'Desperate Housekeeping'

Alfietinker

This is a dolly. (York museum called it a posser) Lakeland used to sell them but don't anymore so I got mine from ebay for £3. Loads on there at the moment.

I just use it to pummel the washing so I don't get wrinkly hands (and freezing hands when rinsing). I think it's meant to work by suction (moving it up and down creates suction) but how effective it is I don't know. Works for me though, and got the granny seal of approval

finlay

Yes it is a posser, and is effective. I had one when I was a poor student and used it for smalls and woolies. It has lain in the cupboard for many a year now but I am reluctant to get rid in case I need it for anything that needs handwashing. It is also great for dyeing.

MATH

Alfietinker wrote:

This is a dolly. (York museum called it a posser) Lakeland used to sell them but don't anymore so I got mine from ebay for £3. Loads on there at the moment.

I just use it to pummel the washing so I don't get wrinkly hands (and freezing hands when rinsing). I think it's meant to work by suction (moving it up and down creates suction) but how effective it is I don't know. Works for me though, and got the granny seal of approval

This is not a dolly in the East Mids it is a Poncher. A dolly in these ere parts has five spindles coming off the stale with little wooden legs off in place of the metal cap thingy. A bit like a wooden spider if you know what I mean.

MATH

THIRZAH wrote:

We had almost everything delivered. The baker came three times a week, the butcher delivered all our meat and the weekly grocery order came in a cardboard box with the packet of soap powder wrapped in newspaper.

So did we right up until the mid 70's we had a Bread man, Butcher boy, Fish man, Egg man, Milk man, Pop man, Coal man, Newspaper boy. Anything they didn't deliver was written on a list and dropped into the local shop by my Mother on the way to the hairdresser each week and would be delivered the next morning.

moggins

I'm just thankful I have a cellar to keep my jam jars in as they breed all by themselves

Contains_Mild_Peril

MATH wrote:

So did we right up until the mid 70's we had a Bread man, Butcher boy, Fish man, Egg man, Milk man, Pop man, Coal man, Newspaper boy. Anything they didn't deliver was written on a list and dropped into the local shop by my Mother on the way to the hairdresser each week and would be delivered the next morning.

I had a coal fire with coal delivered every week until about 2002! The poor coalman had to carry it up 3 flights of stairs. I wouldn't have milk delivered to my house though; some of the kids round here would steal it or just pour it all over the place. They're like that. There's still a "pop man" round our parts, there are paper boys/girls, and we used to have sweetie girl. Math, your family must have been posh if your mum went to the hairdresser every week!

wayne

all these people collecting jam jars..there,ll be a shortage before long.lol.when i was a nipper everything was delivered to the house and if mum run out of anything i,de go to the nearest shop to get it and put it on the slate till payday.lol.was even going to off licience aged 14 to get my taid his whiskey when he ran out.he used to give me 5p for going,it cost 15p to get into youth club though.ha ha ha ha.

[Deleted User]

wayne wrote:

all these people collecting jam jars..there,ll be a shortage before long.lol.when i was a nipper everything was delivered to the house and if mum run out of anything i,de go to the nearest shop to get it and put it on the slate till payday.lol.was even going to off licience aged 14 to get my taid his whiskey when he ran out.he used to give me 5p for going,it cost 15p to get into youth club though.ha ha ha ha.

When I was a small child I lived in Blackheath on the outskirts of Lewisham in London. Both my brothers and I collected jam jars. But they had to be Robertsons Jam, and when ever my brothers soap-box trolley was full, we would trundle them to the Robertsons Jam Factory just outside Catford .It was a walk of about three miles.But well worth it as the yardman used to give us 1d each for the jars. A six-mile round trip with the empty jam-jars was nothing, if you could get about between 2/- and 3/- per load. About 10-15p in todays money. but a fortune to three scruffy kids in the late 1940s. We also collected empty lemonade bottles and took them back to the shop. We were paid 3d for lemonade bottles , and for some reason 4d for cider bottles .Old beer bottles were also a source of revenue. When you have very little money as we did any coppers earnt were a bonus. My elder brothers also used to go to Lewisham Market on a Saturday night, and collect old orange boxes and tomato boxes.Brought home on our John's trolley they would soon be chopped up and tied up in bundles of wood which were resold at 2d a bundle for kindling for the fire.Everyone had coal fires in those days so housewives had to buy wood to light them ,unless they had enterprising children like my brothers and I. I am now getting on a bit in years, and still save old jam-jars, and even have an old tin left from my youngest daughters last bottled milk (She is 36 now) and I keep all my odds and ends of screws and nails in it.
Why waste things if you can use them for something else.
I wonder how many of us OS'ers can think of the many uses we put things to that they were not intended for The posh word is re-cycling ,but I just call it 'saving a bit of cash'