As i was making supper, going through the utensils i needed, i started thinking. When i would have moved out, i would need some things like this sized pot, oh and this pan…not to forget this or that…etc
And i realized that a few of the items i have been using for a lot of years (good condition mind you) and i feel like they’re mine…although in reality they belong to my parents.
What i’m wondering is how many of you fellow Dopers, when have moved out for the first time…did you perchance take some items from your parents’ house (like kitchen utensils or furniture), or you had made up your mind to have gotten absolutely everything on your own…down to a new bed?
My parents moved out of my childhood home into a condo during my college years so they took care of getting rid of all my furniture and any other items I didn’t claim. Their stuff belonged to them so I wouldn’t have considered taking any of it and they didn’t offer at the time since I didn’t have my own place.
When I got my first apartment I outfitted it from the thrift store and through donations to the nonprofit I worked for. My parents did give me a housewarming gift of a few new saucepans though.
They recently downsized again and I claimed some of the items they were going to get rid of, but not because I felt any ownership over them.
My grandmother was very excited about helping me start a household when I moved out. She gave me some kitchen stuff, all hand-me-downs, that I still use. The piece I treasure the most is a perfectly seasoned cast iron frying pan. She couldn’t use it anymore because it was too heavy for her to lift while full. You can’t buy cast iron seasoned like that.
I also have quite a few of her dishes and linens, but that’s more a passing down of heirlooms sort of thing. Cast iron isn’t a typical heirloom. It should be.
For the most part I bought new stuff, but there are some curios.
Some enamel cookware (baking tins and such) that have been handed down twice. From my (deceased) gran to my mum, from my mum to me. These things have been earning a living for 50 or 60 years.
A mole wrench and assorted other tools from my paternal grandfather (also deceased) I really don’t remember how I got hold of those.
Oh, I took lots of old stuff my folks weren’t using, I don’t think I bought a whole lot. Small copper pots that were too small to be useful to my large family, random utensils, the list goes on.
In fact, I am now 30, with my own family and home, and in my kitchen drawers it is possible to find:
a cheese grater that belonged to my maternal grandmother (says pat. pend. on it!)
muffin and bread tins dating from my childhood, also a biscuit-cutter
a cookie tray or two of equal age
my aunt’s MIL’s blender and potato masher
small casserole dishes
My daughter sleeps on the bed I used in high school, and I have at least one bookcase that started life in my parents’ house. And of course, all our major baby furniture is hand-me-downs.
My first apartment was furnished with:
-Single bed that was from my college roomate’s grandmother’s apartment (yes, after she died).
-Dresser that was a U-Assemble-It hand-me-down from my mom’s closet.
-“Comfy” chair from my bedroom growing up - that was originally from my grandparents’ house (i.e. older than me).
-Coffee table from my mom’s basement that became, with a few old cushions, my “japanese dining room”
-Stereo from high school.
-Alarm clock from 1st grade.
-An old (partial) set of dishes and flatware from my mom.
I did buy a wok and a nice set of quality cookware that I still use today (20 years on).
I bought a futon/sofa after a few months - arrived the day before my first dinner party (yes, sitting at the Japanese dinner table).
About a year later I bought my first TV: 14" B&W - no remote, no cable.
I had a good job, having graduated as an electrical engineer. I just had no money for “start-up costs” and refused to go into debt.
Many of these items were later passed on to other friends who were starting out or starting over for one reason or another. Or I still have them!
Never felt deprived, just that I was “making my way” and proud of myself for it.
Somedays I yearn for the days when I could pack everythign I owned into a station wagon.
Yup. When my great aunt (who was like a grandmother to me) died and we cleaned out her house, I think the thing I was most excited about getting was her cast iron “plettar” (swedish pancake) pan, though mostly because it reminded me of her, and fond memories of breakfasts together.
Why limit it to “moved out for the first time?” I’ve been away from home for 29 years, and I still raid my parents house for stuff. Since my Dad is getting up there in years, he let me steal Grand-Dads tap-and-die set. If I look longingly enough, maybe I’ll get the table saw too!
My parents are terrible packrats, although they are getting somewhat better. I’m really nervous about what my mom, in particular, has squirreled away from the dark recesses of my childhood.
When my dad’s mother died, he and my brother filled a truck with, essentially, the entire contents of her small house in Detroit and drove it out to San Diego. When I got married we took quite a few of her time-tested cooking ustensils, etc. I’m still using her Sunbeam stand mixer that must date from the 30s or 40s. I also have a couple of nice cast iron pans and some baking pans and so forth. We also her toaster, which probably dated from about the same period. We still would be if I hadn’t managed to drop it.
I took a job away from my husband for a year, while he was finishing grad school. I drove from Oakland to Ohio with basically just my clothes and my computer and rented a furnished studio apartment on my own. It was really interesting walking around the local KMart and considering what was going to be really essential to get by in a reasonably civilized way. Surprising little, really.
I didn’t take anything when I left home - mostly because I enlisted in the Navy and I didn’t need anything right off.
My daughter, however, is getting ready to move into her first apartment in a few months and she’s been letting me know what she wants. And for the most part, it’s no big deal. I’ve accumulated multiples of stuff over the years, so giving her duplicates is no biggie. I did turn down her request for a particular saucepan that I’m rather fond of, but I’ve offered her lots of other things, including the bread machine.
