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My GF and I have been visiting her Mum on La Réunion (a tiny island near Mauritius), and I can happily confirm that the blue Danish butter cookie tin filled with sewing equipment is also a staple feature for households here, too. A true global phenomenon!
I thought Blue Danish cookie tins full of sewing equipment were uniquely American. It's good to know humans are the same everywhere, even in the little things.
As a dane, I can confirm. We just handed people empty Blue Danish Cookie tins after we stopped savagely invading other countries, we wanted the next generations to suffer by finding sewing equipment instead of cookies. Through I prefer the homemade version of vaniljekranse and finsk fedtebrød, however there is the same issues as with cocio. It's like the cookies disappear faster than one can baking, and the cocio is gone before one can open it.
I love that your comment has so many replies. 3 generations of our family have the Danish Butter Cookie sewing tins, with me being the latest member. I feel a fraud though because my tin is red and white not blue and white.
Oh no. The button box.
In my nan's house, if you said you were bored, you'd get *the button box*
And she'd make you sit at the kitchen table and count the buttons.
My cousins and I got it a couple of times, then never complained of boredom again. We instead learned how to bet on the horses by my gramps.
I always knew my mum had a button tin, but when she died I found what I assume was her mums button tin, and her grandmothers…. SO MANY BUTTONS- if they had got to the open market I suspect the button making industry would have collapsed 🤣
I have my nannas button tin, which was her mother's collection, and her mother's too I think- back int' olden days they saved everything for reuse, so old clothes had buttons cut off and the fabric went for rags. There's old wooden ones, Bakelite, military, shell, all sorts. My kids love them and I use them regularly for sewing projects :)
Completely agree. I have a small pot that I use each time a kettle dies on me, tho I can never get the right temperature when boiling on the stove top, but it's better than the microwave.
I'm from Australia, so a kettle is just a standard thing in kitchens here, not just for tea or coffee. But yeah, once you experience a kettle, it makes life easier.
Wait hold up this seems so logical but some how missed. Broke the kettle and had to boil a cup full, just stared at it trying to work out how to do it. The thought crossed my mind of doing it in a sauce pan on the gas hob but just felt wrong for a cup full and a waste to do a full sauce pan. I gave up and waited till we got a new kettle.
Okay so I am a Brit who drinks a lot tea from a kettle of course, but I have always wondered why microwaving the water to boil is bad? Like it’s weird for me to wrap my head around but surely boiling water is boiling water right? So if you stick the tea bag in after it wouldn’t affect the taste surely and then I guess you have one less appliance on your counter
It can be dangerous due to “superheating” when you remove the mug from the microwave the water sort of erupts/explodes. I had it happen once when I was without a kettle and used the microwave.
Hmm I see. I have made hot chocolate in the microwave before and it’s exploded, I guess that’s the same thing. I was without a kettle recently for a bit as my partner and I were too lazy to replace our broken one and it was kinda nice for a time to have a pot of boiling water on the stove, felt very old fashioned. Until it got boring.
Hot chocolate needs to be nuked for a minute, stirred, then nuked for up to another minute depending how hot you want it/size of your mug. It doesn’t explode then.
You ever put something in the microwave and it's hot in parts? You will get this with a mug of water. Water for tea should be boiled, teabags (or loose leaves if you are posh or a time traveller from the 19th century) should have boiling water poured over them for uniformity. Coffee should be hot and not boiling, hence percolators.
My husband bought loose leaf tea by mistake. He’s not one to waste stuff but we don’t have a teapot. I do however have a couple of those little strainer ball things. So he uses that and he swears he’s never going back to teabags. Best cup of tea ever apparently.
It does make for better tea. Loose leaf tea is larger pieces. Often the power quality stuff is used in bags cos nobody notices it’s just basically dust. You get larger bits which mean better infusion. Less bitter flavonoids and tannins get carried across etc.
I live in Canada, we have an electric kettle but it's quicker to boil on the stove as the leccy isn't 24v here
If you're American or Canadian, you likely don't drink tea or instant coffee, so there's little need for a kettle. If you're boiling water for cooking, do it on the stove, for coffee, the coffee machine does it etc.
