Things we seldom see in homes anymore

I have the base of one as a door stop, the type that came as a pair with a detachable handle, one in use while the other was heated.

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My Granny had a little cupboard in the kitchen with a marble slab and gauze mesh in the door. It was called a meat safe, and was used to keep milk and cheese in it as well.
My brother got a microscope one christmas whilst we were staying there, and dad scraped some cheese onto a slide so we could see the cheese-mites running around on the surface.

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I have just been searching for the house where I was born…here is a view of the back, the large lower window was a small one that was the Pantry…Can’t believe I am seeing this…
…The gardens were much of the same sizes so see one you see ours…It is the one on the far left painted white
…I can remember in my bedroom, still was a gas mantel on the wall…we had electricity though…no bathroom until Dad cut off a section of my Sister’s bedroom to make space for a bath with basin and toilet in it…Next to the pantry window was a coal store in the wall with a large door…

They are selling for over £400,000…madness

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Washing soda, although you can still get it. I did an experiment for a science A-Level and proved that soda crystals were as good, and in some cases better than washing powder at getting oil stains out of fabric.

When I was little we had a “copper” where mum did the washing. I think it was gas powered. She stirred the clothes with a stick that was bleached over time.

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That’s nifty!!

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This is a Hoosier cabinet. It’s about 100 years old. It was my wife’s grandmother’s house in the US of A. We still have it here in UK.

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What a lovely piece. Sadly, a lot of them tend to eventually end up in someone’s shed.

Did she used to sing, “Dashing away with the smoothing iron” whilst using it? :wink:

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I can remember my mum having a pair of them - she would heat them up on the gas stove too. She also had a pair of curling tongs, way, way before the electric ones were available. These also got heated up on the gas stove - I can still remember the smell of her hair being singed when she heated them up too hot! They were very like these, in fact could be the same model!

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Not forgetting the good old toasting fork……

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I used to love using that, I enjoyed toasting my cold hands as well as the bread!

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Hostess trolley.

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Mags I was literally just about to post a pic of a toasting fork! In fact I will anyway, cos I think this one is probably nearest to the one we had, although I seem to remember ours had 4 tines. Could be wrong though. Honestly, it made the best toast ever - crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Even better when it caught alight and you had to blow it out, haha!

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My grandmother had a toasting fork that was extendable

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Oh the lovely smell of the toast when it was getting blacker!

I remember blowing out the flames too! :grin:

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And who can forget the wonderful toasty warmth of snuggling under a lovely thick eiderdown in winter?

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Oh yes! I had a pink eiderdown too …… more often than not it was covered with a coat for extra warmth as we only had a coal fire in one room downstairs.

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Here y’go, found a picture of a chamber pot at last.

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And then we went on to candlewick bedspreads.
We had those. :grinning:

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These eiderdowns are very sought after now. I have sold several on the auction site for £50 each. I bought them in charity shops for less than £10 and a beautiful paisley one I bought from the local recycling centre for £5.

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My parents rented their first home where I was born. It was very small and dark with 2 bedrooms up a rickety staircase. No bathroom and an outside toilet. It had a tiny kitchen (more like a scullery) and a little front room. Over the years it has been modernised and had a tiny extension to add a small bathroom. It has no garden as such just a tiny triangle of shingle big enough to put a bistro type table and 2 chairs so there is no way it can ever be extended again. Just before lockdown it sold for £650,000 as a second home!!!

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