Ask Lemmy

My dining room table was originally owned by my great grandmother and was passed down through the family and transported almost 2000km to it's current location in our house.

I've got this little blue plastic cup I've had for almost 30 years. Use it for my toothbrush. Got it when I was a kid and it's the only toothbrush holder I've ever had since.

Physical item: LL Bean Laptop Bag. Was designed for laptops much bigger than the one I have now and it’s held up well… except for the buckles.

Digital: Rollercoaster Tycoon got it in a cereal box and I still play it today.

For me, the house I'm in was built in 1912 but it's still holding strong. My parents have me beat though, they got the original governor of south carolina's front doors which were from somewhere in the late 1700s

I put a little string of fake pearls on my daughter about every day, and they were mine and my sisters' when I was a toddler, so they're about 30. I don't know how they've survived so many toddlers cause they'd break with any real pulling. She loves them though and is very careful with them. She also uses tiny baby sized silverware from my mom's babyhood(early 70s) It's cute and funny to watch her use miniature stuff that's just her size

I think that's the oldest thing other than furniture (we use my great grandfather's bedroom suite)

The old, big chest we store stuff in under the stairs is from 1883

Probably my legs, or something 😜

Still using my microwave from my wedding. It's from 2009 and it's a Panasonic. Also my Kettle is from around that same time too and still chugging along, it no longer beeps though.

I use a nice handmade wooden desk every day. No idea how old it is but my mom bought it at an antique store in the 70's, so it could be 80+ years old. And it's still in fantastic shape!

Edit: I heard back from my mom and she said it's (supposedly) from the late nineteenth century, so it's way older than I thought!

I have several vintage film cameras I use pretty often, oldest are probably my Nikon F or Leica M3 from the late 50s.

TI-83 plus

I have a Grundig radio my grandparents bought in the fifties. It's completely restored and I had the aux changed to a mini jack, so I can play stuff on it over Bluetooth.

In terms of actual daily use the oldest thing that I can actually date would be the table my computer sits on - that's been in the family since at least the 60s (when one of my uncles scratched his name into the drawer). It's just a basic solid wood desk, still holding up fine and unless abused will continue doing so for quite some time yet.

Aside from that some of my dinner plates are over 30, the motorbike I usually commute on is a '97 model, and the butter knives I like are not dated but I believe could be anywhere from early 1900s onwards (faux bone handles, made in England with various Sheffield makers marks).

I do have a few tools, cameras, and telescopes around which are also reasonably old but they aren't daily use items.

A Mackie mixer and two nearfield speakers I bought 25 years ago still see hours-daily usage. When the fancy Kenwood tuner died 2-3 years later, I replaced it with a Boss 50w/chan 12vdc transistor amp that still never even gets warm.

Speaking of Casios, I have an F-105 [1572] 'Illuminator' that's 20 years old and still using the same battery. It gains about 1 minute per year.

I wet shave. Ordered a vintage Gillette Fat Boy from the 70s. Definitely my oldest personal item. I've had it only about 10 years though.

A great-grandparent's dresser.

I have a teeny tiny screwgate carabina from about 1997 that I use as a key ring.

Probably my razor, shaving brush and soap mug. Bought them around 2012.

The soapmug is an Old Spice mug I got second hand off ebay. Not sure when it was made. 80's maybe. The others were bought new.

My teapot probably from the 1940's

Oldest thing I use frequently may be a 100~ year old ring.

My car and also my scooter are from 2009. I use them (for commute) alternately depending on which season it is and if it's raining or not.

Until the oil pump shaft broke: a 1965 Holder AG3 European vineyard tractor. Centre articulating, 35+ Hp diesel, close to 2 metric tons, and a third the size of a VW Beetle. We used it extensively on our orchards for a good four decades, or just shy of that.

Sucker was stupidly strong for its size, and could out-pull most tractors twice its physical size. Last I was using it for was some pretty extreme landscaping in the front yard. Another story, because it takes some explaining, but yeah.

So apparently the oil pump shaft broke late 2023, and we thought it was just overheating. Nope. Plus, the mechanic also found a rather severe hydraulic leak into the oil system, which was about the only thing that kept the engine from totally seizing.

Unfortunately, we are about three decades too late for most of the required parts. The engine place does a lot of remanufacturing and machining, so I did ask them for their “fuck off” price (gotta have a benchmark in that regard). But they did strongly suggest a Kubota engine as a replacement, primarily because the original oil pump required some pretty unusual maintenance to avoid breaking like it did. Whoops. No-one in my family realized that, least of all my father who had bought the tractor in the 80s.

Two things come to mind.

My recently acquired Technics hifi system from the early 2000s from which I listen to the radio, my music tapes and my CDs.

And my old Telefunken HDTV from 2006. It's remote doesn't work anymore but that's okay.

My mom bought me a little Leatherman squirt on my birthday in 2010 and I've been carrying it ever since. 15 years on it's still my most consistent EDC Carry.

Hmm, probably cookware from the 1960's. Furniture too, if that counts. It's possible something in the kitchen is actually a generation older, although I'm not sure.

If you include decorations as opposed to just tools it goes back almost arbitrarily (I have 19th century heirlooms, pre-settlement arrowheads and Cambrian period fossils), but I think the spirit of the question is more about things finding a totally pragmatic application.

Edit: I also have a touch-sensitive lamp of a similar age to the cookware. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I'm guessing the entire exterior is one big capacitor, and it must have a very early transistor inside to switch it. It's not quite used daily, but it's sure interesting.

I bought a 1200w power supply in 2013 that is still going strong. Daily driver I've moved from case to case as I have upgraded over the years.

Probably the silverware that I grew up with.

Until last year I used a ski coat from 1940 as my winter coat

Not exactly daily but the shovel I use to clean out my grill ashes was my grandfather's, hand forged and used for branding iron fires, gotta be 100 years old. Then a phonograph from 1960.