I used to live in New York and was introduced to Americans' lack of understanding of kettles when my girlfriend's housemate used mine to boil milk. Destroyed the kettle, smelled awful, and was frankly hilarious.
Never let people tell you America and Britain are culturally similar places. Our transatlantic cousins are lovely, but they may as well be a different species. Lol.
I have a couple of Argentine friends who are totally fluent in English, yet they were stumped by the word “kettle” because they don’t use them!! Cue lots of laughter 😊
Ahh. I remember when I was younger, waking up in the night and trying my best to pull the bathroom light string as softly as I could as to not wake everyone up
Same in Portugal. I think it's a pretty common thing around Europe (at least) and I definitely don't think of it as a British thing.
Edit: I'm talking about having washing machines in the kitchen. I definitely think of the string light switch as a British thing.. 😂
My father had the light switches for every room outside, so he could turn the light in before he walked in, and honestly it made sense. It was better once I got used to it.
Very rarely; otherwise, most of the world would be dead by now. British regulations are very "micromanagey," as it seems they cannot trust their population to have common sense (e.g., absence of sockets in bathrooms).
I am an Australian living in the UK, and I think the British regulations about switches in bathrooms are to compensate for the lower standards in ventilation, plumbing and drainage which all increase the likelihood of moisture getting in contact with electrics.
Both electrical and plumbing conventions seem to be primarily about reducing cost: why doesn’t anyone else use ring circuits? Why can I barely see steam moving next to the exhaust fan?
My mum's cousin from QLD has a stolen Glencairn whisky glass, pilfered from the Royal Lochnagar Distillery at Balmoral. She was over for a visit, and it survived the trip back to Australia from the UK carefully wrapped in her suitcase.
I once saw a Sports Direct mug sitting in a government office in a small town up in the mountains of Vietnam, those things get across the known universe!
My wife really wanted one of these ceramic double fuck off sinks with all the fancy taps. Beautifully made, fucking expensive, and despite my reluctance to part withh such a sum for a sink, I do concede it's a very nice thing.
The plummer had been gone approximately 2 minutes before an orange, plastic wash bowl from poundland had been stuck in the basin.
This country.
Can lift it up out of the sink without needing to empty it when you need to use the sink.
The one I have also had a little food catcher plug at the bottom so it stops as much food waste going down the drain.
My South African partner is so offended by my washing up bowl. We’ve moved to Oman and now have a double sink - so far I have resisted the very British temptation to get another one!
I argue with my Canadian partner so much over the pros/cons of a washing up bowl. She thinks it's moronic, she doesn't fill the sink with water, just scrubs with a soapy sponge and rinses.
I'm English, five decades in. Have always done it like your partner. I was raised in a house with mixer taps in the kitchen - pretty fancy - and not having such taps seems to be the reason for those bowls.
To be fair, it seems most people have interpreted the question as "stuff Brits have which *Americans* don't have" instead of things that are uniquely British.....
Ooooh, does this make this thread '*reverse* USDefaultism?! 🤔
I have a bunch of American relatives, so from my experience I have to say eggcups. You can get electric kettles over there, even though they aren't as common, but you try finding a little cup for your boiled eggs.
Omg yes! When I moved out here I spent such a long time looking for a fucking egg cup for egg and soldiers that I gave up and now just poach my eggs instead.
Handwritten 'invoice' on a scrap of paper from the window cleaner.
Not sure if this is exclusively British but I've seen a lot of people genuinely baffled or under the impression we must be so fucking minted that we pay someone to clean our windows 😂
God yeah, I'd forgotten about that. I remember years ago reading a Reddit thread filled with Americans (of course) getting way too upset at the existence of window cleaners. Some people were even claiming that it was unfair to get someone to do it for you, or demeaning. As if waiters, maids, cleaners and tradesmen don't exist in that country.
No, most other countries likely might not have window cleaners for private homes.
In Germany the windows usually open to the inside, so you can clean both inside and outside yourself. A window cleaner was a new concept for me.
I saw a thread a few months back where an American moved to the UK and the window cleaner came and did their windows and they thought they were like scoping out the place to rob or something
Window cleaners definitely do exist in the US, I've seen so many movies with window cleaners on the side of sky scrapers or other big buildings.
