Once common 'domestic' skills that are dying out

[existentialist]

fucksake, I'm such a tit





Yes I have a cabinet with a big fucked up hole in the back from when I decided a hammer and chisel was the best way to craft an opening for the tv plug.

We've all been there. Well, some of us have . In my defence, I really wanted to use that hole saw for something...

 

[existentialist]

because a significant number of people put in the wrong size/type of fuse or even just wire !
see also people who wired the plug connections wrongly ...

Back when people still had consumer units with wired fuse carriers, I found one that had a nail neatly inserted and screwed down. Apparently, this was because "the fuse kept blowing".

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I have known people plug a plug in without a back on, which is a really stupid thing to do

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Back when people still had consumer units with wired fuse carriers, I found one that had a nail neatly inserted and screwed down. Apparently, this was because "the fuse kept blowing".

again

 

[existentialist]

And that's a forgotten domestic skill. Rewiring a fuse carrier. Using the centuries-old little card with 3 different types of fuse wire, finding something to snip it, and - inevitably - having to use a torch to do it all by because it was almost certainly the lighting circuit that had fused.

MCBs were truly a step forward.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

And that's a forgotten domestic skill. Rewiring a fuse carrier. Using the centuries-old little card with 3 different types of fuse wire, finding something to snip it, and - inevitably - having to use a torch to do it all by because it was almost certainly the lighting circuit that had fused.

MCBs were truly a step forward.

yes - although with mine, if i turn the light on and the bulb goes, it usually trips the MCB.

the MCB's here are in a cupboard outside the front door.

Which is bloody annoying - especially if it's when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bog.

 

[WouldBe]

Back when people still had consumer units with wired fuse carriers, I found one that had a nail neatly inserted and screwed down. Apparently, this was because "the fuse kept blowing".

The other one was to wrap tin foil round the fuse in a plug.

 

[bellaozzydog]

You'll be pleased to know that not everything from the past is lost.

The tradition of vwf is being kept alive within companies that use vibrating tools but don't see the need for new fangled things like effective risk assessments

HAVS

 

[Steel Icarus]

Hospital corners

 

[ska invita]

Maybe if young people had to put ten p into the TV to make it work they wouldn't waste all their money on... I can't be bothered to finish this post, I've come over all tired

 

[jontz01]

fucksake, I'm such a tit





Yes I have a cabinet with a big fucked up hole in the back from when I decided a hammer and chisel was the best way to craft an opening for the tv plug.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to own tools...

 

[Saul Goodman]

And that's a forgotten domestic skill. Rewiring a fuse carrier. Using the centuries-old little card with 3 different types of fuse wire, finding something to snip it, and - inevitably - having to use a torch to do it all by because it was almost certainly the lighting circuit that had fused.

MCBs were truly a step forward.

That's what teeth were for, and your tonsils made for a perfect depth gauge

 

[existentialist]

yes - although with mine, if i turn the light on and the bulb goes, it usually trips the MCB.

the MCB's here are in a cupboard outside the front door.

Which is bloody annoying - especially if it's when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bog.

Yeah, that didn't happen so much with wire fuses because a) they generally didn't blow until 1.5-2x the rated current, and b) transient overcurrents didn't affect them the way they affect MCBs. It seems to be a feature, particularly of incandescent light units, that when they fail, there is a brief dead short.

 

[bluescreen]

ironing

My aunt used to unfasten the (bayonet, tungsten) overhead lightbulb to plug her iron in.
Then she had the place rewired.

 

[existentialist]

Hospital corners

Fitted sheets were truly a revelation. Less for the absence of a need for hospital corners than for the notion that a sheet could actually stay on the bed until it needed to be changed.

 

[existentialist]

The other one was to wrap tin foil round the fuse in a plug.

I suppose one benefit of the deskilling is that this happens less often. I've come across several domestic appliances, sometimes quite expensive ones, that people were going to bin because they didn't work, and it turned out to simply be the fuse - but nobody really knows about fuses any more. Sometimes they just fail, and I wouldn't suspect an appliance until a couple had failed in a row.

 

[jontz01]

I reckon that by age eight, I could;

fit a plug, change light bulbs,
program the vhs
shine up my school shoes to a mirror finish,
iron,
set and light the fire,
cook basic spag bol & pizza from scratch, shepherds pie etc,
fix punctures,

by twelve I could

do an oil and filter change on a morris minor
wallpaper & paint
lay paving
mix mortar and point stone/brickwork
animate on deluxe paint and make shit tunes on protracker, code in visual basic
cook pretty much anything I could get my hands on
make beds, do laundry etc.


