What item have you been using on a daily basis for the longest amount of time?
Sometimes I will use something and realize I’ve owned it forever. It’s a nice change in our throwaway reality. I think my personal record is a bicycle multi-tool I got for one of my first bikes, ~25 years ago. Still have it, still use it. When it comes to electronic devices I have a Panasonic mini Hi-Fi from ~2005. Never felt like changing it.
The oldest thing I use almost daily must be my bread knife which I bought around 2006. It was pretty cheap, the coating of the handle is peeling off, it’s a bit too heavy and not balanced well, I would not buy it again. But it works.
The wireless keyboard I bought in circa 1996 as a keyboard/mouse combo is still going strong and I abuse that thing. Frankly I can’t believe it still works. I’ll be heartbroken when it finally fails. Funny thing is the mouse is long gone.
My coffee mug. I have it for more than 30 years and still use it regularly, even if not on a daily basis. I have obtained others through various means over the years but still hung onto it all this while. It doesn’t even have a chip or flaked off bits of it’s design.
I also have a hole puncher that my dad used as a young man. It’s probably close to 50 years or even more. It’s all rusted up now and doesn’t really see much use to be fair, but it still works for what it does.
I have my first generation Kindle Paperwhite that I still use daily, that is from 12. I don’t think that is the oldest item I have in my possession that I still uses, but it is one that I have right be side me at the moment.
My Kindle keyboard is still going strong also. I bought it 13 years ago. I’m positive it’s a dinosaur by today’s e-reader standards, but it holds my books and renders pages just fine. I don’t have a reason to upgrade.
I think technically it’s just my key ring. It’s loop is just from a charm thing my grandmother gave to me like 20 years ago. The charm was lost a long time ago. Kind of boring though.
My favorite pair of jeans and my favorite jacket are both about 15 years old at this point, heavily worn and patched together many times. Not daily use though obviously. My most comfortable pair of boots are about 10 years old which are closer to daily use.
One of the hard drives in my computer is more than 10 years old but I rarely read/write anything to it anymore. For a long time a lot of bits from it were very old, but I think everything older has been ship of theseus’d now. My mother still uses my handy down 15+ year old MX518 mouse daily though.
I love it. Other multi-tools feel so clunky after after using it for so long. It just handles so well. It doesn’t have as many tools as a lot of the other ones but it has the ones I actually use the most.
Do you do much to maintain it? I always find that the Micra will loosen after a year or so and end up replacing it rather than hammering the rivet of the scissors to tighten it (especially since the blades get damaged and worn too).
All I’ve ever had to do is sharpen it. It was pretty tight when I first got it but it loosened up after a couple weeks. The joints on the Skeletool are also star bits rather than rivets so I could adjust it if need be.
I am currently wearing a pair of shorts that I bought sometime in the late '80s. The top blanket currently on my bed was made by my grandmother in the '70s. The clock right in front of me was made during WW2, but I’ve only had it for a couple of decades. I guess I just don’t throw shit away
Edit: now that I think of it, my bed is probably from the '30s or '40s.
I have a Parker Pen I bought with my first paycheck in 2011. I’ve replaced the ink cartridge several times, but the pen is still going strong. I use it everyday at work, and it got me through High school and College.
Sennheiser headphones that I bought for about $20 about 10 years ago. The cable is indestructible. I once had to resolder it to the speakers because it my cat pulled it out, but the cable itself has endured all kinds of abuse without breaking. And the sound is fantastic.
I have a Stanley Record no.5 plane given to me by my dad about thirty years ago. He inherited it from a relative when he was around the same age. It could be a hundred years old at this point. I’ve got a pre-war Wadkin bandsaw, must be close to a century.
I still have my first ever mountain bike from the early 90s, can’t kill that thing either. It is a high quality machine but looks incredibly shabby now. Perfect for shopping, nobody wants to steal it.
I just changed my mountain bike because I was running out of easy trails around me and needed something a bit better. Funny thing is I still use the shoes I bought with the old bike. They are about to fall apart but for now they outlived my bike.
A well maintained bike has incredible durability. I don’t use this one off road any more because I bought a suspended machine fifteen years ago but I can’t bear to part with my old friend. With a little imagination they can be modified for a new purpose. It’s a fun way for kids to learn basic skills.
A plastic wide-toothed comb I’ve had since I was a kid. I never liked the design and it’s slowly falling apart (one tine missing, outer layers peeling) but I want to use it until it’s no longer functional as it’ll end up in a landfill :/ after which I’m going to see about making or buying a wooden one
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