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Name something you had in your childhood kitchen that isn't there today?

211 replies

OneUmberJoker · 20/12/2025 18:17

Microwave

OP posts:
ApolloandDaphne · 20/12/2025 18:50

Rainbow1901 · 20/12/2025 18:37

A pulley clothes airer that you could pull down from the ceiling.

I still have one of those. It's one of my most used items.

Pabbel · 20/12/2025 18:51

Chip pan
Twin tub washer

HeadyLamarr · 20/12/2025 18:53

Grapefruit spoons. Avocado bowls. Electric carving knife. Electric can opener (why???)

RescueMeFromThisSilliness · 20/12/2025 18:53

My mum.

A butler sink and a wooden draining board.

Cooker with an eye-level grill.

A cat basket on a stool in the corner.

sodabreadjam · 20/12/2025 18:54

A washboard (scrubbing board) and a mangle. Solid soap for getting stains out of clothes - green for Fairy and yellow or white for Sunlight.

A whistling kettle with string wound round the handle.

Loose tea dispenser as others have mentioned - and a tea strainer to catch the tea leaves as they tea was poured from pot to cup.

Brown glass cups and saucers like pyrex - think they were called Arcopal.

A little net circular cover weighted with beads that could be put over a sugar bowl or milk jug to keep the flies off.

NotMyRealAccount · 20/12/2025 18:58

Rainbow1901 · 20/12/2025 18:37

A pulley clothes airer that you could pull down from the ceiling.

We had one of these. We called it a stretcher. The new build house we moved to in 1972 didn't have one and Mum insisted on Dad installing one.
A sink big enough for a child to be bathed in it. I have photographic evidence of this.
A whistling kettle.
A pie funnel, though it was just a plain white one and not the sort that was shaped like a bird with its beak open.
A ceramic lemon squeezer.
Little serrated knives with curved ends for segmenting halved grapefruit.

littleblackcat1 · 20/12/2025 18:59

Chip pan
Orange kitchen tiles
Hotpot

Letthemeatgateau · 20/12/2025 18:59

Spong mincer
Egg slicer
A spinny thing to make ribbons of vegetables
A gadget to cut tomatoes into crowns
Kitchen Aid
Chip pan
Electric wall mounted can opener
A teacup of dripping in the fridge

Gingernaut · 20/12/2025 19:01

Pressure cooker

Chip pan filled with solid lard

Strong ammonia cleaner to wipe the grease off the walls

KittyHigham · 20/12/2025 19:01

@ImWearingPantaloons @Triflingjelly
I came on to post the same.

Name something you had in your childhood kitchen that isn't there today?
ImWearingPantaloons · 20/12/2025 19:03

KittyHigham · 20/12/2025 19:01

@ImWearingPantaloons @Triflingjelly
I came on to post the same.

That’s the one!!

Dearg · 20/12/2025 19:05

Washing machine - bolted to the floor. My mum was very proud of it.
2 sinks - one very deep, with wooden cover
Curtains
Butterfly table with Formica top

KittyHigham · 20/12/2025 19:05

ImWearingPantaloons · 20/12/2025 19:03

That’s the one!!

😆
I have such strong memories of pushing the button and the smell of the leaves going into the pot.

thebeautifulsky · 20/12/2025 19:06

Yellow kitchenette cabinet with drop down door (My parents' modern addition)
Formica kitchen table (this too)
Chip pan
Tin bath hung on the wall (no bathroom in our cottage)
Sheila Maid clothes airer hanging from the ceiling
Pantry next to kitchen
Open fire
Rug by the fire
Cast iron cooking range which my Mum used to keep immaculate by "blackening"
Slate floor files
Welsh dresser
Half net curtains hung at the windows
Rocking chair in the corner
This was in the 1970's. The cottage used to belong to my Grandmother and
hadn't been updated since Victorian times I think!

Triflingjelly · 20/12/2025 19:07

@kittyhigham@ImWearingPantaloonsThats the one! Even the wallpaper takes me back.

Words · 20/12/2025 19:07

I have most of these barbthe chip pan and wall mounted can opener.

waltzingparrot · 20/12/2025 19:07

Teapot and camp coffee

soupyspoon · 20/12/2025 19:08

Soonenough · 20/12/2025 18:23

An electric can opener - very 70s for my mother .
Blankets and flat sheets
Shower curtain
Toast rack
Two landline phones
TV aerial
Daily newspaper

A multi purpose room eh?

TheeNotoriousPIG · 20/12/2025 19:11

From our house: A microwave, a chip pan, a First Aid kit disguised as an elderly biscuit tin, Ribena, and teabags.

From my grandparents' house, where I spent a vast chunk of my childhood: a ceramic chicken to put your eggs in, THAT 1980's kitchen, butter in a dish that you had to melt in front of the fireplace before it was spreadable, Kit-Kats and a willow-patterned dish of dripping in the fridge.

I'd love a butler sink and a proper range cooker, and already have a Kitchen Aid and an electric tin opener (albeit not wall-mounted. I have issues with normal tin openers, but I'm a dab hand at those ridiculous corned beef tins...)

soupyspoon · 20/12/2025 19:12

Weevils and a twin tub for me

Lots of formica of course.

oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends · 20/12/2025 19:13

I've just replaced my pressure cooker, used at least once per week !

I did have a chip pan, until I bought an Air Fryer 10 years ago.
Moi, the pioneer.

MissAmbrosia · 20/12/2025 19:14

KittyHigham · 20/12/2025 19:01

@ImWearingPantaloons @Triflingjelly
I came on to post the same.

Yes - we also had one!

user1469569516 · 20/12/2025 19:15

A wall-mounted tealeaf dispenser..

Leopardspota · 20/12/2025 19:17

MumoftwoNC · 20/12/2025 18:27

I have a much bigger kitchen than my mum ever had (just down to her living in a crowded city with small flats), so we have way more random gadgets than she ever had.

BUT she once got given a salad spinner to get the moisture off your salad leaves. You put your washed salad in and it spins around like a washing machine (and it's almost as large as one!) Biggest waste of space ever in her tiny kitchen but she kept it and still uses it occasionally because, she says, "it's a good French brand"

Edited

How else do you wash salad leaves?

PigeonsandSquirrels · 20/12/2025 19:24

I can’t think of anything… the house I’m in now even has very similar 00s wood cupboards and sparkly black counters.

Maybe a TV when I was very small.

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