Thisrecent thread got me thinking about something along the same lines – things that I thought that I could take for granted as done pretty much universally, but which, in my own recent experience at least, seem to have become a lot less common. In particular:
Keeping a bowl of sugar. I like a bit of sugar in my cereal, my tea, my coffee. But I am surprised at how many of our family and friends have to go rummaging around the pantry (and in some cases, run out to the store) to find me some sugar. And what they come up with, more often than not, is a dusty and crusty old sack that’s been in the pantry for a couple of years by the looks like it. And I am not insisting on sugar; they don’t have any kind of sweetener handy. OK, I might be able to understand a family not taking sugar in their cereal and beverages, but they don’t use it for cooking either? This is about one-third of my acquaintances.
Closing toilet lids after you have finished. I think I may have started a thread about this a while ago. I close the toilet lid after I have finished my business, every single time without exception. I won’t go go into the courtesy aspect of this, just the practical side: if you weren’t meant to cover the loo, then why have a lid at all? In any case, 99.9% of visitors to our place – male, female, young, old, Asian, Caucasion, African, etc – leave the damn lid up. And I see the same thing at their places too. It boggles my mind. And before you ask, our toilets, and our bathrooms in general, are spotlessly clean.
Having a microwave. I never even noticed this until we had young kids, but I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer count on someone having a microwave that I can use to heat up a baby bottle or a bit of baby food. I figure the next time I find myself in front of a friend’s stove heating a bottle in a hot water bath on one burner and some pureed baby food in a pan on another, I might as well ask my hosts if I can whip them up a bit of dinner while I am at it…
What about you? What are things that you thought were universal practices but increasingly seem not to be?
When my parents were young, it was nearly universal to keep ashtrays at home for visitors to use when smoking. This was the case even if the homeowners didn’t smoke themselves. Nobody I know does this nowadays unless they smoke themselves. I’ve certainly never had ashtrays available for anyone, and if they want to smoke they can go outside.
I assume by “universal”, you don’t even mean the whole world. I assume you mean at least “only within my country” and maybe even as far as “middle class families.” We could spend a lot of time talking about the differences in daily practices between homeless people and the 1%.
Using toilet paper. I’ve read there are Asians who think Westerners are disgusting for wiping with TP instead of washing after they take a dump.
Also, most Europeans (and I imagine many other groups as well) take their shoes off when they come indoors. They’re usually appalled to see Americans leaving their shoes on and ruining their floors.
Shrug What can I say? Nobody in my family puts sugar in their coffee or cereal. My wife doesn’t do much baking, so why would we need to keep sugar around? I think we have a few packets of Nutrasweet that we swiped from a restaurant in a drawer somewhere, in case you come over.
I have to say I would be surprised to find that someone didn’t have a microwave, unless they were very, very poor or something.
We lived for decades with no microwave. Until 1996 when my son was moving out and left us his. Now we cannot live without it. If you don’t use sugar at all, then why bother with a sugar bowl? You don’t build your life around visitors. My wife does use sugar, we sometimes bake sweets, and I like to put a half tsp of sugar in with the yeast when I am making a bread. And since we are empty nesters, we each have our own bathroom and I always leave the lid up. I cannot see a single reason why not and if you don’t like, you are welcome not to visit me. But I do leave the toilet the way I found it when visiting others.
And yes, I do take my shoes off at home or visiting some else’s home. I always did, for comfort. But my MIL, who was raised in Louisville, took umbrage when I did it in her house. I think shoelessness was considered infra dig in the south.
If you came over I could find you sugar, but it would require digging into the cabinets. I recently had a visit with someone who had a bowl of sugar open on the kitchen table all the time for easy access. I was surprised.
This day and age people try to eat healthy. I can’t imagine deliberately adding sugar to my food with such regularity that I needed an open bowl of it sitting around.
I’m 100% with you on this one. I can maybe understand not putting it down in your own house. But in my house, where it’s always down I find it rude to not leave it the way you found it. Plus as Cecil has pointed out if you are flushing the toilet without the lid down you are doing it wrong. Google the “aerosol effect”.