It’s easy since I just have the one kid and I’m downsizing anyway. I’m glad to send her on her way with stuff I know she needs and she’ll use. And it gives me an excuse to someday replace it all with new stuff!
As the Mercotan family had to combine two fully-stocked kitchens into one not too long ago, we were left with lots of extras. (We have what, four ice cream scoops?) I got a new microwave, since the old Radiation Kings were a bit too big to be reasonable in an apartment, but my toaster oven, my food processor, almost all of my pots and pans and all of my silverware, plates, cups, and glasses were taken from home. Though for some reason they didn’t give me spatulas… Apparently there’s a set of china that will become mine once I stop letting plates stay dirty for long enough that they become sentient. I’m not optimistic.
Well, I took a slightly different approach to it than most people: I stayed home and waited for my parents to leave Seriously, when hubby and I found that we were going to be parents (we weren’t married yet), we wanted to get a place together, but my Mom said “Why don’t you both live here in the basement (apartment) and save money for a down-payment on a house?” Well, that sounded good, but when our baby was only 3 months old, my Mom was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The rest of my sisters, all older than me, were all moved away with families of their own, and I had some home-nursing experience, so I quit my job to take care of my Mom and my daughter and the house. When Mom died, she had arranged for hubby and I (married 3 months before she died) to buy the house at below market value. Shortly thereafter, Dad moved to Florida, so that took care of him. Eventually, we sold the house so we could move to a smaller town, but we pretty much took everything with us! In fact, even though she’s been dead 15 years, I just got rid of her car about 4 years ago. It was an LTD Station Wagon. . .the perfect MomMobile! I’ve been working on getting a lot of the clutter out of our house, but I still have some of her stuff, especially a couple of nice pieces of furniture.
“I’m throwing this out, do you want it?” is like a red rag to a bull to me. Yes! I want it! Even if I can’t think of anywhere to put it.
My apartment belongings are about 50% me, 50% friends and family. I regularly remove things from my parents’ house, from major items of furniture to tupperware. Everything evokes memories, whether it is of the person who gave it to me, the mental image I have of seeing something somewhere else, or my own feeling of pleasure when choosing and buying it.
I have NO idea where my icecream scoop came from, though, especially as I rarely eat icecream, and have never scooped it in my life.
I not only removed multiple items from my parents’ house when I moved, I got stuff from my grandparents, aunts and uncles, as well as various friends and acquaintances (who had probably gotten the stuff in question from parents, Goodwill, or maybe the curb or dumpster.) Years later, I still continue to make periodic raids on the holiday decorations, although now I only carry off stuff that’s always been mine.
Right now I’m sitting in a chair that was a left-over from my parents’ dining room–I’m not sure where they got these particular chairs, but I do recall they were handmedowns of some type. This room also contains the bed and a picture from my room at home, the mirror from Mom and Dad’s upstairs bathroom, and a dog that had been hanging around in their yard. Dr.J’s den features a big oriental rug that’s left over from my uncle’s first marriage (his divorce was final in 1988) that had been lurking at my grandmother’s house. We eat off dishes that a friend of Mom’s was sick of looking at. We gave away a lot of other hand-me-down stuff when we moved in together (a girl I worked with was getting her first apartment and needed pretty much everything, so it worked out well).
Like CrazyCatLady, many relatives contributed to my “leaving the nest” haul. Almost all of our furniture is hand-me-downs, and for a long time, much of our kitchen stuff was as well. Left Hand of Dorkness and I have recently had to tell folks to please stop giving us kitchen stuff.
It seems pretty traditional to me. You start out young adulthood with your grandma’s old paisley sofa, gradually accumulate newer/better stuff as you age, and by the time your young’uns are ready to strike out on their own, you have plenty of well-used hand-me-downs for them. It’s part of the circle of life.
We inherited a cat from Mr. Lissar’s brother. Also a lot of things from a friend’s grandmother’s house- plates, candlesticks, a nice set of mixing bowls that I use every time I bake.
Eventually my parents are going to move into a condo or a retirement home. When they do, my Dad’s tool collection will have to be drastically reduced. My Dad was a watch repairman who likes to buy tools for etching, wirework, woodworking, and a lot of things I probably don’t understand. He’s a total packrat, and buys really high-quality stuff.
My parents had 2 microwaves, the offered the older one that barley worked. I took that one, used it for a while then put it in my car, drove to their house and told them that this one will not due, and just took theirs. This is the only thing I realld did this with and is pretty funny looking back.
I’ve got tons of hand-me-downs. I lived in the dorms in college, so I didn’t need much then. And when I moved into my first apartment, my roomie was already living there and had a bunch of his mom’s old stuff, but I did get to take my childhood bedroom furniture (bed, dresser, nighttables, storage chest, desk). And Mom gave me some random kitchen stuff; for years I used my grandmother’s old set of orange-and-brown dishes, which I hated (the only item of hers I’ve ever hated; normally she is very artistic and has great taste). I eventually replaced some of the items and gave away some (like the childhood twin bed), but some of them are beautiful and I still use them on a daily basis - my grandparents were antique dealers before their retirement.
