Housekeeping is an integral part of any person’s life. Not a single inhabitant of our planet is able to exist without reliable shelter over his head, food and clothing. In order to provide himself with everything necessary and make life more comfortable, and daily work easier to perform, a person surrounds himself with a variety of useful household items. Domestic utensils are the lion's share of all movable property of each of us, though different people may include different things in the list of this utensil. What exactly is it and what exactly fits the definition of household items?
Familiar incomprehensible word
"Utensils" is a word that is not distinguished by melody or a pleasant sound for hearing, but, despite its "unpresentability", it is used to identify almost every thing in our homes. In the popular explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, the authors (S. I. Ozhegov, V. I. Dal) interpret the phrase “household utensils” as household items in a house, a dwelling, thanks to which a person stores food supplies, prepares food and organizes his life (personal hygiene cleaning, washing, etc.).
This group of human property includes dishes of any purpose, a variety of containers, trinkets, although they often carry only a decorative function, but which can bring certain benefits or benefits (for example, an old samovar, reverently passed from generation to generation as a rare family value).
So it becomes clear that with all those things that fit the definition of “household items”, we have to deal with several times a day, though often we mean by them everything that is concentrated strictly in the kitchen or dining room, although this somewhat erroneous opinion.
Home or kitchen
Of course, a large number of all kinds of gadgets and devices, as well as items useful in everyday life, are collected in the kitchen. Due to the fact that humanity is simply not able to function normally without food, the food cult in modern civilization has been elevated to the rank of highest pleasures. Moreover, this situation is true not only in recent decades. People have long realized that it is more convenient to eat from a plate with a spoon, and not with your hands from a burdock sheet, and it is more expedient to store crops and supplies in barrels, tubs and chests.
Until the time when mankind had to go through a milestone called “industrialization,” which brought each of us an almost unlimited and affordable range of goods for various purposes, household utensils were much more appreciated. Even the simplest dishes that were used in everyday life were cherished very carefully. The parents of the girls stocked up with containers, pots, plates and various “oven” appliances (poker, stag, scoops and soot panicles) when the daughters were still very young to give their beauties a good dowry, not empty-handed.
Costly items, not an ordinary ceramic pot or wicker basket, but metal products, silverware, glass, porcelain, were especially valuable. Their independent manufacture for the majority was impossible, purchase - an inadmissible luxury.
Everything that is used for personal hygiene, storage of clothes and other property is also considered household utensils. A chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a bed, sleeping accessories, bath accessories were actually inherited. To get sound furniture from a distant relative was a solid acquisition; such things were sold in case of hopelessness and extreme need.
Kitchen overlords of the present
Civilization over the past two centuries has changed the way of life of a person so radically that now few people know for what purpose the rocker or tub was present in the houses, why it was impossible to imagine housing without a huge, half-house, stove. Many attributes of a household have now sunk into oblivion and are unconditionally forgotten, but a person from the past would not have found application and half of what is in the ordinary kitchen of a modern city apartment.
The present utensils are designed to greatly facilitate the already uncomplicated cooking process. We don’t have to get a ceramic pot from the bins to cook loose porridge, for this we use a thick-walled stainless steel pan or a slow cooker. We don’t need a wooden bowl to pour rich soup from a cast iron, we have a metal or plastic soup ladle and a good set of dishes for cooking. We do not know what a whetstone is, because modern miracle knives do not need to be edited for many months.
And also in the drawer of your kitchen cabinet there was probably a good corkscrew, a vegetable peeler, a pizza and cheese knife, a can opener and several cutlery options of different sizes and purposes (forks, spoons and knives for dessert, soup, side dish, fish or poultry). The assortment of corollas, shovels and knives for cutting anything and anyone is household utensils of the most ordinary modern housewife, which would make the personal chef living in the kitchen of the nobleman a few centuries ago howl with envy.
Everything new - well forgotten old
But, of course, no one will argue that reinventing the wheel is an ungrateful and unreasonable thing. It is unlikely that humanity will again return to stove heating and cooking on an open fire, but still there are household items that our grandmothers used, followed by their mothers, and, of course, we ourselves will tell our children about them.
Domestic utensils - utensils and containers, which are necessary for us in everyday life, will always rule the kitchen, without it it is impossible to cook the simplest fried eggs or make preparations for the winter. Even such archaic household items, such as clay pots or a ceramic roaster, a cast-iron frying pan and grandmother’s gooseneck, will not be hidden in a dark and dusty closet. After all, the taste of dishes prepared according to old recipes is not forgotten, and the observance and support of traditions is what makes a person who he is - a rational being.
Hello from the past
Nevertheless, if the list of utensils and kitchen assistants has not undergone significant changes for many centuries in a row, other household utensils have already radically changed their appearance in many respects.
There are household items that it is simply impossible to meet in modern everyday life, only exhibits in museums or literary sayings of the authors of historical and artistic opuses of past years remind of them. Many of us will never guess why there was a night pot in each bedroom under a bed, why people used a washcloth and a tub for washing, and drank water from a fieldman, carried it from a damsel in wooden buckets using a rocker arm, and milk was stored in a lid , where it was poured right after the hostess milked the cow in the cot.
Also, in modern society it is not customary to store grain or flour in huge tubs and barrels, and heavy chests with barn locks, in which clothes were folded and transported in case of travel, were replaced by light suitcases on wheels.
Invaluable wealth
Antiquities, in the list of which household utensils take pride of place along with ancient family decorations, have not only historical and cognitive value. Antiquaries, collectors, lovers of things from the past enthusiastically search for everything that was used by people many centuries ago. Especially high cost are those household items that have retained their original appearance and have survived to our times in an unchanged and perfect condition. Such things are traded both at completely legal auctions and sales, as well as on the black, illegal market, which proves their necessity and relevance even after centuries.