Things that used to be common place in people’s homes

[MattA7]

Is that rare nowadays?

Unfortunately still quite common my bathroom isn’t that old but has separate taps.

 

[geoffk]

I'm typing this on my desktop. I've only recently got rid of my record deck and remaining LPs. Actually I still have some 78s from my dad's collection and would like to pass them on to a good home.

 

[py_megapixel]

Lava Lamps

A couple of my relatives have lava lamps in their home, though I don't really see the poin tin them.

 

[kermit]

i got 2 GPO 746 dial phones in my living room, i am probably alone in this.

I've got one on a table in the hall, and there's a specialist firm that will print the circular insert for the middle with the name of your village and a three figure number. It works in a power cut!

 

[Jamiescott1]

Radio alarm clocks
Dancing sunflowers
Dvd player
surround sound system with 5 speakers
Gas fire places
Electric carving knife or tin opener

 

[Bevan Price]

Fridges. (Fairly uncommon in many households before the 1950s)
Portable bath tubs, sometimes placed near a coal fire in the living room.
Outside toilets, at the end of the backyard.

 

[Non Multi]

How about tape players? I haven't had a working one for 10 years. Was trying to work out the other night what the hell all the people suddenly buying music on tape again are actually doing with them.

Inspired somewhat by 'Techmoan', I decided to buy 2 old broken Walkmans off eBay and fitted new belts to them a few years back. Wish I'd known how easy it was to change a belt and adjust the motor speed pot when I was younger.

Also did the same thing to a small portable, so I've got 3 fully working players. I have music that I've never bought as a digital copy in my cassette collection so they do get used occasionally.

 

[Butts]

Ashtrays ?

 

[SS4]

Ashtrays ?

That's because they're all in your home

 

[Mag_seven]

Grandfather Clocks (and probably clocks generally)

 

[Butts]

That's because they're all in your home

Ho Ho .....Just cos your kids got stuffed 4-1 don't take it out on me

Seriously there has been a huge change to the provision (or non-provision) of Ashtrays in the last 20/30 Years.

Even I only smoke in the Kitchen now !!

 

[Gloster]

Does anybody still use those sprung things that you put in shoes to maintain their shape? For that matter, how many people have a full, old-fashioned shoe cleaning kit in their home (except in the servants’ quarters, of course)?

 

[Mag_seven]

Does anybody still use those sprung things that you put in shoes to maintain their shape?

A shoe tree?

 

[Bertie the bus]

It got me thinking of other items you used to see in everyone’s home but are now quite rare such as vhs players, vinyl record players, electric bar heaters, trouser press etc

I still use a VHS VCR. My philosophy has always been if it still does the job why replace it and mine still works.

 

[Gloster]

A shoe tree?

That’s it. I was thinking a shoe tree was one of those things for vertically storing shoes, like a pole with knobs on (I am sure there’s a joke there) that you used to find in the corner of the guest room in a house. Or maybe I just had odd relatives.

 

[Jamiescott1]

A shoe tree?

... and a mug tree.
Do people still have them ?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Radio alarm clocks
Dancing sunflowers
Dvd player
surround sound system with 5 speakers
Gas fire places
Electric carving knife or tin opener

... and a mug tree.
Do people still have them ?

Erm, yes to three of the above. Can anyone do any better?

 

[yorksrob]

Erm, yes to three of the above. Can anyone do any better?

For me:

Radio alarm clock
Dvd player
Gas fire place (disused)
Mug tree.

Also B&W telly (as previously mentioned)
Hi-fi separates (only 4 speakers, not 5)

Cuddly toy "applause"

 

[pdq]

Grandfather Clocks (and probably clocks generally)

We have a clock in almost every room, whether that's the oven clock, a clock radio in the bedroom or a mantlepiece (reasonably modern) clock in the lounge.

In the house I grew up in, there was an electric clock in one of the rooms with a dedicated power outlet and bespoke plug. I think there may have been outlets in other rooms.
Battery quartz movements have rendered electric clocks obsolete so I doubt three are many left at all.

 

[birchesgreen]

Telephone tables, does anyone still have them? Apart from my mum who has basically everything ever made.

 

[Bald Rick]

For me:

Radio alarm clock
Dvd player
Gas fire place (disused)
Mug tree.

Also B&W telly (as previously mentioned)
Hi-fi separates (only 4 speakers, not 5)

Cuddly toy "applause"

Made me laugh out loud

This thread is making me feel old though, possibly unnecessarily. We have:

TV in kitchen
Separate washer / dryer
Desktop
DVD player
Hi Fi (separates), including turntable
Hot water bottles
Drinks cabinet (essential in these times, surely)

All of which are used frequently.

