Once common 'domestic' skills that are dying out

[JimW]

I was amazed to learn the pools are still going. The days of it being spoken of with such reverence are long gone.

My mum used to check the pools coupons when we were little and she wasn't in full time work. Spivvy bloke would drop round bundles then collect when checked.

 

[JimW]

We lived in Audlem on the Shropshire Union for a few years which has a run of thirteen locks, made pocket money opening them for the boat trippers.

 

[AnnaKarpik]

I think it was when all the 'quilted' and 'aloe vera' loo rolls became the new thing. Colourful paper suddenly seemed as trendy as an avocado coloured basin.

I'm sure I remember hearing on Tomorrow's World that blue loo paper was especially terrible for the environment but all coloured paper was bad and from that moment on I nagged my mum to only get white. We were living in the new house then so late 60s/early 70s.

 

[seeformiles]

That's interesting, I bet it's due to the dyes being worse for the environment or something.
Now N goes through phases of over-buying stuff, and at one point we had something like over a hundred loo rolls in stock (this wasn't during COVID I hasten to add!) and they were all colours of the rainbow - well a pastel rainbow, at least - that was a long time ago but since we've been living here, so I reckon between 15-18 years ago.

It hadn't actually occurred to me that I hadn't seen coloured ones in the supermarket for a bit, but that's because we tend to buy the cheap ones.

We used awful rough purple coloured bog roll in the early 80s when my dad couldn’t work for a couple of years and we were skint. My gran got it somewhere really dodgy and would bring us 30 rolls every week. Not sure how much shitting she thought we all did. My Ma says she still finds a box of it up in the attic from time to time.

 

[Saul Goodman]

We used awful rough purple coloured bog roll in the early 80s when my dad couldn’t work for a couple of years and we were skint. My gran got it somewhere really dodgy and would bring us 30 rolls every week. Not sure how much shitting she thought we all did. My Ma says she still finds a box of it up in the attic from time to time.

Not much use for detecting leaky haemorrhoids

 

[Elpenor]

I think it was when all the 'quilted' and 'aloe vera' loo rolls became the new thing. Colourful paper suddenly seemed as trendy as an avocado coloured basin.

I use the Financial Times so it matches my bathroom suite

 

[seeformiles]

I use the Financial Times so it matches my bathroom suite

Standards eh?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Standards eh?

No, they're used for wiping up cat sick.

 

[xenon]

I use the Financial Times so it matches my bathroom suite

It’s already covered with shit.
Boom+tish

 

[pseudonarcissus]

There was no boiling..it’s difficult to judge sized of stuff you remember from when you were 5, but I’d say it was about 4” diameter, pink with square holes..you squeezed it a bit and the two haves opened up and you put the IL soap bits in it.
I never saw one in anyone else’s house..but my grandparents were the only IL household i remember.
This will make an interesting topic of conversation with my uncle at the weekend.

Ok, the soap thing was shell shaped, you dropped imperial leather ends in it and if you rubbed it vigorously, you could get a bit of lather. I wasn't imagining it, my uncle confirmed it.
He worked for Rediffusion and remembers installing TVs with 50p slots in the back.