Pans

I'm still looking at lots of the same old stuff because I still like it :-)

Much of it wasn't new when I acquired it. Kitchen table, WW2 utility model, cost £1 at the Scouts jumble sale in 1980...ish. I'm sitting on a kitchen chair which cost 2/6 in 1970. Last survivor of a set of 8 which cost £1 the lot in a junk shop. Its currently painted red, but in previous i decades it has been black, white, and blue.

My saucepans were new ( from Ideal Home Exhibition in 1982. Prestige SS with copper bottoms, Lifetime Guarantee and still perfect)

I remember my sister and mum doing "swaps" as mums pans had been family size and my sister had lived alone and had smaller pans, but when she had a family , they just swapped over, which was quite good.

My pans have changed over the years, according to what was going on. When we had the boat, I bought a pressure cooker for £5 from a car boot sale, which became an excellent boat pan, as it was both economical with the fuel and was safe, so that if , (despite the good use of the ubiquitious bungy cords to anchor it to the cooker) it fell off the cooker, it remained safely shut, no hot liquid got out. Used that for many years along with a pan that had a steamer on top so that I could manage more things on a two burner cooker. But as things change despite having a whole group of pans I find there are one or two that are always the favourites to use. Could never get on with Creuset I think it was called. They were very heavy , even when I was up to lifting hefty things , and it would be impossible now.

We only replace something if it breaks and isn't worth fixing (cost / obsolete - no parts).

Like the OP, we have a set of pans, a gift for our wedding in our case. They're still near perfect, non-stick stainless steel and nearly 30 years old. They may well outlast us and we're not planning on exiting this planet any time soon.

I have both of my grans china, my mum’s cutlery and other items 💔

I’m another one still using the Prestige stainless steel pans I had as a newlywed. I’ve replaced all my baking trays with stainless steel too now, too, they will all outlive me. I like old things, but not china or ornaments, except jugs and vases for flower arranging, which I have lots of, many from my two grans, aunties, mother in law, my own mum, they are my family memory joggers.

I still have my original set of SS pans bought about 40 years ago. I’ve looked after them and added an extra one to cook for family. When my parents died I kept some of my mums kitchen kit, some of which was her mothers. Some of my modern gadgets haven’t lasted so well. I’m learning to use an air fryer. I have a set of knives in a beautiful wood case that were a wedding present to my parents 75 years ago but as I don’t use them - I suppose I should pass them on.

We have lots of older stuff.
Our sofa, for example was my parents' - second hand in 1950.
I have ancient loaf tins, chopping boards, pans, crockery, cutlery, vases, jugs, glasses, ovenware, baking sheets, mouli grater... the list is endless.

We do buy new... when we need it..
(we have had a new kettle and a toaster in the last 8 or so years)!
And new carpet fairly recently (for us).

I see no point in replacing stuff that still works and looks reasonable.

Glancing round, I realise my toaster, a Christmas present from DS and DIL many years ago, (over 20), alongside a matching kettle, looks a bit shabby now, the brand name worn off, but it still toasts ok so why change it? (The kettle hasn’t lasted as long).

The tablecloth on the table I’m eating breakfast off is clean on this morning, but yes, the terracotta colour is rather faded…..

Said table and dining chairs were donated to us by DS when they replaced theirs, good, strong set, but not very fancy.

Does it matter?

Not to me, but when I see what friends have in their homes, I suppose I realise others think differently.

We didn’t really start accumulating ‘stuff’ until DH retired from the Army. Until then, every house we lived in was furnished and equipped from the ground upwards. In the early days we were discouraged from having our own furniture because of transportation difficulties between postings. We just added decorative items we picked up on our travels.

OThe only piece of furniture we actually owned before we bought our first house was a settee that DH’s sister gave us, that had originally come from Harrod’s in the late sixties. We had it reupholstered it served us well until we finally decided it was really too big for our living room. I have a few small things that belonged to my mother, but nothing of our own that dates back further than our wedding day. When we did eventually set up a permanent home we bought a set of Stellar stainless steel pans and they were in use for thirty odd years until we had the kitchen changed in our present house as they weren’t induction compatible, or no doubt they would still be doing sterling service now. I gave them to a charity shop.