Who doesn’t own a microwave?
Here’s a new one: Locking your doors. I lock my doors all the time. It just seems like the prudent thing to do. However, I’m way in the minority. Real estate agents tell me that it’s very common for people selling a house not even to have a single key to give to the buyers. Seems crazy to me, but I guess they just don’t ever lock their doors.
I don’t smoke, but I keep an ashtray on the back deck for my visitors that do. I don’t want cigarette butts on my lawn.
My microwave died this summer. I have a very small kitchen. I haven’t missed having it, but I have loved the available counter space. I probably won’t replace it.
Living in Canada, shoes come off when you come in the house in the winter. The rest of the year, I don’t care so much as I don’t have carpeting. I do remove my shoes when visiting others. FTR I don’t wear shoes at home. I love going barefoot.
I lock my doors when I am home. It’s one less thing I have to worry about. That being said, I have left them open while I went to work so that tradespeople could get in. They locked up when they left, as requested.
I have a sugar bowl in the cupboard and sugar cubes (I just haven’t figured out how to store them - special bowl?) in a box in the pantry. I also keep cream on hand. I drink my coffee black, no sugar. People drop by for coffee. I host book club. I bake. Sugar is a staple in this house.
Toilet lid down, always. Aerosol effect and all that, but I also have a cat. I don’t want her drinking out of the toilet, or worse, falling in.
I don’t have a landline or a television. I know people think that’s weird.
We moved into our new place five years ago; counter space is limited and we left our old microwave behind. Haven’t really missed it. Jiffy Pop still makes the stovetop popcorn.
There might be some white and brown sugar in the cabinet for various baking purposes, but it’s not something we use every day.
The 5-pound bag of sugar that I bought 8 years ago has become one huge chunk. When I need some i have to hack away at it with a screwdriver.
An acquaintance of mine recently claimed to not have a ruler in his house. Between the rulers I use for work, yard sticks, tape measures, etc., I probably have 20 rulers in the house.
And there are people who don’t own a pair of scissors. What’s with that?
And I know one couple who don’t have a microwave. They are both chefs, and don’t like the way microwaved food tastes.
I am always a bit surprised when someone doesn’t have sugar, too. It seems like a basic staple to me. On the other hand, I didn’t keep milk in my house for years. I didn’t drink it often and even small cartons went bad before I used it. Interestingly enough, I go through at least a half gallon a week now.
I don’t buy frozen food. Ever. I have a freezer, and it’s empty. (A couple of bars of “blue ice” for sore muscles.)
In the last apartment I lived in, I had the manager take out the stove/oven. I put up bookshelves in its place. (Where I’m living now, the stove is pretty much fixed in place and can’t be removed.) What can I say? I don’t cook.
I drink a cup or two of tea a day, and always have honey or sugar in it. I keep the sugar in a big five-pound bag in the cupboard, because it works just fine. When I need sugar for my tea, I get out the bag, reach in with a teaspoon, and scoop some out.
Trinopus, I’m amazed that your landlord agreed to taking out the oven. Even if you don’t cook (what, literally never? You eat out every single meal?), most folks do, and it’d be almost impossible to rent out that apartment to the next tenant unless he takes out your bookshelves and replaces the oven.
I assumed everyone flushed poop-encrusted toilet paper down the toilet. Apparently in my wife’s family/culture, they throw it in the garbage. Now I’m assuming this arose from growing up in places with iffy plumbling where one errant wad of shitpaper can turn the whole thing into one big poogeyser.
I don’t know how it came up, but I was pretty grossed out when I first found out. She was kind of offended at my reaction, since to them, its as ‘normal’ as us gringos flushing paper down the toilet. Plus, she pointed out there’s plenty of other stuff we’re not supposed to flush down the toilet (condoms, tampons, q-tips, etc). She had me there.
When we moved in together, we got one of those little garbage cans with a lid for the bathroom. I try to pretend not to have any idea what gets deposited in there at parties.
