A tablecloth hand embroidered by my gran with a crochet edge. My DH grans bedding chest and both fathers shoe last neither are used for the right purpose but as doorstops. A pair of my mum's earrings and the first Papermate ballpoint my father had with his initials on it.
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What items do you still use that belonged to your parents?
(77 Posts)Those of us who have had the task of clearing parents’ homes have no doubt brought home items from their homes, maybe for sentimental reasons, or maybe because they were too good to give or throw away.
I still have and use the barometer that was a wedding present to my parents in 1939.
Today I changed the bed and put on duvet covers which I found unopened in my parents’ home. ( they did not use duvets.)
I have bits of china and Pyrex dishes I still use.
What do others use?
Oh blimey - ignore the cobwebs on the corner of the ceiling?♀️
My mum died 3 months ago. I've got lots of her stuff and like the reminder of her when I use it. Her peg bag and pegs, her hoover. I hope she approves.
I have a ham knife which my mum used to cut bread. We don't use it much as we get cut bread, but it's still good.
I have some ivory-look handled picnic knives they used. They are great for cutting up sandwiches with their serrated edges.
I have my grandparents Toby jugs, but they're still packed from my last move (March 2020) and a couple of small ornaments (pricey ones) of my mums which I love.
I also have a beautiful Amethyst necklace which my dad bought for my mum. My daughter and I share it!
I have my mother’s Stratton powder compact still with Max Factor powder in it. And my parent’s address book with both their handwriting in it. There’s nothing else because my brother had cleared their house within a few days of their death and before we could travel there. I took the compact and the address book out of their bin.
ixion
Oh blimey - ignore the cobwebs on the corner of the ceiling?♀️
ixion I have plenty of those, I just tell people my house is a spider sanctuary ?️?️
Shelflife
Mum's weighing scales and weights, use them regularly!
Ah yes! I forgot I have my gran's kitchen weighing scales and weights, plus a set of metric weights that I bought a few years ago.
I carry my grandad's penknife in my pocket all the time at home and I have various other bits and bobs from his very practical life. I hope one of my siblings has kept the Davy lamps that were his.
I have a blue Pyrex casserole dish that was my mums. I use it quite often.
I also have a willow pattern serving platter that my MIL gave to me. It’s a family heirloom that she passed on. I use it on Christmas Day and if the family come for Sunday lunch.
Glass tea caddy with yellow lid. V useful as I can see how many tea bags are in it.
Nothing of my parents. I have my paternal great-grandmother’s tea set, with bits added my my grandmother in her day, and my aunt in hers.
From my maternal grandmother I have a small cut glass jug and a baking dish.
Too many to list here but a few favourites:
My mum's wooden ironing board. It is so much more substantial than the flimsy aluminium ones.
Bed sheets given to my parents as a wedding present in 1957 and kept in their presentation box until I cleared the house. They kept them for best which sadly never came.
Some 1970s Tupperware boxes, still as good as new.
A wooden tea tray and a glass vase.
DH uses many tools which belonged to my father.
ixion
A Poole Pottery tea service.
It was a wedding gift to my parents in 1949 and the school friend who bought it for them is still going strong at 96!
I like that ! Love turquoise
More than I realised until I began to think.
My Mum’s favourite plate, her ‘best’ vase, a carving dish she was very proud of and only used at Christmas, her magnifying glass, her dressing gown, a couple of table cloths, one hand embroidered, bone handled tea knives, tea towels.
Some of my dad’s tools, a garden kneeler, garden hand tools, the model boats he made, his retirement clock.
China from Mr C’s aunt.
My maternal grandfathers silver table spoon.
My mother in laws electric knife which has to be getting on for 35 years old, her icing equipment, many hand embroidered table cloths and pillow cases, two pictures and curtains. .
If ornaments count several small pieces from them all especially my maternal grandmother.
I've loved reading these, and I have many similar things.
Everyday:
my mum's Utility flour shaker and my nan's mixing bowl
My 2 oldest things are:
a tablecloth embroidered by my great-grandmother just before she died. It is not as lovely as some of things she had made, but I remember her making it and showing me how to do the stitches. It comes out at Xmas.
a tea caddy from the great grandmother that I didn't know, but it is now just ornamental, as I don't want to unlock it every time I make a cup of tea!
I have two little ceramic pie dishes that my Dad used for Shepherds Pies. I love them.
I have the table my parents bought for £10 for their first home. It's solid oak and weighs a ton. It's always been part of my life and it's about the only 'thing' I have any attachment to.
I also have the enamel dish OH's G'ma used to make rice pudding. I still can't make any that's as good as hers apparently, though our GCs wolf it down so must be vaguely OK!
I have some bits from my granny's house. A painting that hung in her living room, and a wash basin and jug. Both 18th century. The painting in particular I like. It reminds me of the room we used to have high tea in. A cat on every chair!
I'm using tea towels that my mother had put away in a drawer. They were gifts from people 's holidays that my mum obviously thought were too pretty to use.
My MiL's hinged salad tongs are used whenever we have a salad, an her tablespoon (only one) is used almost daily.
I have my lovely table that my dad made, that I was absolutely determined not to have.
It's made out of a bus windscreen for the glass, and welded metal, which my mum kept painted.
My daughter said it was very "me" and would lovely in mine, and I relented.
I'm so glad I did, because she was right.
I keep missing words out now..
I can't possibly count the things I have that we still use.
Everything from kitchen knives, cutlery, teapots, china, tea towels, bath towels, a cupboard full of other linens etc to the 3 piece suite my parents bought second hand in 1950. It's been recovered lots of times and is about ready to be done again.
HettyBetty I also had a wooden ironing board and sleeve board which my grandfather made when he started his tailoring apprenticeship. It's had new felt a number of times now but in December it finally gave up when the timber board split down the middle. I have kept the legs and will use these in the garden. Very sad.
Unlike gulligranny, because we used my parents' "best" glasses day by day for years - and now we have very few left as I'm pretty clumsy. They were well loved though.
I don’t use them but I have 2 cup and saucers different patterns one used by paternal great grandma and the other my maternal great grandma.
I have letters written by my uncle to my aunt from his Japanese prisoner of war camp.
A complete and rather delightful tea service from an aunt (I do use that on high days and holidays)
An art deco style dressing table set, including brush mirror and comb from another aunt.
Other stuff, but must go as the dogs nagging to go out.
My song has the massive sturdy dining table that his granddad (my father) made. He sanded it down and removed all the old-fashioned dark varnish and oiled it so it is a lighter colour. My father made lots of furniture - I have the two bedroom units he made for us when we were in our early teens.
Song? I mean son (middle one who has 2 daughters)
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