Poorly chicken

[Daphne]

OH has just announced he is going on 'towel strike'

 

This doesn't mean he is about to give up washing it's just 'I can see through my towel and I'm not going to use it anymore'

 

I have to confess this is all my fault. I remember my parents buying me this towel in John Lewis when I left home to go to Uni in 1982. It was bright red to go with my red duvet set, and I had a deep blue one to go with my blue duvet set. The bed linen is long since gone, but the red towel has been with me ever since. I knew it was faded from all the washing and the sun here, but I hadn't realised how threadbare it is.

 

So, I will out myself as Scrooge, but do you have any treasured or long standing domestic items which have survived long past their sell by date?

[Alis girls]

We are sisters. I have towels handed down from mum - shes been dead 21 years and I left home in 1980 I have tea towels with calenders on from 1980's and I found i was using a BR tea towel which must be Bristish Rail (my late grandad worked for them and must have borrowed it I do have lots of new bits especially bed linen.

[soapdragon]

I have 3 Irish linen tea towels with a name and the date 1945 embroidered on them but, to be fair, they havn't been in constant use since then YS loves his still fluffy Boden bath towel with fish on that I bought from an NCT sale when ES (now 13) was born. Now that has been in constant use since then and retains fluffiness in spite of the fact we have no tumble dryer

Edited November 11, 2017 by Guest

[The Dogmother]

Judging by the date that you went to uni, we must be a similar age, and therefore children of war babies, who were brought up on rationing and to be thrifty.

 

I am lucky in that my Italian grandma always bought decent quality stuff and looked after it, she was also a brilliant seamstress. I still use beautiful white cotton pillowcases which she embroidered in white or the palest blue. I have and use a number of cream or grey wool utility blankets, each with its label and unique number. She knitted arran sweaters with leather buttons and I have one which is older than me!

 

There's a large quantity of lovely, hand made and embroidered table linen which is used when I have company. The silver plated cutlery with bone handled knives is in every day use... i could go on, and it gives me great joy to use all their stuff.

 

Outside, i have lots of their tools for wood work and gardening (they had a smallholding) some of them have been repaired by hand and still work very well. It's thrift, but also common sense to use things which are well made and still have plenty of life in them.

[Daphne]

Glad to know I am not alone

 

You are so right DM, the influence of the War loomed large, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and growing up that filtered down into our house as well. Now many of my most treasured things are old family hand me downs, l like the fact they are regularly seen and used, and let's face it Pyrex is for more than one lifetime My mother still uses the wooden bread board from when she was a girl, and it will be coming to me next

[The Dogmother]

I have a little wooden child's chair, which was made by my great-grandad. There are photos of my mother, me and then Rosie.... all taken at roughly the same age, standing on this chair and stirring cake mixture in a kitchen.

[mullethunter]

Not really quite the same because these are things you would expect to last, but I have my grans pink Pyrex glass mixing bowl and an 'I'll person blanket' crocheted by my great gran (who was dead long before I was born and I thin she made it when she was a young woman). We've also just dug out her stone hot water bottle to use for my mums new puppy (8 week old Black and Tan Jack Russell / border terrier cross - SOO cute but sad to be away from her brothers)

[chickencam]

Love this . I have towels and bedding inherited from my gran and mum. I have a large collection of tea towels from my gran because she collected them as souveniers from holidays and days out. I now do the same. My ED drove her boyfriend mad when he took her to Poland earlier this year for a friend’s wedding when she spent ages trawling the shops for a souvenier tea towel they only seemed to have utility ones. Then she struck gold and found one with chickens on

It’s our silver wedding anniversary tomorrow and we still regularly use our first Le Creuset casserole dish bought for us as a wedding gift by BIL and I fully expect to pass this on along with the others we have gathered over the years. The saucepans I bought when I left home are still in the family one with ED which she has had since starting I I and the other with DS since he went. I also have some Pyrex from my childhood which I think my mum got when she got married. I have my Gran’s glass rolling pin too I love old family things

[soapdragon]

Happy Anniversary, Chickencam Hope you have a lovely day and lots of treats!!!!