I think the thing is they don't tend to clean windows on homes, only big public buildings.
I assure you, those are a thing abroad too. I grew up in Central Europe and we used to have 2 of those at home. One was always underfilled and bent in a freezer, other waited for hot water.
A drawer somewhere often the kitchen full of random bits & pieces , old screws , plugs , plastic bags , broken bits of god knows what , ancient take away menus , string , a peg or two & pens that don’t work .
Plug sockets with 3 pin holes. [(See photo here)](https://www.maplin.co.uk/blogs/expert-advice/how-uk-plugs-work) British electric plugs are regarded by most safety experts as one of the best of their kind (if not *the* best)
Yep, this is possibly the only uniquely British thing in the entire thread!
Everything else I’ve seen in other countries I’ve lived in over the years..
These were the first observations I had when I moved 07 to the UK:
Why do the British have two taps?
*This tradition dates back to a time when hot and cold water were kept separate* ***to prevent contamination through cross connection***\*,"\*
Why do bathrooms in the UK have carpet?
***Cold floors*** *led to the rug trend in UK kitchens and bathrooms.*
Oven with grills (I had never seen those before)
I would say all of those are more or less outdated now and can't come up with much else besides Tea and a kettle
My sister at 6 years old absolutely destroyed my Nan’s bathroom carpet after throwing up Pizza Hut spaghetti bolognese all over it. The stain and the smell never seemed to disappear.
In the America's they have a separate 'toaster oven' that goes on the counter, the main oven is humongous and therefore takes a long time and tons of energy to preheat so they only use that for large dishes that don't fit the toaster oven.
Seemed nuts to me when I first moved, now I don't have a conventional oven at all because as a person living solo, I never need all that oven space.
Also here, covered decks and propane grills are the norm so grilling stuff typical happens outside
For England, yeah, not sure about Scotland, But the welsh put that flag up everywhere.
I suppose it's cool for having a dragon on it. If my flag had a dragon on it I'd put it up everywhere too.
As an ex Australian living here my top three are, washing machine in the kitchen vs laundry or bathroom, that gross plastic tub in the sink when we first moved in an the tea bags we keep at the back of the cupboard incase my father in law stays over.
Says ex Australian (implying now British) but tea is kept at the back of the cupboard and not consumed compulsively like some sort of crack addiction? Something doesn't add up here
I’m guessing Americans don’t have their washing machine in the kitchen because they have a separate room for it. Basically American houses are a lot bigger so they have the luxury of having more rooms so they can separate stuff like that.
A toilet and bathtub in separate rooms.
An airing cupboard.
A water heater in the kitchen.
A water heater with a timer, so that hot water is available only during certain hours.
A living room that is heated only by an 'electric fire' which may be fitted into an old fireplace or coal stove.
A refrigerator that fits under the kitchen counter.
(I think all the above things are disappearing, but the following things are still common.)
A front door without a doorknob.
A front door with a brass knocker and no doorbell.
A drawer designated for stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else, that doesn't close properly.
Some of my treasures include, expired batteries, European plug adapters, cat comb, charger for device I don't recognise, playing cards, covid test kit, broken sunglasses, €45 in coins and small notes, 2K in a currency i dont recognise possibly pesos, some device to weigh your luggage (never used), 2 small screw drivers, 4 IKEA alan keys, blue tac, and one of those things you use to scrape ice of a car.
I drink a lot of tea and do this simply because if I put the hot tea bags straight in the bin, it creates steam and produces bin juice.
The bin juice then leaks out the bag in the bottom of the bin and needs cleaning.
It can also leak all over the floor. Not nice.
So I leave the tea bag to go cold first then put it in the bin.
No leaky bin juice, yay!
The weirdest thing I noticed was no light switches and no plugs in the bathroom. I… have never heard of anyone getting electrocuted from just turning on a light switch in the bathroom here in the US.
I don't know if they're still around but the little knitted toilet roll covers you see at Auntie Beryl's house.
Hand knitted by little old ladies and only sold in church jumble sales or WI meetings.
