Respectfully disagree. I use my Sonicare every day X 2. I went by without visiting a dentist for 3 years… not even a sign of gum disease (80% of people have pre-disease - gum pockets deeper than 3 mm). I have really, really bad teeth because I am a summer baby… The dentist was shocked that I disregarded his advice about 2x year cleaning. I can thank my Sonicare for letting me skip a few visits to the dentist.
I think the biggest benefit of these electrical toothbrushes is that they force people to brush their teeth for 2 minutes. Do you always set a timer or count to 120 when you brush?
No, I probably don’t brush for a full 2 minutes but I have very good teeth. No issues at all.
But every time I or a family member go to the dentist we come home with all these brochures for the latest version of an electric toothbrush. Not sure what the reasoning is behind it. If you have problems then sure but for my own family it just doesn’t seem necessary.
My kids think the electric brushes are much better for cleaning teeth. My sons do not have any cavities.
I am 60 with no cavities or gum disease. That is just luck as far as I can tell. I do not go annually to the dentist. Once I went ten years between appointments and then the dentist said probably I don’ t need six month cleanings.
I also like the fact that Sonicare is not messy. I often walk around the house cinderelling my last couple of hundred of steps to get to my goal of 10,000 while brushing my teeth. If you use it properly, wanding around the gumline instead of “brushing,” there is no spray of any kind.
@BunsenBurner – I am so happy to hear that someone else walks around while brushing teeth. I never did that before I had children but once they were around, any activity is a multi-tasking opportunity. Not for the FitBit steps, but to put away laundry or move things from room to room…
Has anybody mentioned a sewing machine? (If they did I missed it.) Is a sewing machine a small appliance? It is far and away my favorite appliance. I have three.
I’m sorry, @BunsenBurner, what is a summer baby and how does that relate to teeth and dental health?
Our dentist convinced us all (except H) to use Sonicare electric toothbrushes. I’m happy Costco carries it. It sure does remind me to brush longer than I normally do with my manual brush. Our kids even travel with their electric toothbrushes!
Had electric toothbrushes about 10 years ago when I worked on an oral care client. Made no difference in my oral health and once they broke, it seemed like a waste of money to buy another when manual toothbrushes work just fine and I can buy them in bulk.
Thumper: I love your thread! Though I certainly understand Morrismm’s point.
Sewing machines:
When we left the house in which we raised the kids, I donated my grandmother’s really heavy Singer sewing machine, that I had learned to sew on. It was just too heavy to be moving around with as little use as I was making of it and neither my kids nor any of my nieces or nephews were going to want it. It was becoming too heavy for me to move on my own. New machines are just so much easier to use and one my sisters does a lot of sewing, had a home business for a while, and any of our kids could have one of hers if they asked. However, I feel a little guilty when our hoarder sister visits and asks why I don’t have it out and set up, I lie and tell her that our grandmother’s machine is in the loft of the barn still packed from the move. Almost every visit, she brings some accessory or bobbins or something she thinks go with that machine (she lives in that grandmother’s house) and I toss them when she leaves. I had imagined I would get a small machine to use when we got the house set up, but can really do hand sewing for anything I’m realistically doing to do. I have the sewing box the same grandmother gave me when I was in elementary school. It has all my mending supplies, including thimble, scissors, pin cushion she packed in it for me.
I do have small vacuums, including a dust buster used to pick up lady bugs that invade us seasonally. I don’t have any box fans anymore.
We should start a thread on sewing - did we all ever sew, do we ever do so, and have we taught our daughters (and/or sons). I think that’s one area where norms have changed over the years. I certainly remember my mother making me Halloween costumes and clothing (matching mother-daughter-doll clothing!) and that didn’t happen here. Anything beyond a button I would outsource.
@Pizzagirl, regarding the ease of cooking rice in a pot: I would agree with you, except for the fact that my H insists on having rice every day, and he would FREQUENTLY burn it in the pot, and in fact ruined some nice saucepans. The rice cooker solved that problem. Got a cheap one at Target.
@notelling, the electric citrus juicer is another aged item that I inherited. I only use it when I have a need for the juice of a lot of limes or lemons. Like a cup or more. Otherwise I use the also-inherited old classic glass one.
Come to think of it, a fair number of my pots are things my mother gave me 40 years ago. My second wok and my smaller “big pot to boil things in” I picked up off the street. Is this a Yankee thing?
This thread inspired me to look in and clean out my appliance cabinet. I have a very large kitchen with a large corner lower cabinet that I keep all my appliances that aren’t on my counter. It is a cabinet that goes back deep and has a lot of wasted space and it is hard to get into the back of it. I found items I didn’t realize I still owned. Found a old rice cooker that my H used in college, bread machine that I know I haven’t used in the 18 yrs I’ve lived in this house, old no longer working drip coffee machine, very old Krups espresso machine, old stovetop tea kettle. Plus parts for a food processor I haven’t owned in 15 years.
I have a big box of stuff to drop at the thrift store and pile for the trash.
Except for a non-stick omelette pan, which gets replaced regularly, all the cookware I own was gifted to me by my mother when I left home. I have the old fashioned revere ware with copper bottoms that is no longer available (in that quality), and a really heavy dutch oven I have looked at newer cookware. I see nothing as good as mine. I am really crossing my fingers my stuff lasts me because I don’t see replacing it very successfully at all.
I have 4 sewing machines: 1) the original Singer I got when I was 11 and learning to sew; 2) the ‘new’ one I bought in 1995, a Viking; 3) another Viking that was just given to me by my friend’s MIL when I asked if she had a machine I could borrow as mine are in storage, and it is actually the same as my ‘new’ machine except 6 years older, and 4) a Singer given to me by my brother’s girlfriend that I have never used.
When my kids were young, I made almost all their costumes and dress up clothes. I also sewed for the theater groups my daughter was in, for the girl scouts (all the patches and badges), I sew the patches on my brother’s uniforms (many more than you’d think). I’m currently making baby quilts.
I do not consider a sewing machine an appliance. I don’t consider a vacuum an appliance. Appliances are things you plug in in the kitchen, and which you probably don’t need as you can grill, fry, make rice, squeeze lemons, chop, shred, and grind without the special appliance, but are things that we all like and make our lives easier.
When I first posted, I listed four items (which included my built-in microwave). I’ve now added two more: a Cuisinart food processor and a Cuisinart blender. My daughter cleaned out her kitchen and passed these two items to me. The food processor was a wedding gift that she hasn’t used once in her three years of marriage. I’m not sure I want it but … As for the blender, she and her husband bought a fancier one, so I inherited this one (also a wedding gift).
I’m s so ambivalent about food processors. I’ve even bought them and taken them back to the store unopened. My friends swear by them but I’m fine without them, so far. If one was given to me, I’d probably experiment and figure out how to enjoy using it or eventually pass it on. My friend makes lemon bars with her food processor. Another friend makes the sauce for cold ginger chicken with hers. I haven’t figured out how I’d use one if I acquired one and it does take up space. H says he’d rather wash the knife, cutting board, bowl and spoon I use instead.
I find there’s a lot of things that the food processor chops up more easily than the blender. Most recently I made garlic scape pesto in mine. I use my knife and cutting board a lot too though. The time before it was something that the recipe said to use a blender for, and only the bottom inch would blend - it just wasn’t wet enough. Put it in the food processor and it was whizzed in no time at all.
I don’t have a rice cooker because dh went no carbs except the ones he thinks are worth it diet. (Wine and beer, a tsp of sugar in his coffee, waffles.) He won’t eat rice, pasta, potatoes or bread.
If you use it properly, wanding around the gumline instead of “brushing,” there is no spray of any kind.