 

[Jamiescott1]

The plastic fish on the wall that dances when you activate the motion sensor. Was it called Billy big bass ?

Carriage clocks?

Those 80s office toys like the metal pins that you could make shapes with by pressing against them or the 6 balls on a string that bang together

 

[takno]

Radio alarm clocks

On that topic, I don't have one since it broke, and would prefer to listen to foreign radio now rather than anything on FM. However, I've never managed to find anything as useful. Something with a decent readable clock on that could sit there as a nice single-purpose device and reliably wake me up every morning with an agreeable noise.

I've tried newer devices, but they all seem to use junk displays that either emit too much waste light, or are completely unreadable, or require me to have my phone with me that I want to leave in a different room.

 

[yorksrob]

Made me laugh out loud

This thread is making me feel old though, possibly unnecessarily. We have:

TV in kitchen
Separate washer / dryer
Desktop
DVD player
Hi Fi (separates), including turntable
Hot water bottles
Drinks cabinet (essential in these times, surely)

All of which are used frequently.

I don't have a drinks cabinet, but I've got a cupboard full of beer, if that counts !

I've been doing a fair bit of bird watching of late, and I'd quite like to have one of those ceramic flocks of geese flying up the wall that you used to see on Tom & Gerry cartoons and the like.

 

[eMeS]

I grew up during WWII, in a 3 bed semi, SW of Manchester. Space heating was two Valor paraffin heaters. The larger one in the bathroom which was smelly, and a smaller one moved from room to room - not as smelly. When I did my piano practice in the rarely used "front room", I wore fingerless mittens.

I remember seeing a few cars with gas-holding bags on their roofs.

My parents worked really hard to light the coal fire in the dining room before I set off for school. I remember snow coming over the top of my wellingtons in the winter of 1947. (And that the outside toilets at my primary school were frozen...)

We had a radio and listened to the "Home" service, and sometimes the "Light Programme".

We only received an air-raid shelter towards the end of WWII - before then, we bedded down under the stout oak dining table, and I can remember opening the east facing curtains in December 1940 when Manchester was blitzed. The sky over Manchester that morning was red.
One grandmother assisted at the "English Restaurant" - a soup kitchen; the other made camouflage material.

 

[pdq]

Telephone tables, does anyone still have them? Apart from my mum who has basically everything ever made.

My mother in law has her phone on a shelf in the hall so she has to sit on the stairs to take a call. There is no power outlet in the hall and she is unwilling to have holes drilled so she can't have a cordless phone.

 

[xotGD]

Avocado bathroom suites. Or indeed any colour other than white.

Polystyrene ceiling tiles. Not good in a fire.

Telephone directories, yellow pages, Thompson Local.

 

[yorksrob]

Avocado bathroom suites. Or indeed any colour other than white.

Polystyrene ceiling tiles. Not good in a fire.

Telephone directories, yellow pages, Thompson Local.

Oh yes, I've still got some polystyrene ceiling tiles. Probably ought to get rid.

I must admit, I don't know how anyone can survive without a clock radio. I've relied on one all my working life !

 

[TheSel]

I grew up during WWII, in a 3 bed semi, SW of Manchester. Space heating was two Valor paraffin heaters. The larger one in the bathroom which was smelly, and a smaller one moved from room to room - not as smelly. When I did my piano practice in the rarely used "front room", I wore fingerless mittens.

I remember seeing a few cars with gas-holding bags on their roofs.

My parents worked really hard to light the coal fire in the dining room before I set off for school. I remember snow coming over the top of my wellingtons in the winter of 1947. (And that the outside toilets at my primary school were frozen...)

We had a radio and listened to the "Home" service, and sometimes the "Light Programme".

We only received an air-raid shelter towards the end of WWII - before then, we bedded down under the stout oak dining table, and I can remember opening the east facing curtains in December 1940 when Manchester was blitzed. The sky over Manchester that morning was red.
One grandmother assisted at the "English Restaurant" - a soup kitchen; the other made camouflage material.

All this post needed was " ... and we still had change from a silver threepenny bit ..." and we'd have a full house for Nostalgia Bingo.

Great one.

 

[Lloyds siding]

Door knockers
Boxes of matches
Frost patterns on the inside window pane
Possers (ask your grandma)
Sealing wax
Collar studs
Turtle shells in front of disused fireplaces
Pitcher set (bowl and ewer)