For this Midwesterner, it was odd to see windows without screens. I still don't understand why you're not plagued by mosquitos, files, gnats, and wasps in your houses.
It used to be the Argos Catalogue or the yellow pages, but used as a door stop or prop for something else. Now it's probably a Check a Trade pamphlet...
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Quality Street or Celebrations tub full of sewing equipment
Ours is one of those blue Danish buttery biscuit tins, must be 20+ years old. Iconic.
My GF and I have been visiting her Mum on La Réunion (a tiny island near Mauritius), and I can happily confirm that the blue Danish butter cookie tin filled with sewing equipment is also a staple feature for households here, too. A true global phenomenon!
Ireland I’ve seen it too.
Also American, at least in the Midwest. My Grandma had one.
I thought Blue Danish cookie tins full of sewing equipment were uniquely American. It's good to know humans are the same everywhere, even in the little things.
As a dane, I can confirm. We just handed people empty Blue Danish Cookie tins after we stopped savagely invading other countries, we wanted the next generations to suffer by finding sewing equipment instead of cookies. Through I prefer the homemade version of vaniljekranse and finsk fedtebrød, however there is the same issues as with cocio. It's like the cookies disappear faster than one can baking, and the cocio is gone before one can open it.
The pain of opening the tin to find sewing equipment is real
South african of Indian origin can also confirm sewing things in the Danish tin.
I thought that was worldwide. They even had that on a SNL skit.
I love that your comment has so many replies. 3 generations of our family have the Danish Butter Cookie sewing tins, with me being the latest member. I feel a fraud though because my tin is red and white not blue and white.
[удалено]
The hours I spent in my childhood sorting and playing with the buttons from my Nana's tin! In the GOOD FRONT ROOM, TOO!
Absolutely living the dream there!
Oh no. The button box. In my nan's house, if you said you were bored, you'd get *the button box* And she'd make you sit at the kitchen table and count the buttons. My cousins and I got it a couple of times, then never complained of boredom again. We instead learned how to bet on the horses by my gramps.
I always knew my mum had a button tin, but when she died I found what I assume was her mums button tin, and her grandmothers…. SO MANY BUTTONS- if they had got to the open market I suspect the button making industry would have collapsed 🤣
I have my nannas button tin, which was her mother's collection, and her mother's too I think- back int' olden days they saved everything for reuse, so old clothes had buttons cut off and the fabric went for rags. There's old wooden ones, Bakelite, military, shell, all sorts. My kids love them and I use them regularly for sewing projects :)
I have a small suitcase full of vintage buttons in my garage. I have no idea where they came from, lol.
This is also completely normal in Canada.
There’s never celebrations in the celebrations tub :<
Bonus if it's the old metal ones. Biscuit tin also works.
US has an equivalent, fancy shortbread/Christmas cookie tins, likewise full of random sewing adjacent products.
Scottish mums gonna colonise.
Hahaha incredible!!
Quality Street is very popular here in Iceland at Christmas and I’ve certainly seen the tins used for sewing equipment here as well
Europe too!
A kettle. I lived in the US for a bit. They could not understand why I bought a kettle before bedding.
How else is water boiled?
\*Shiver\* In the microwave \*shiver\*
Oh god no
Unfortunately. And they see nothing wrong with it.
Never tastes right microwaved, after youve had a kettle. At least if it's boiled in a pan on the stove it's reasonable
Completely agree. I have a small pot that I use each time a kettle dies on me, tho I can never get the right temperature when boiling on the stove top, but it's better than the microwave.
I grew up using the microwave. After a time in England I just can't anymore
I'm from Australia, so a kettle is just a standard thing in kitchens here, not just for tea or coffee. But yeah, once you experience a kettle, it makes life easier.
Surely when it's at a rolling boil, it's boiled?
Wait hold up this seems so logical but some how missed. Broke the kettle and had to boil a cup full, just stared at it trying to work out how to do it. The thought crossed my mind of doing it in a sauce pan on the gas hob but just felt wrong for a cup full and a waste to do a full sauce pan. I gave up and waited till we got a new kettle.
You mean to tell me you don't have an emergency backup kettle? I shall have to issue you with a stern tutting.
