What’s a household item that reminds you of your grandma’s house?

A rag rug I made, featuring one of our old dogs. In memory of Dog and my Granny.

The only soft floor coverings in Granny';s house were the rag rugs she made out of old clothes. The grandchildren cut the clothes into strips and she hooked the strips into old sacks. (I used the same technique) There was one rug in front of the fireplace and another inside the front door.

Her floors were covered in lino (except the kitchen floor, which was painted concrete). Helping her "clean" floors was another GC chore; we scattered the used, saved tea leaves across the floor, scooshed them around a bit to collect dust mud and dog hair, then brushed the damp mess into a dustpan.

Let's just say, Granny and her house shared a strong and distinct odour. How I loved her smell.

I have nothing from my grandparents home, but lots of memories. They lived in a number of rooms in a shared house. Not like today, their rooms were on different floors and mixed up with other tenants rooms. Their main large Living room, was at the rear of this very large Victorian property. In one corner, with a pull across curtain, there was a sink with a draining board and a gas cooker (that was the kitchen.
However just outside the door to that room was a walk-in pantry where all the crockery, cutlery and food was kept. Main shelf was marble so kept things cold. My g.parents never had such things as 'fridges.

I have two main memories. One was of all the many photos on their cupboard. They had 29 grandchildren, so lots of pcitures. Every time I visited I would pull my photo to the front, but then many of my cousins did the same thing.

Most Sundays, most of the family met for the afternoon and evening. Children's tea was served first. Very Large dining table, but best seat was the one that faced the fire place which had a large mirror hanging above it, so we could admire ourselves as we ate.

Then the adults had their tea, and then played cards. All the children who were not babies or toddlers were expected to help with the clearing away and washing and drying up. My East London G.ma would give us a sharp clip around the ear if we tried to get out of this or were at all cheeky.

My g.father always had a couple of canaries in a cage. Never thought then how cruel this was and would love it if I was there when he was clearing the cage out.

This room was on the first floor, well above the ground. It looked out over the back garden, and to dry her washing, G.Ma would sit at the bay window pegging this on to the line that stretched over that garden, using a pulley to bring the next piece of line ready for next item. Also had to do this in reverse to bring in washing, pretty slow when it had started to rain.

So many of the memories people have shared in this OP for me belong to my own parents (probably I am older than many of those replying). Yes, we had one of the meat cabinets, and in the Council Flat my parents moved into in the early 1950's had one of those pull down drying racks in the kitchen, I helped my Mum with one those large Acme Wringers and the sheets. When I first married my parents gave me their twin tub washing machine (which I hated and hardly used - preferring the ease of the launderette).

The rolling pin which you fill with cold water was a Pyrex invention, and I had one of those soon after I had my children and attended those 'pyrex parties'. I had mine until recently, but found it now heavy and cumbersome. One of my sons-in-law asked for it and he still uses it. I much prefer the slim wooden one I now have.

I have my Grandmother's earthenware pot. Nothing fancy, just brown and plain. She fed a family of 8 from it, including my mother. I remember her lifting the huge pot out of the oven filled with stew. As she got older, she handed the pot down to my mother who made the same stews for us, a family of 6.

I only use the pot a couple of times a year now when I have many people to cook for. Every single time it comes out of the cupboard, all these memories come flooding back. Priceless

As a small child I was fascinated by the gas masks that were in my granny's shed, a remnant of the war years in South Shields.

Admittedly these are maybe a bit later but I loved looking at these:

www.instagram.com/reel/Da5dnYYIUz7/?igsh=eGs1enBldmptc3pu

www.instagram.com/reel/DbGVkpNIz-n/?igsh=NW04YnE3cGx4Yzli

nanna8

One of those drying racks that winds down from the ceiling. I haven’t got one but I still think of hers up in Yorkshire.

‘Pulley’we called them in the north

I never went to either grandmother's house, so nothing at all. We lived too far away.

I remember a rubbing board in the kitchen sink for washing clothes, especially shirt collars and cuffs, Grandad had shirts with detachable collars, held on with collar studs.

A creel ( clothes drying pulley thing) , which hung from the ceiling in front of the range.

A meat safe - a free standing cupboard with mesh sides, which stood on a marble shelf in the walk-in pantry.

A pin cushion shaped like six little elves in a ring, holding hands.

