My employer's wife gave DD1 a complete Royal Albert dinner/tea/coffee service with well over 100 pieces, about 25 years ago. It has survived completely intact, in spite of six children, numerous house moves and even emigration. She uses it regularly, for parties and big family meals.
She had two large settees for about ten years and they were still in good, clean condition when she gave them to her sister. Within a few months, they were ruined.
Do you have things you have cherished for years?

I have as few things that I have cherished for many years. However, like your daughter, I firmly believe that there is absolutely no point in having lovely things and not using them. Consequently, some sets of glasses are now slightly depleted and some vases are no longer waterproof, but some other stuff has survived okay. Sofas, on the other hand, haven't a hope in hell with a house full of cats.

Oh yes! And we moved a lot in the first twenty or so years of our marriage. I have a cactus (I really don't like cacti) which DS2 bought me in a Sale of work 38 years ago - it was in a yoghurt pot. It is now big - blooms once a year and lives in the conservatory. It has travelled the length and breadth of the country (including Northern Ireland) and still it flourishes.

I have my grandmother's rose gold locket, in which are pictures of my mother as a baby.

Many more things too, but it would take too long.

Ah, the cats! DD1 has had to lower her standards slightly since she left her elegant Edwardian villa in England and moved to a bungalow on stilts in NZ!She says the cats have scratched her leather sofas, one dog chewed the corner of the rug and she herself is in and out all day from the gardens. She is much more relaxed these days! But the Royal Albert is still in frequent use, much admired by her new friends.

Yes! All my life I've "taken care of things" and I wish I could stop!. I open my wardrobe and see lots of clothes like new, while I wear the same things over and over in order to save things.
Same with everything else in my house. It's almost as if I don't feel that I deserve the best

I do fight it, but in the end the charity shop gets some really good stuff!

I have my grandmother's dinner service fully intact. We hardly ever use it (mainly because it cannot go in the dishwasher), but she used it all the time in her lifetime, even though it is very posh. I can remember having meals on it when we visited her at the seaside when we were children. We knew to treat it with respect.

And I have clothes practically from my university days!! They will be back in fashion soon I expect!

I still have my great GMs rolling pin. Slag glass and passed down on wedding days to eldest GD!

jeni that's a lovely heirloom.

It's kept traditionally behind the front door for use on husbands returning from the mooning on the square!

I have several bits of furniture that belonged to each of my grandmothers and a table that belong to my great-grandmother. Many of my clothes are over twenty years old but still in good condition and still used.

Yes and sometimes I wish I wasn't , I hardly ever break or wear something out.. I am loathe to renew dishes/glasses when I have lots of mismatched ones in the cupboard, but would love to just throw the whole lot out and buy new... just can't bring myself to do it.. coats and outfits bought for special occasions hang in the spare bedroom wardrobe , I did recently manage to take a few bags to the charity shop. Shoes I never wear out apart from my current 'walking shoes' the others I only wear for a few hours and I don't walk far in them so they never get worn. I have a pen that my Dad bought me about 40yrs ago and my daughter was astounded the other day when asked if I had a pen I gave it to her to use.. it still writes and I have never renewed the ink . It lives in my bag but I don't use it often..

I think my oldest possession is a leather pencil case my father gave me when I started grammar school in 1967. It wasn't new. He'd had it for quite a long time already. I am still using it. Have replaced the zip a couple of times.

None of my crockery matches. I don't care. In fact, I rather like having everything odd.

Bags

I'm very good with household items and keep them intact, clean and good working order for years and my clothes and personal belongings. Trouble is they go on too long and I get fed up with them so they have to have an 'accident' to persuade DH that we need to buy something else.

Yes. I respect things. I respect machines and look after them I look after clothes and furnishings. It is second nature to me. I find it easy. Tidiness takes less energy than living in chaos.

I am good at looking after things too, and it proved useful when I lost two stones and was able to dig out the perfectly good size 14 clothes that I had not been able to bring myself to throw out!
My other daughter and her family are just the opposite -she bought a new vacuum cleaner because nobody worked out how to empty the bag of a perfectly good one! Expensive bikes are left outside to rust - it drives me mad!

I'm fairly good, I have a couple of bits of furniture that we've had since '70's also clothes, that I hope one day will fit again. but I do admit when I had a new kitchen fitted 3 yrs ago I vowed the oven n hob would stay like the day the were fitted.......ummm not quiet.

greatnan DD is the same we bought DGS a trike with a mummy handle and then this year a 2 wheeler with stabilisers. They are out in all weathers

I don't think I can take credit for the Georgian bow-fronted chest of drawers that originally came from the family rectory in Leicestershire, but I have kept it safe for future generations - GD1 wants to inherit it. I also have a very beautiful silver tray presented to my grandfather when he celebrated 50 years in journalism, I try to remember to keep it polished.

I still have the chest of drawers that came in a suite when I was 11....60 years ago, or 61 on Saturday!

And a little black teddy bear I had when I was 4 - but my dad kept him, and we found him after my dad died and we were clearing the house.

One glass of a set we used in the summer before we left Welwyn Garden City in 1951 - with black stripes round it and a round black base

A wooden Norwegian drinking bowl, souvenir I believe of my parents' honeymoon in 1932, I have had it since my mother died in 1996

And my sister has plates from my parents' wedding gifts, but not the full set, which is a shame since they are Clarice Cliff.....

I tend to keep everything long after it it is no use, and everything else because it might be useful in the future!

I have a very ornate plate which has a label on the back (in my great aunt's writing) saying that it was used at a family wedding in 1895! DS2 fancied using it at his own wedding in 1995 - unfortunately he couldn't find a girl willing to have him that year! And I wasn't sure that it would have been the basis of a lasting relationship, so the plate is still waiting.

I think we of this generation have things handed on to us , or inherited , and rather foolishly in my case anyway , are slightly afraid to use in case gets broken . When I pass there will be loads of things which will be either sold or sent to charity shops . I cannot however , break the habit of a lifetime and just "use" things , I have to keep some things for best . heyho [blush ever so slighty]

I think most of us do the "saving for best thing", it comes from being born in wartime or whilst rationing was still in force.
My mother had a plate to commemorate the coronation of King George, used every single day and still going strong in my sister's home. I would have put it in a china cabinet as I did with my china mug from the Queen's coronation.

I have absolutely nothing inherited from my family. My mother never had much anyway and what bits she had got from her own mother were destroyed in the blitz. I am quite envious when I see people on Cash in the Attic with valuables they inherited from great uncles, etc.

We have bits and bobs handed down but nothing of real value. The thing we have that I wish I hadn't kept for 'best' is the really dated (now!!), but not in a good way , that my parents gave us as a wedding present in 1970. It really is hideous!