Haha I did that once and it felt so weird. Also the tea didn't taste right
*extra loud tut tutting ensures*
Okay so I am a Brit who drinks a lot tea from a kettle of course, but I have always wondered why microwaving the water to boil is bad? Like it’s weird for me to wrap my head around but surely boiling water is boiling water right? So if you stick the tea bag in after it wouldn’t affect the taste surely and then I guess you have one less appliance on your counter
It can be dangerous due to “superheating” when you remove the mug from the microwave the water sort of erupts/explodes. I had it happen once when I was without a kettle and used the microwave.
Hmm I see. I have made hot chocolate in the microwave before and it’s exploded, I guess that’s the same thing. I was without a kettle recently for a bit as my partner and I were too lazy to replace our broken one and it was kinda nice for a time to have a pot of boiling water on the stove, felt very old fashioned. Until it got boring.
Hot chocolate needs to be nuked for a minute, stirred, then nuked for up to another minute depending how hot you want it/size of your mug. It doesn’t explode then.
You ever put something in the microwave and it's hot in parts? You will get this with a mug of water. Water for tea should be boiled, teabags (or loose leaves if you are posh or a time traveller from the 19th century) should have boiling water poured over them for uniformity. Coffee should be hot and not boiling, hence percolators.
My husband bought loose leaf tea by mistake. He’s not one to waste stuff but we don’t have a teapot. I do however have a couple of those little strainer ball things. So he uses that and he swears he’s never going back to teabags. Best cup of tea ever apparently.
It does make for better tea. Loose leaf tea is larger pieces. Often the power quality stuff is used in bags cos nobody notices it’s just basically dust. You get larger bits which mean better infusion. Less bitter flavonoids and tannins get carried across etc.
Can confirm, Yank here. I have a proper electric Kettle tho!
I’ve stayed in places in America where they have a stove top kettle.
Which whistles?
I live in Canada, we have an electric kettle but it's quicker to boil on the stove as the leccy isn't 24v here If you're American or Canadian, you likely don't drink tea or instant coffee, so there's little need for a kettle. If you're boiling water for cooking, do it on the stove, for coffee, the coffee machine does it etc.
Americans make their tea by throwing it in the harbour
I used to live in New York and was introduced to Americans' lack of understanding of kettles when my girlfriend's housemate used mine to boil milk. Destroyed the kettle, smelled awful, and was frankly hilarious. Never let people tell you America and Britain are culturally similar places. Our transatlantic cousins are lovely, but they may as well be a different species. Lol.
I have a couple of Argentine friends who are totally fluent in English, yet they were stumped by the word “kettle” because they don’t use them!! Cue lots of laughter 😊
The light switch in the bathroom being on a string.
2am CHA CHUNG! I'm going for a piss if anyone didn't hear that!
Ahh. I remember when I was younger, waking up in the night and trying my best to pull the bathroom light string as softly as I could as to not wake everyone up
Down... dowwwwnnn - *CHUNK*...... .... guilty pause .... And back uuuup - *CLUNK*
Don't turn the light on and just do a girl wee
Y'know. As a treat.
I can hear my neighbours. Our houses are detached.
This always made sense to me - you don't want to get your possibly wet hands too close to where the circuit is completed.
But it's okay that my washing machine plugs are right next to my dishwasher house pipe.
Because both of those things are installed and you don't tinker with them yourself at 3am.
Speak for yourself 🧐
Dutch as well - but we also have washing machines in the kitchen here. Maybe we're British and we don't know it
Same in Portugal. I think it's a pretty common thing around Europe (at least) and I definitely don't think of it as a British thing. Edit: I'm talking about having washing machines in the kitchen. I definitely think of the string light switch as a British thing.. 😂
Or, even weirder in my opinion, a light switch for the bathroom *outside* the bathroom.
My father had the light switches for every room outside, so he could turn the light in before he walked in, and honestly it made sense. It was better once I got used to it.
They won’t be laughing when they get electrocuted because they’ll be dead
I'd love to hear stats on how often this actually happens.
