Inspired by this thread. I don’t mean things like one-of-a-kind art or some rare collection or something. I mean items you would consider an everyday household item that you use regularly, but for some reason nobody else seems to even have.
For me it’s paper cup dispensers by every sink in the house. I don’t see how you can get by without cups of some sort by the sink, but it seems like rarely do people have so much as a tumbler by the sink. What do you do if you want to brush your teeth? Do you have to bring a glass from the kitchen every time?
Let’s see, we have a Hammond organ and a Leslie rotating speaker. Too bad it’s not a Hammond B3 organ. I haven’t seen either of those in anybody else’s house. Oh, rereading the OP, I guess I have to say that we don’t use it every day. But we have them.
I’ve got a $2500 turntable that I use nearly every day. Does that count? At this time, I don’t know anyone personally who even has a Sears turntable, never mind a real turntable (apologies to FZ).
Outside of paper cups, I don’t think you’re going to find too many people to have uncommon items in their homes that they use every day. You may have to broaden the field to include uncommon items on the whole. Just a thought.
I have a typewriter. Olivetti Lettera, tiny little thing. It’s old, but was put away for a long time (replaced by various computers). When I got it out again my kid said, “Oh, it’s like a printer that only prints one letter at a time!”
Yeah, and when you want to put somebody’s name and address on an envelope it puts it exactly where you want it and does not crumple up and digest the envelope.
Do axes count? We have a “bustin’ maul” and a little hatchet by the fireplace. I reckon we might be some of the few people who actually USE their fireplace. I ‘specially like the "bustin’ maul" because it can double as a weapon. It looks like a 5-lb sledge hammer, but one end is pointed.
A baseball that Chet Lemon threw to me that Gary Gaetti hit over the fence in the Metrodome - it bounced back on the field, and Chet picked it up and threw it right into my glove.
We have a banana holder. It’s a wooden stand with a hook under its arm. You hang your banana bunch on the hook and it’s suspended off the countertop. Never have seen anyone else with one.
We have a cast-iron monkey that I found in an antique store. He has one arm up over his head, and one hanging down by his side and his hands are curved over and under so that he makes an “S”.
I’m not sure what he was made for, but he hangs from a cupboard knob in our house and holds bananas with his lower hand.
NO ONE has one of those.
I also have a 6’ long bamboo stick next to my couch that I poke things with.
Push-button light switches. The 100 year old house we just bought came with 3 of them in the front hall. Top button turns it on, bottom button turns it off. Totally cool, we’re thinking about making all our switches push button. We also have lousy 50’s style push button switches where it’s just one button in and out instead of two, those have got to go.
We also have an ancient thermostat that seems to, at one time, have had a clock in it for day and night temperature control. How cool is that? Programmable thermostats from forever ago.
The last thing we’ve got is corner moldings. On outside corners of walls, there is a round molding about 4ft high protecting it from damage. Never seen them anywhere else, but they are a neat touch.
Nope, I’ve got these – bathroom, my bedroom, kitchen, and dining room have been converted, all the others are still original. (One of the buttons in one room has a mother-of-pearl inset.)
And the switch to the basement light is one that you turn, like the wind-up key on an old toy.
I have a home-made bathtub. The previous one died, and the previous owner, who fancied himself a fixer-upper kind of guy, had to take it out in pieces, then figured out the only way he was going to get a new one into the bathroom was in pieces as well, so he cut plywood to make a long, skinny, tall bathtub, lined it with fiberglass, and painted it with epoxy boat paint.
I have a rattan halberd with a shoe-heel-rubber head. Also a Danish axe made of same.
It looks like a 5-lb sledge hammer, but one end is pointed.