Prestige ss pans with copper bottoms still going strong after almost 40 years. The knobs on 2 lids have come off and I need to fix them, but the pans are used pretty much every day.

Most of our possessions are 2nd hand/charity shop. I love my things. I have a friend who is forecvr buying new stuff. Not my style, but she can't understand me.
I am about to buy a new washing machine, but the current one is nearly 30 years old. I only buy new when the old is defunct and past repair and electrical.

We also only buy new when the old stuff is no longer working/broken etc. I was pickling beetroot this weekend, and was using a chopping board we got as a wedding present - 42 years ago. I also use on a daily basis a small vegetable paring knife which belonged to my late MiL, and I also have her large brown mixing bowl. Our living room sofa and chairs also originally belonged to my in-laws, and although they have been re-covered, must be more than 60 years old.

My GC love to use my late mother's egg slicer. I'm not sure if they are still made.

FGT can i compliment you in your spotless saucepans. What do you use to clean them apart from a lot of elbow grease?I have had that many frying pans I cannot count, including stainless steel which i got rid of because I don't use much oik and everything stuck to the bottom so i went for high end teflon, all the surfaces gradually turn yucky and i dispose if them. My saucepans are all copper based stainless steel and i am on my second set. My milk saucepan won’t boil milk without catching the sides so its as new as the day it was bought as its not used.
Afraid I do replace my sofas and armchairs also living room curtains.

Chocolatelovinggran

My GC love to use my late mother's egg slicer. I'm not sure if they are still made.

So do I to make egg sandwiches

I still use Pyrex casserole dishes I had as wedding presents in 1974. And I have one set of embroidered cotton pillowcases that my aunt gave me as a gift.
My saucepans I bought in the early 80's when our local Co-op store was closing up, they were less than half the original expensive price.

I have all sorts of old things especially in the kitchen. Some were my mother’s. I offered various bits and bobs to my grandson when he and his partner bought their first house recently. The sort of things you expect to find in your kitchen drawers and cupboards in your parents’ house that you don’t think of buying- but I am told they have bought everything new.

Don’t want Granny’s old stuff Cabbie

Our GC should be heading off to uni if her grades are good enough, I plan to offer her some brand new white mugs and crockery, plus some unused cutlery.

It might get refused, but that’s up to her.

I can picture her and her mum going round Ikea…

I was in Dunelm last year when students were gearing up for university. Determined youngsters, lists in hand, followed by increasingly more harassed sets of parents!! When by DD left from uni, she simply raided my kitchen and linen cupboard for everything she needed and made off with it!😂

We’ve also got stainless steel saucepans, ours are Stellar, still going strong after 40 years. They have been washed by hand and in the dishwasher and occasionally treated to a clean with BarKeepers friend and still are like new. Good solid quality pans. We also have lots of Pyrex casserole dishes which we’ve had since we married 51 years ago. All these things have had so much use over the years.

I still use a Granton ham knife that was given to us as a wedding present sixty years ago. The bone handle gave up, but the firm that made it is still going strong here in Sheffield and they were able to put a new handle on it, so it could last another sixty years. DD has her name down for it! Pleased about that!

I have a serrated bread knife which was, with a bread board, one of my parents' wedding presents. So it must be 86 years old. Still the sharpest knife I have. The board I still have but it has got a split in it so I use a new wooden board from J Lewis. And also the green enamel bread tin is in daily use. The same age.

I like things that have an heirloom quality and a provenance. Too any things these days don’t last.

I had some lovely pans, one was really big with a thick bottom for jam making, but when we got an induction hob hardly any of them were compatible. I inherited the pans from my mum and two aunties when we got our first house in the mid seventies. Were married a couple of years before but we lived with my husband’s parents.
I gave the pans to a charity shop, but was told by a friend who is a volunteer in another charity shop that they probably chucked them because nobody wants old pans.
Was quite sad about it 😔

Fallingstar...maybe someone bought them. Our charity shops often sell old pans and single pans..not part of a set. But we are a uni town so maybe students buy them.

I donated my mothers old hand operated Singer sewing machine to a church where they were sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo for young women to learn to make clothes to sell. I do hope it ended up in the right place and was used.

My mother would have been so pleased. I put in the box lots of cotton reels of bright coloured threads which were mum's as well as a few from my stash.