Sometimes I will use something and realize I’ve owned it forever. It’s a nice change in our throwaway reality. I think my personal record is a bicycle multi-tool I got for one of my first bikes, ~25 years ago. Still have it, still use it. When it comes to electronic devices I have a Panasonic mini Hi-Fi from ~2005. Never felt like changing it.
What’s your record?
My toilet.
Team peepee or team poopoo
Why not both?
Teamcloaca?
Team peepoo
Asking the important, hard hitting questions.
Team vom vom
Easy: I have used my Norwegian teapot every day for as long as I can remember - easily 50 years, plus some 15+ years where my dad used it before me, plus another unknown number of years before him, because he picked it up doing his rounds as a garbage man in his student years (1960s). That thing is ancient, and still going strong. Never gonna let it go.
That teapot must be tied with the Danish dinner tableware inherited from my grandparents. That stuff has also been in use literally daily since the 1950s.
Talk about built to last, and buy it for life. Amazing.
I don’t know why, but I really want to see the magical teapot. Can we see?
Here it is: https://i.imgur.com/oSyNbne.png (organic banana for scale)
Disappointing, yes? Well, not sure what you expected an indestructible thing to look like. This thing must be from the 1940s or so.
The pot itself is made of some non-magnetic metal, and it was probably all black when it was new, but years of gas stove-top use before I was even born must have burned away the color near the base – I have always known it to have this gradient. It holds 1,5L of steaming hot black tea (preferably Lady Grey or Darjeeling) and has an absolutely drip-free spout. It has a stein-like hinged lid with a glass insert that used to be removable until my dad epoxied it on, untold ages ago. The handle is made of bakelite so it never gets hot, not even when used on a gas stove-top.
The handle is marked with the logo “HØYANG” which sounds Norwegian. If anyone can tell me any details aout that, I would be extremely interested.
(The mug is another contender for this post, by the way. I’ve had it from the late 80’s.)
No, that’s super interesting. I found a newer one here -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/461900505513536548/
I can only find red and silver currently but I think you’re right that it was black. The company is indeed Norwegian and a lot of their stuff is marked Ilovan Kjelen Hoyang which might be the name of a person? I can’t find that confirmed though. There seems to be collectors so if you ever want to know more, might be worth contacting someone who seems to have a collection for sale.
The color looks really cool.
I think it’s quite pretty.
That is a lovely teapot
Thank you ❤️ I love it very much but am obviously biased.
https://www.whrestorer.com/german-food-container-speisentrager-made-in-post-war-norway/
This is all I could find.
Ceramic or metal?
Metal, with a glass lid and a bakelite handle.
It’s non-magnetic but too light to be aluminium, I don’t know what material it is made of.
Unobtanium.
I destroy anything that isn’t metal out if clumsiness but I love this general design (the Norwegian teapot). Congrats on yours, really enjoyed the history of it.
This meat suit I woke up in once, I’ve had it as long as I can remember
Same thing happened to me, man. I can’t remember anything from before that.
Mine has stretched a lot in the abdominal area and the dense, protective covering on the top is thinning and gray. Probably not worth trading in at this point so I’ll run it into the ground.
I get a new one every 7 years
I bought my mechanical keyboard in 1997. It has the original large round plug on it and through the years I’ve had to buy adapters to go to a ps/2 port and now to usb, but the keyboard itself still works pretty well. Definitely time for a good cleaning though, I’ve been having a lot of stuck or missed keys lately. Since I write code this keyboard has seen a LOT of daily use over the years.
An Enermax keyboard has been my daily driver as a programmer for my career that started in 2007. It still works just fine and I still have no reason to change to something else. Lots of reasons not to, since I like the classic keyboard layout and the flat laptop keys.
Trying to type anything on the chiclet style keyboards reminds me of the days of learning to code on a ZX81. You just can’t type quickly on those without the proper feedback. If my current keyboard ever dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.
OMG same here. Just posted it. But mine isn’t mechanical. Has the round connector to the wireless box, that I adapt too. LOL.
I would be like you but my wrists scream on anything that isn’t split! Thank you for living the dream!
Honestly I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. I have been writing code for over 40 years now and the only time I had trouble with carpal tunnel was at my first job stuffing circuit boards. If that ever changed I’d be in real trouble because there’s not much else I can do which doesn’t involve working at the computer.
The switch to something like a Microsoft natural fixed me very quickly! That’s all I use to this day but a day doesn’t go by without me thinking fondly of my heavy, noisy, IBM PS/2 keyboards. :)
Bought some walking boots in 1991 that I only got rid off last year (they finally broke). Except Antarctica they’ve been on every continent. Felt quite sad saying goodbye.
Which brand/model?
Trezeta, which is an Italian brand of hiking goods. Not sure of the model, it’s been so long ago.
https://x.com/BjornToftMadsen/status/1213442646594772992?s=20
Alright, it wasn’t quite last year, I realised :) Time moves fast in your 40s.
I got confused with x.com I was like what was this person wearing boots on a porno site?. And then it hit me, this is Twitter and not some shady port site
I know, it looks so weird. Just how twitter creates share-links now.
Old boot porno. Internet rule 34 in action.
We got three sets of bedsheets when we got married thirteen years ago, still using all of them.
Before we were married, my spouse got me a tea set; only two teacups left but I do use them daily.
But the winner is the engraved, personalized cereal spoon I got when I was five by saving cereal box tops and sending them in.
Cereal box top redemption!
Those halcyon days!
That’s awesome. I have some things from my childhood at my family home but nothing that I actually still use.