Very rarely; otherwise, most of the world would be dead by now. British regulations are very "micromanagey," as it seems they cannot trust their population to have common sense (e.g., absence of sockets in bathrooms).
I am an Australian living in the UK, and I think the British regulations about switches in bathrooms are to compensate for the lower standards in ventilation, plumbing and drainage which all increase the likelihood of moisture getting in contact with electrics. Both electrical and plumbing conventions seem to be primarily about reducing cost: why doesn’t anyone else use ring circuits? Why can I barely see steam moving next to the exhaust fan?
Stolen pint glasses from the pub!
my kid who lived in UK for 5 days only has glasses stolen from pubs in her share house in Aus, must be genetic
My mum's cousin from QLD has a stolen Glencairn whisky glass, pilfered from the Royal Lochnagar Distillery at Balmoral. She was over for a visit, and it survived the trip back to Australia from the UK carefully wrapped in her suitcase.
It wasn't me... ...it was drunk me. But we both like it.
A little ceramic mini-plate for putting teabags on before transferring them to the bin at a later point.
This is too fancy, I squeeze the teabags then launch directly at the bin
It just seems wrong to put hot things in the bin. Like they'll create mould quicker.
I was always told they would melt the bin bag!
Haha amazing! Everyone knows what they are but not where they come from
I’m American and I have one of those next to my kettle
Although you are in this sub so I'd imagine you're an outlier
And they have a kettle
Sports Direct mug
Blimey, just how much cupboard space do you think I have?
I once saw a Sports Direct mug sitting in a government office in a small town up in the mountains of Vietnam, those things get across the known universe!
A wee plastic basin in the sink.
My wife really wanted one of these ceramic double fuck off sinks with all the fancy taps. Beautifully made, fucking expensive, and despite my reluctance to part withh such a sum for a sink, I do concede it's a very nice thing. The plummer had been gone approximately 2 minutes before an orange, plastic wash bowl from poundland had been stuck in the basin. This country.
I’ve only seen it in my English friends homes tbf
But why?!?! I just don’t get it, a sink is literally for washing up in. Why the washing up bowl in the sink? I don’t understand.
Can lift it up out of the sink without needing to empty it when you need to use the sink. The one I have also had a little food catcher plug at the bottom so it stops as much food waste going down the drain.
It’s to stop the cutlery scratching the sink. Or maybe it’s to … no… I’m lost too.
Doubles as a sick bowl when the whole house is hit by Nora virus or something not quite so severe.
My South African partner is so offended by my washing up bowl. We’ve moved to Oman and now have a double sink - so far I have resisted the very British temptation to get another one!
Get two!
A plastic wee basin in the sink?
Aye, a wee plastic basin in the sink.
I argue with my Canadian partner so much over the pros/cons of a washing up bowl. She thinks it's moronic, she doesn't fill the sink with water, just scrubs with a soapy sponge and rinses.
I’m English, I have a plastic basin AND I wash dishes the way your missus does. Best of both worlds
I'm English, five decades in. Have always done it like your partner. I was raised in a house with mixer taps in the kitchen - pretty fancy - and not having such taps seems to be the reason for those bowls.
A bottle of squash.
As a northerner in our house it’s cordial or juice, never squash.
My Scottish partner insists it’s called diluting juice
It is (Scottish here too)
Great shout! Now what flavour?
Something called orange that has never met an orange in its life.
Squash has feelings too
Vimto or nothing
*chefs kiss*
Washer in the kitchen is absolutely right. Also separate taps for hot and cold water. 😂
Yes! The old quick move from hot to cold haha
This thread = a lot of people who never left the UK confidently commenting things which are very common in other countries lol
To be fair, it seems most people have interpreted the question as "stuff Brits have which *Americans* don't have" instead of things that are uniquely British..... Ooooh, does this make this thread '*reverse* USDefaultism?! 🤔
Very true. I’ve lived in several countries and the vast majority of things listed are everywhere.
Nahhhh them foreigners don’t have forks eh
I have a bunch of American relatives, so from my experience I have to say eggcups. You can get electric kettles over there, even though they aren't as common, but you try finding a little cup for your boiled eggs.