My mum had MS. She'd sit and talk me through everything, I was just trying to be useful I guess. I'd do all the cooking as long as someone else would clean up after me... Loved it, never considered any alternative. I remember coming home from school and getting straight into wallpapering hall stairs and landing. Painting ceilings etc, while having the oven on or waiting on a stew. Mum leading and me just willing to get into it. She was so patient, it's just what we did of an evening... Reading Haynes manuals and A-Z's for fun.

Just writing this makes me realise how inept my 8 year old is and how it's really my fault, we have spent too much time gallivanting around instead of learning practical life skills. Although he can pitch his own tent and is happy to walk/run/cycle all day and sleep below freezing so it's kind of relative. I was a lazy bugger scared to go out at night. I digress.

 

[rubbershoes]

Fitted sheets were truly a revelation. Less for the absence of a need for hospital corners than for the notion that a sheet could actually stay on the bed until it needed to be changed.

I turn over a lot in bed, and if a sheet isn't fitted, I often wake wearing in wrapped round me like a toga

 

[JimW]

Moving to China kept a lot of these skills live for me, as still had eg one of the old style fuse boxes only recently. Lots of cooking from scratch too.

 

[kalmatthew]

But you can still do that with moulded plugs.
A 6mm bolt works well for high current situations

The "best" example I've seen if this is someone whose decision to make it safer was to use a .22 round on the basis if thr current got too high it would fire....

 

[existentialist]

The "best" example I've seen if this is someone whose decision to make it safer was to use a .22 round on the basis if thr current got too high it would fire....

And I bet he (it had to be he) wasn't firing blanks, either

 

[Humberto]

Remember bread poultices being a thing as a kid.

 

[Humberto]

Think there was some efficacy to them.

Mind you the cure for a sore throat was in the 50s to wrap sweaty socks around your neck. So I don't think all is lost.

 

[bluescreen]

Think there was some efficacy to them.

Mind you the cure for a sore throat was in the 50s to wrap sweaty socks around your neck. So I don't think all is lost.

Never heard that one. Salt water was what I heard - that, and raspberry vinegar in hot water.

 

[Humberto]

Good stand by the salt water gargle.

 

[UrbaneFox]

I bet kids these days wouldn’t have a clue if the toilet was blocked and you told them to go and get a coat hanger.

No, they prefer to call plumbers and the complain about the cost,' We're all in the wrong business' etc

 

[UrbaneFox]

I'm not sure it's seen as domestic skill as such now but wallpapering. Everyone I know gets someone in to do it now.
My Mum did all the painting and decorating in our home and taught me how to wallpaper.
All my textbooks were covered in old wallpaper too.

Taking up trousers. One of the first things I was taught (coming from a family of short arses.)

And putting new zips in trousers. My mum did this for neighbours as well as all of us, all on an old treddle sewing machine too.

 

[UrbaneFox]

Ending it all by putting your head in the gas oven. V popular round our way.

Also, perishing when the sofa caught fire.

 

[StoneRoad]

Looking at the list of nearly extinct "domestic skills" above ...
mine include [done over recent years] :
wiring plugs, change fuses and light bulbs [can also install a spur for a socket / outside light].
change wheel on car [unless the nuts were put on with a windy wrench] - top up various fluids.
mend puncture on bike, oil/change chain & cables [and on m/bike] - also brake shoes.
do a service on m/bike [mine are MOT free oldsters ...]
wallpaper, emulsion / gloss paint anywhere in/out the house [inc a stupidly high stairwell].
re-glaze a ground floor window [built & installed frame], replace/clean gutters.
rebuilt front [house], side & main garage doors.
with help ['cos using clamps is not as easy] can rebuild a shed / greenhouse / garden furniture.
almost anything in the garden, inc tree pruning [manual tools, I'm not keen on petrol buzzsaws]
proper drystone walling [can do both welsh, pennine, northumbrian styles but not yet tried round boulders]

Some of those ^^^ are lined up for repeat performances in the next few weeks !

Something I'm not going to do again is rotovate the vegetable patch when it is due to be dug over in the next year or two. [I'm no-dig except when doing the add manures stage].

 

[iona]

proper drystone walling [can do both welsh, pennine, northumbrian styles but not yet tried round boulders]

I've been wanting to have a crack at this now I'm living somewhere hedge laying isn't very useful (there's another one for the list). How much more technical / skilled is it than just literally stacking stones - easy enough to do a decent job with a bit of practice after just watching a youtube video?