first time last year. Never seen Pretty Woman or Dirty Dancing

No central heating, storage heaters and a bar heater in the bathroom we rarely had on. Glorified tracing paper for loo paper in a box, no snacks bar the occasional biscuit which were boring rich tea generally, no take aways, no meals out unless a very special occasion. Vosine shampoo and no conditioner, no tumble dryer, no fabric conditioner, second hand bikes and hand me down clothes unless hand knitted

My parents always prioritised their own needs/wants and minimised mine. They were homebodies and never went anywhere. I was so envious of my less well off friends who would get to go to the seaside for one or two weeks each year.

As a teenager I really wanted to go to museums and art galleries but that never happened. Instead I was coerced into playing the piano, which I hated.

Obviously no paper towels or hair conditioners….. this was the 60s. One bath a week and a hair wash once a fortnight.

I was a 90s child so had hot water, central heating, a fridge and a freezer etc. dial internet and then wifi.

what didn’t we have?! We lived in a modest semi with 3 beds. I suppose we only had one bathroom and no downstairs toilet.

Now I have a downstairs loo and 2 en suites and a family bathroom!!!

I was shocked to read OP about not having a coat. Wasn’t that always basic in any decade and neglect if no coat? I feel very spoilt that my kids all have 2-3 coats

Opposite really- my parents always had kitchen roll and fabric softener but I never do. Seems like a waste. I cut up rags to wipe with.
They always had biscuits in a tin too and I don't. Usually something lying about, cake or chocolate but very rarely biscuits.

Now I think of it we only had nuts at christmas. We had a glass dish that would come out and we'd have nuts in it, plus walnuts still in shells that our dad would crack open. They'd mostly break but sometimes you'd get it out whole which was really exciting for some reason.

Kids are weird 🤣

I was born in the 60s
No carpets upstairs just floorboards
No central heating - just a coal fire
No gas only electric - we had a Rayburn for cooking and hot water
No TV - we eventually got a rented black and white one when I went to high school
No telephone
Very little frozen food as we just had a tiny ice box in the fridge and frozen food was only just becoming a thing

I grew up in the nineties.

We didn't have a working shower until I was 11.
No more than four TV channels until I was 18 in 2006.
Never had a VHS player of any kind.
No video games/consoles.
Never had a microwave and my parents still don't have one. I used one for the first time as a student at university!

None of it was financial, my parents just didn't agree with screens or microwaves or any kind of ready meals/snacks.

I grew up in Ireland (I’m 50).
Our first home was in the middle of nowhere.
We had:
No toilet
No electricity
No running water
Mum washed everything by hand (don’t know where she got the water!).
Aga in the living room which she cooked on and hot water bottles at night. Tilly lamp and candles until my aunt’s boyfriend got them a generator to create electricity when I was around 7.
Moved home when I was 10. Had electricity but still no toilet (!) until I was about 14.
We did have home baked birthday cakes and a car and trips to the seaside .. before parents had several more children and my dad lost his job.
Definitely no kitchen roll!!!!

No hair conditioner
No duvets (had blankets and bedspreads which i actually liked)
No colour tv , had black and white until i was 12 ( was so happy when it finally broke down!)
No shower (had a bath)
We didnt have cushions or throws either or pictures on the wall.
No Microwave
No Diswasher
No Tumble drier
Although last 3 werent as common in 70s/80s.
Food wise fruit was a very rare treat.
Im 54 and we grew up poor

Didn’t have a TV (in the early 2000s) partly because money but also my mum thought it was bad for us, especially me and my sister. When my mum kicked my dad out he got a massive TV and let us all watch whatever we wanted out of spite for a while but after a month or so of being spiteful he did stop and sold the TV (for booze money).

We don't have one in the livingroom but it’s not a money thing it’s just I’ve never really had one so never bothered.

Things I didn’t have that my children haven’t had either (youngest 18) - more than 1 car, a shower, a tumble drier, kitchen roll, a microwave, a toaster.

Oh we still use a lot of loo roll as tissues now! Just don’t think to buy tissues unless we have a cold and even then don’t always think of it! 😂

Growing up in late 60's/early 70's. Two up, two down for 4 children and Mum and Dad. Both parents worked. Mum in the evening when Dad got home and we were in bed.