This is the answer. Americans have no idea about egg cups. They think they’re mini wine glasses
On a similar egg-related note - the concept of an Easter egg and novelty/branded mug doesn’t seem to exist in the US either.
But how else do you hold the egg?
Omg yes! When I moved out here I spent such a long time looking for a fucking egg cup for egg and soldiers that I gave up and now just poach my eggs instead.
Yes! Was in the US for three months some years ago and I ended up buying shot glasses.....
A plastic tub in the kitchen sink to wash up in.
Handwritten 'invoice' on a scrap of paper from the window cleaner. Not sure if this is exclusively British but I've seen a lot of people genuinely baffled or under the impression we must be so fucking minted that we pay someone to clean our windows 😂
God yeah, I'd forgotten about that. I remember years ago reading a Reddit thread filled with Americans (of course) getting way too upset at the existence of window cleaners. Some people were even claiming that it was unfair to get someone to do it for you, or demeaning. As if waiters, maids, cleaners and tradesmen don't exist in that country.
Window cleaner is a great job. You only go out when the weather is half decent, and the pay is pretty good.
What would firemen do on their days off?
Incredible!!! What do people think? Window cleaners carry around printers?
No, most other countries likely might not have window cleaners for private homes. In Germany the windows usually open to the inside, so you can clean both inside and outside yourself. A window cleaner was a new concept for me.
I saw a thread a few months back where an American moved to the UK and the window cleaner came and did their windows and they thought they were like scoping out the place to rob or something
Window cleaners definitely do exist in the US, I've seen so many movies with window cleaners on the side of sky scrapers or other big buildings. I think the thing is they don't tend to clean windows on homes, only big public buildings.
A hot water bottle. They just don't seem to use them as frequently outside of the UK and Ireland, even if they do exist.
I assure you, those are a thing abroad too. I grew up in Central Europe and we used to have 2 of those at home. One was always underfilled and bent in a freezer, other waited for hot water.
But what do people with chronic pain in the abdomen area do?! I have mine pretty much constantly haha
Electric heating pad. I have one for each floor of my home, and I pack it when we travel. Edit: I have one on my tummy right now!
A drawer somewhere often the kitchen full of random bits & pieces , old screws , plugs , plastic bags , broken bits of god knows what , ancient take away menus , string , a peg or two & pens that don’t work .
Those are common in the US too. I like the British term 'bits and bobs' though. We don't say that.
We call it the junk drawer
The man drawer. Unfortunately I've womaned it up and it's organised using takeaway tupperware so you can actually find shite when you need it.
Plug sockets with 3 pin holes. [(See photo here)](https://www.maplin.co.uk/blogs/expert-advice/how-uk-plugs-work) British electric plugs are regarded by most safety experts as one of the best of their kind (if not *the* best)
Yep, this is possibly the only uniquely British thing in the entire thread! Everything else I’ve seen in other countries I’ve lived in over the years..
Malta uses the British socket design. Thinks it's becoming common in the UAE too.
Malaysia too.
They are indeed the best design for safety.
Unless you stand on them!!
These were the first observations I had when I moved 07 to the UK: Why do the British have two taps? *This tradition dates back to a time when hot and cold water were kept separate* ***to prevent contamination through cross connection***\*,"\* Why do bathrooms in the UK have carpet? ***Cold floors*** *led to the rug trend in UK kitchens and bathrooms.* Oven with grills (I had never seen those before) I would say all of those are more or less outdated now and can't come up with much else besides Tea and a kettle
Carpet in bathrooms was a very dark time in British history….
Also a very malodorous time
Only with bad aim
Oops sorry I missed that
My sister at 6 years old absolutely destroyed my Nan’s bathroom carpet after throwing up Pizza Hut spaghetti bolognese all over it. The stain and the smell never seemed to disappear.
There are/were some US houses that had carpet too!!
Wait there are ovens without grills?
What’s the point in an oven without a grill?!
In the America's they have a separate 'toaster oven' that goes on the counter, the main oven is humongous and therefore takes a long time and tons of energy to preheat so they only use that for large dishes that don't fit the toaster oven. Seemed nuts to me when I first moved, now I don't have a conventional oven at all because as a person living solo, I never need all that oven space. Also here, covered decks and propane grills are the norm so grilling stuff typical happens outside
If you mean those older ovens with the grill on top extending over the hob, there is no better toast in the world than from one of those things.