Wired Headphones 🔌🎧
Basically can’t live without them 🎵❤️
I have plenty of things that are really old, but the longest in daily use would probably be a Galileo thermometer my dad gave me in my early teens. It looks like this, but the colours have long since faded:
I’m pretty sure some of my T-shirts could win this if we don’t take this whole “daily” I aspect too seriously. There are a few from my teenage years that are still in good shape and still fit, which I’ve had for literally more than half my life by now.
That “daily”-aspect makes it really hard though, since there are days when I don’t even need my house keys. Lighbulbs die after some time, so they ain’t it either. And would wardrobes count as “items”? I tried thinking about this question so hard for way longer than I probably should’ve now, and got to no unanimous conclusion so far. But in the end, it doesn’t even matter, so I’ll just go with: probably my glasses
I struggled with the same thing. I’ve got some ties from my dad from haberdasheries that hadn’t existed for a couple of decades before I was born. They are in regular rotation but that means they get worn once every few months like all my other ties.
I’ve had the same pair of earbuds since 2003, but they kicked the bucket two years ago. That would make it 18 years. As a teen I was very careless with them, regularly forgot them in the pocket and they went through countless trips through the washing machine and dryer, so I am amazed they lasted that long.
I have a Stanley Record no.5 plane given to me by my dad about thirty years ago. He inherited it from a relative when he was around the same age. It could be a hundred years old at this point. I’ve got a pre-war Wadkin bandsaw, must be close to a century.
I still have my first ever mountain bike from the early 90s, can’t kill that thing either. It is a high quality machine but looks incredibly shabby now. Perfect for shopping, nobody wants to steal it.
I just changed my mountain bike because I was running out of easy trails around me and needed something a bit better. Funny thing is I still use the shoes I bought with the old bike. They are about to fall apart but for now they outlived my bike.
A well maintained bike has incredible durability. I don’t use this one off road any more because I bought a suspended machine fifteen years ago but I can’t bear to part with my old friend. With a little imagination they can be modified for a new purpose. It’s a fun way for kids to learn basic skills.
Sennheiser headphones that I bought for about $20 about 10 years ago. The cable is indestructible. I once had to resolder it to the speakers because it my cat pulled it out, but the cable itself has endured all kinds of abuse without breaking. And the sound is fantastic.
I picked up a pair of Sennheisers from a thrift store a couple years back. They sound amazing and the cord is replaceable! I love them.
They weren’t cheap but I got my sennheiser Hd650s around 2004 and still use them daily.
I’ve replaced the ear pads and cord once each, otherwise they’re original.
Same. My Sennheiser Momentum 2s over ears are god damn workhorses and I’m very abusive. And the sound is fantastic.
I grew up decently poor, always getting cheap shit.
But now that I’ve got an education and a good paying job, I’m starting to collect nice things that are nice to have and use.
The one I’ve had the longest w actual daily use would have to be my stealcase chair. I did the frugal thing and bought it used, but it’s been a couple of years and it shows no signs of giving up any time soon.
I did the same. Got a remanufactured steelcase Leap v2 and it was the best purchase ever.
In 1990 I was running a very tiny Unix clone at home (Coherent on a 286 PC w/ 1 meg ram) and… I don’t remember if I couldn’t get a standard reader to compile on that or what the problem was, but anyways - I wrote an email/usenet reader for my own use.
33 years later, I’m still using it to read my email every day.
Also, I think I’ve had my pasta strainer since the 90s.
How are you dealing with everything being in HTML and full of attachments now?
An email of all html is an unwanted email 99% of the time. Occasionally, I save it, and open in lynx. (When a web site emails a security code.)
Attachments are more of a hassle, because I frequently need those. Save to a temp file, “munpack file”, examine extracted files.
impressive! got a source code link for those of curious?
My Victorinox Swiss army knife. Got it close to 30 years ago, and I still carry it every day, using it for dozens of different things.
I’ve replaced the scales once, and the blade was ruined by a dodgy knife sharpener, but it still holds an edge.
Which one? I am picking up one, after having make done with my keys and a thick steel hook keychain for quarter of my life, despite being the one army man that does everything and anything.
The Cyber Tool M. The screwdriver bits are eternally useful in my everyday life.
Looking for the Huntsman as my first SAK. Cyber Tool M seems to be better than Swiss Champ if I were to buy a chunkier SAK in the future… that bit driver is seriously as underrated as a Rambler compared to a Compact.
Can you tell me what are the bits? I try looking but never ended up finding the info. It is always product photos from afar, never closeups. From what I saw, there is flathead, philips, Torx and some other shape (maybe Allen), but not their sizes.
I’m quoting from memory right now, as I’ve had to leave it home today while flying.
- 3 different sizes of Philips head
- 1 x straight driver (smaller/thinner than the built-in on the SAK itself)
- 3 different Torx bits
- 1 x Allen bit
I can’t remember the exact sizes of the last two, but they’ve always been the right sizes for me, working in technology.
A bit unusual question. What would you advise a fresh SAK buyer? And what would be the tools you would rank as most useful, or pitch to me? I watched the SAKtubers and all that stuff just to get an idea, and I find incredible use in daily life in a pocketable multitool.
Two blades are a must - it’s surprising how many times a smaller blade is useful (eg. prying the back off something with a very narrow gap).
The screwdrivers are my most commonly used/useful tools in everyday life - tighten a hinge or a handle, stuff like that.
Most of the others are occasionally useful - I’ve used the awl for emergency repairs on tent stitching - but the above are the ones I’d rate the most.
Screwdriver and corkscrew always get me. But I am leaning towards corkscrew for untying knots, that is way too common a problem, and nothing does it like it. Isn’t the Philips #1 size too large for electronics? And that only the inline is actually worth it, since backside is very flimsy? Or would you just carry a separate screwdriver or a Rambler? Do not mind my questions too much.
