Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Durability

After 10 years, my ironing board just bit the dust. Technically, the board is still OK, but the legs no longer are able to slide up and down, pretty much rendering it useless to me - though I'm sure someone will happily carry it away from my garbage area within half a day.

I've recently noticed that after almost 10 years of marriage, many of the daily household items we purchased or received around our wedding are starting to show wear, from pots to linens. A decade of use for those items used often is pretty good, but I can't help but think about the old wooden ironing board in my grandfather's basement. I have no idea how old this ironing board - or the electric iron that sits on it - are. At least 25 years, since I can remember my grandma using it to iron on name labels before I went to my first summer camp. I suspect the ironing board is probably closer to 50 or 60. The fact mine only lasted for 10 doesn't really mean much, in comparison.

And yet, some little things around the house have managed to last longer than expected. The best example is the small plastic blue tub Georgetown Hospital gave us as part of our "welcome baby" kit to help bathe newborn William. To date, that article remains the best utensil I've used to rinse shampoo from hair, while simultaneously serving as a bath toy extrodinaire. Probably a $2 piece of plastic from China, but definitely something I'll be packing to bring to the US for baby #3. 

2 comments:

Elaine said...

I finally got rid of the iron in the basement. Too tempermental, missing knobs and the electrical tape on the cord ......Since there were at least two other irons in the house, I felt it could go. Wooden ironing board still there :)
It is at least 50 years old since it is the only board I remember.

Beth said...

I bet Georgetown will give you another tub with Baby #3 :)