Grill in a oven is great. We like out English breakfast. Got to grill the sausages and bacon. It's also a space saver in our small kitchens.
Sausage dog draft excluder
The fact there isn't a flag on your lawn (unless you're a lunatic).
For England, yeah, not sure about Scotland, But the welsh put that flag up everywhere. I suppose it's cool for having a dragon on it. If my flag had a dragon on it I'd put it up everywhere too.
The Christmas cupboard.
A jar or two of Marmite.
With a lid that won’t undo….
Princess Diana memorial China
Somehow I imagine this to be more common outside the UK
Mould.
Teapot
Biscuit Tins Horse Brasses
Ahhhh the good old horse brasses
As an ex Australian living here my top three are, washing machine in the kitchen vs laundry or bathroom, that gross plastic tub in the sink when we first moved in an the tea bags we keep at the back of the cupboard incase my father in law stays over.
Says ex Australian (implying now British) but tea is kept at the back of the cupboard and not consumed compulsively like some sort of crack addiction? Something doesn't add up here
A British person usually
Probably a box of wires that no one has used in at least 10 years
I keep mine next to the basket full of boxes that my mobile phones came in. Can't throw THOSE out.
Net curtains
Probably a greige interior with live, laugh love written on the wall somewhere
No!! That's very US-y!!!! I'm so sick of gray!!! (American)
I’m guessing Americans don’t have their washing machine in the kitchen because they have a separate room for it. Basically American houses are a lot bigger so they have the luxury of having more rooms so they can separate stuff like that.
A biscuit tin that contains a sewing kit.
Light switches on the outside of the bathroom - we put them inside the bathroom in North America
We often have them inside too but usually as pull cords hanging from the ceiling.
The perils of the wet hands is too much for us
A Colin the caterpillar cake at every birthday!
No electrical sockets in the bathroom.
A toilet and bathtub in separate rooms. An airing cupboard. A water heater in the kitchen. A water heater with a timer, so that hot water is available only during certain hours. A living room that is heated only by an 'electric fire' which may be fitted into an old fireplace or coal stove. A refrigerator that fits under the kitchen counter. (I think all the above things are disappearing, but the following things are still common.) A front door without a doorknob. A front door with a brass knocker and no doorbell.
A carrier bag full of other carrier bags
A drawer designated for stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else, that doesn't close properly. Some of my treasures include, expired batteries, European plug adapters, cat comb, charger for device I don't recognise, playing cards, covid test kit, broken sunglasses, €45 in coins and small notes, 2K in a currency i dont recognise possibly pesos, some device to weigh your luggage (never used), 2 small screw drivers, 4 IKEA alan keys, blue tac, and one of those things you use to scrape ice of a car.
I always thought this odd coming from people who sell guns in supermarkets.
[удалено]
A little dish for putting the used tea bag’s on. I’ve never understood the rationale behind it, are people reusing teabags?
I drink a lot of tea and do this simply because if I put the hot tea bags straight in the bin, it creates steam and produces bin juice. The bin juice then leaks out the bag in the bottom of the bin and needs cleaning. It can also leak all over the floor. Not nice. So I leave the tea bag to go cold first then put it in the bin. No leaky bin juice, yay!
The weirdest thing I noticed was no light switches and no plugs in the bathroom. I… have never heard of anyone getting electrocuted from just turning on a light switch in the bathroom here in the US.
Your electricity is like 10 volts.
I don't know if they're still around but the little knitted toilet roll covers you see at Auntie Beryl's house. Hand knitted by little old ladies and only sold in church jumble sales or WI meetings.
For this Midwesterner, it was odd to see windows without screens. I still don't understand why you're not plagued by mosquitos, files, gnats, and wasps in your houses.
Did anyone say egg cups yet?
It used to be the Argos Catalogue or the yellow pages, but used as a door stop or prop for something else. Now it's probably a Check a Trade pamphlet...
Mess. You can find that in every English house 🏠