We didn't have soft toilet paper it was either that hard, slippery tissue or squares of newspaper. No tissues either. We all had proper hankies that were immaculate - we were given a clean one every day.

Rarely had shampoo or washing up liquid. Hair washing was done with a jug of warm water from the bath and bar soap.

No hairdryer either. Hair was towel rubbed (vinously!) and left to dry by the fire in winter.

No central heating. Fires downstairs and in the two bedrooms if it was very cold. Single glazing which the net curtains stuck to when it was freezing outside.

No fridge. Milk was kept in a pantry in a jug. Meat bought daily from the location butcher.

One pair of sandals in the summer and shoes in the winter. No wellies or slippers.

No play dates. Friends weren't allowed to come into the house. We knocked for each other and played on the street or village green.

We didn't have a car. Dad cycled 5 miles to work and back every day. We walked or took the bus into town or to visit relatives. We did take a coach to the seaside every year for a week and stayed in a chalet on a campsite with arcades, bar and little shop.

Sometimes we had sanitary pads for our period but if money was tight, Mum would give me and my sister "rags" - clean strips of cloth that were boiled and reused.

We had an outside toilet, single glazing, no phone, one fire in the lounge. We did have new cars, ‘foreign food’ because my dad grew peppers and aubergines in a poly tunnel and holidays for months on end to family in Europe. I was the only child in my school who’d been abroad, eaten melon and could speak another language. Born in the 60’s.

We had nothing. I shared a three bedroom house with DGM, DGF, DM, her sister and her 5 brothers. I had hand me down clothes, second hand presents, we didn't have central heating, we had a lovely coal fire, coats on the beds for extra heat in winter, but I really was spoiled with love and attention. We home baked and got by, went on long country walks and seaside holidays thanks to several relatives with caravans. I look back fondly on those years but there is something in me now that must have affected me from being a child....my food cupboards and freezer always have to be full, if I want to buy something I would have liked as a child I buy it. So while I have the fond memories there's definitely something in me that recognises it can't have been all sunshine and fun.

A bin in the bathroom. I used to smuggle my sanitary products out of the house in my bag!!! Other than that, my home life was pretty 'normal'/lower middle class. Like, what did my mum do with hers?! Carry it downstairs to put in the kitchen bin?!?!? My household is a bit adhd weird and there's lots we go without from being single parent low income, but I do have a bin in the bathroom!

Same here ! Seems to strange to me now

Period products/bras. I am middle of 3 girls, but my parents never seemed to realise that puberty was a thing. I assume it was just embarrassment but I remember all too well the humiliation of having to use wads of toilet roll instead of sanitary towels. Another time I summoned up all my courage to ask my mum for a bra. She just said, "you don't need one." I really did.

I've never bought kitchen roll. Perhaps it was being brought up in a house without one, but I genuinely don't understand what you would use kitchen roll for that you couldn't use something else instead.

Interesting that conditioner is a theme here. I remember watching the Wash N Go adverts where the strapline was "take 2 bottles into the shower" and not understanding what the 2 bottles were, and thinking that the peoples who had showers must be very posh (bath once a week).

We didn't have a microwave, dishwasher or a video. My parents regarded them all with suspicion. They still think of a video of "new fangled technology" and can't actually get their heads round the fact that they've been and gone.

We had endless hot water and heating up until I was twelve, as the social housing we lived in included it in the rent, it was a flat though so we didn't have a garden.
We moved to a house, another council house, but it had no central heating, no double glazing, it was bloody freezing.
We didn't have a phone until I was twelve, or colour telly, the loo roll thing too for tissues, although I do remember getting hankies for Christmas in fancy boxes that we used.
Not washing machine apart from a twin tub, we had hand made clothes too, which I bloody hated, I wanted the Tammy girl stuff.
I was loved though, albeit my parents were almost 100%autistic, so there were oddities in their behaviour, as am I.

Op huge hugs x I’m 45 and we didn’t use fabric conditioner or kitchen roll either, fizzy drinks and crisps were birthday and Christmas only. We never ate pizza or pasta (veg, meat and potatoes or chips and sausages/ nuggets or burgers, and we ate tons of stew!) We didn’t use conditioner either, with my fizzy mass of hair it would have been handy!

I was born late 70s and same here, although they relented and got a VHS player after I left home and everyone had switched to DVDs. My film knowledge is a massive cultural desert that DH regularly teases me for.