A pegged rug in a kaleidoscope of colours.

A round picture in the front room, about the size of a tea plate. It was a harbour scene, and depending on how you looked at it, either looked stormy or sunny. I thought it was magic!

Lots of memories here, thank you for the thread. xxx

A knight in armour holding fire irons and the lit coal fire of course.

A pendulum wall clock that chimed.

A banjo shaped barometer

A huge glazed bookcase. Grandma's cat used to climb up on top of it when visitors came and all you could see were her back legs hanging over.(The cat's legs not Grandma's)

Tin bath

The button jar ( thanks Getmystepsin for reminding me of this 😃)

Old, good quality wooden jigsaws that were brought out when I was little.

My grandads rocking chair.
If I had the room, that is something I would love to have in my own home.

Gingster

A mangle in the garden

This reminds me of my mother’s garden!

Nana's button jar. I played with it a lot when I was little and it really hurt to get rid of it when we downsized 5 years ago.

Not a household item but I've still got her wedding shoes from 1923. They are TINY!

A stone hot water bottled she used to warm the sheets before I got into bed

A tin bath, used when I was small in front of the fire.

Toasting fork for toast and crumpets in front of the fire.

Basic metal iron which had to be heated on the fire.

Mangle, kept in the kitchen and used on Monday wash day.

Mincer fixed onto the table.

Preserve jars, hers were full of peaches and apricots and jams [blackberry and apple was best].

Cut glass butter dish with lid. I have an identical one here.

Wind up clock, sizeable on a shelf, which struck on the hour for the 9 years I lived there.

My grandmother used to have a picture in her toilet which I always remembered in her house, which said “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. I always think of that and when moving to our present house, seven years ago, I had this replicated so now I have the same (modern) version in my downstairs loo.

A poker and coal scuttle

I never knew my maternal grandmother who died at a very early age. My paternal grandmother was so poor she had nothing anybody would want to keep

My memory of her was she would start cooking mince around 8.30 am for 12 pm lunch when that tasteless slop was served. Every time I cook a spag bol I think of those days.

Bleach.
My nan used to scrub her husband's shirt collars with it, then soak her knickers in it.

Calendargirl

Redhead56

Brass ornaments my DH insists on keeping so I leave him to get the polishing done. A bar of soap in a soap dish that needs cleaning horrible outdated stuff. I prefer to use liquid soap it's far more hygienic in my opinion.

But think of the plastic containers, all chucked away.

Crikey, I think of the cheap little bar of soap at primary school, in an outside wash house, that classes of little girls all used.

We all survived!

Worse than that, in the girls' toilets there was a shared cloth for us all to share to dab our whatsits. Eeugh!
Same at Nanna's house actually...

Witzend

I would still, have a glass dish that invariably appeared at teatime at my paternal GM’s house - full of orange jelly with mandarin oranges in.
Only dh broke it. 🤬
It was years ago and I still haven’t quite forgiven him.
That dish was the only thing I wanted from DM’s house when she died in the late 70s. Her teas were so memorable - besides the jelly, lots of things we never had at home, like Dairylea triangles and Wagon Wheels.

I had frozen peas for the first time at Nanna's house (my father's mother).
She also used to give me Hartley's Pineapple jam which we never had at home and she didn't water down the baked beans to make them go further!
I have her 1930s bureau, so useful.

Re the comments about mangles - we have a brick-built wash house at the bottom of our garden, which still has the original twin Belfast sinks, mangle and even the boiler which was used for the washing. I can still remember my mum and my two grannies using it all to wash the bedsheets, mainly, when I was very young.

The box of yellow and black Tabu talcum powder on her dressing table.
The big solid wooden lavatory seat (down which she had drowned unwanted kittens to my mother’s horror).
The piles of photography magazines belonging to my bachelor uncle who still lived with her, leading to my shock at seeing a nude with cello😁.

A gas water heater on the wall of my Nanna's kitchen above the sink. Her flat always smelt strongly of gas and it used to light with a big whoosh when the hot tap was turned on that frightened me no end 😄

Blimey. I really had to cast my mind back!

A few things. A tea strainer (only leaves back then.) Her big mantel clock that ticked loudly. Her lemony washing up liquid called Squezy. Her coal bunker and coal scuttle. She would go out to the bunker to get a bucket of coal for the fire.

Random stuff.