 

As well as old linens we have antique drinking glasses, which I have collected over the years, and we now use for everyday wine, cider, etc. Luckily I have only ever broken one and, given that I started collecting many years ago, only paid peanuts for most of the ones that we use. Its a real thrill to drink from a glass that is well over 100 years old. They are solid and such good quality.

 

We do live in a 'throw away' society and it is so sad. If it ain't broke then don't fix it or replace it....things made years ago are more durable anyway so why do people feel the need to update everything? A bugbear of mine, I'm afraid as the older things are the more the quality seems to shine out...we are such wastrels this century and its not good

[mullethunter]

I love old family things

 

Me too

[Alis girls]

Totally forgot about Pyrex have some inherited and plastic bowls I use for cake making. Also have grans vases which regularly have flowers in and some bed linen too. And garden tools. OH's dad was a Cypriot lace merchant and had a shop. We have blankets and found a load of pop socks w and black tights when rummaging thrugh stuff the other day . Thankfully black tights not American tan

[Valkyrie]

Scrooge with some things, not with others. Then hoarder takes over. I rescued my dad's drill from the rain - when my mum was moving after dad died, dearest brother decided to go through everything and throw it away - most was in bin bags (including MY flowerpots that I'd lent dad for the tomato plants and the drip trays! ) and then I spotted the drill. Thankfully inside the box was dry. I was so cross - it originally belonged to my mum's father, so to me that was an heirloom - and probably doesn't work, but it's the principle of the matter!

 

Towels get used until they get shreddy around the edges, then they either go to the wildlife rescue place or relegated to the utility room. Some are put in the cupboard and then used for wiping down a wet chicken, or wet cube (always seems to puddle instead of draining when it's washed) and sadly wrapping deceased chook with a few dried mealworms before being double bagged for the bin. DD is taking some of the not so gross old towels for her house including her Disney ones and dare I say One Direction That may have already gone to the wildlife place as she is so not into that now . DS already had a collection of his ones including his Mickey Mouse and football ones (and like 1D he really wasn't into football either, just needed to be part of the boys at school).

 

Old sheets I cannot bear. My mum used to sew my dad's cotton hankies to cover any holes - and my toes used to find the gap and get tangled before bigger rips appeared as a result. To stop me doing that she bought Brentford Nylons sheets. Gross, gross and gross to infinity and beyond. So nice cotton sheets for me and any that start looking past their prime are relegated to the "I can practice my quilting on this" and others go to charity. Any discoloured ones from OH's new "cut myself and I bleed everywhere because of my tablets" type of marks that really will not disappear in spite of me using every method under the sun to soak it away - get thrown. Too embarrassing to pass on!

 

But with regard to moving we really are trying to declutter. I had so many single sheets from the childrens beds that I didn't want to get rid of. Although I have one cot blanket and a baby shawl that I'm not parting with under any circumstances. Even today his lordship said I'll get rid of the Andy Pandy book - "Ooops, word censored!"ody wants that. EXCUSE ME! That's MY book and it stays - I had loads of those and that's the only one left. See - hoarder!

[bluekarin]

I had an Irish Linen teatowel with a calendar on it from the year before I was born! It was in perfect condition. I wrapped a cake up in it to take it a friends for lunch one day, a few years ago, and I haven't seen it since. I must ask her if she still has it.

 

We have some towels which are on their way to being threadbare. The edging is coming off so you risk trapping a toe when trying to dry yourself off

[Cinnamon]

Goodness

 

I buy new towels, pillows & sheets about once every 2 years.

In my defence, the pets use the old ones.

I cannot bear thin towels or bobbly, faded sheets.

 

I am thinking of investing in some Devon Duvets wool filled pillows to match our fantastic Duvets, as you can remove & launder the filling, letting it dry in the sun ...... living in a sunnier country now, this really appeals.

[The Dogmother]

There's nothing thin, bobbly or faded about my stuff, but then white cotton sheets just go on giving and don't fade. Towels seems to last forever... except when Madam does a home-hair-dye-job!

[Cinnamon]

Oh yes, the bleachy stains of doom

 

I think I just like a fresh new look every so often really, although I do find that the elastic goes in the corners of fitted sheets after a while.

I do NOT do white, not with a builder husband!