Essential Items Found In Every Home In The 1960s

Check out this collection of essential items that defined every 1960s home

VCRs in the ’90s family radios in the ’30s, flying cars in the ’20s. The ’70s… well, everyone has a flying car and colorful wallpaper. What do all these items have in common? Well, almost every single house in the country had at least one at the time, and some decades have items so widespread and so particular to the time that they immediately date the house perfectly, with one 10-year period standing out in particular: the 1960s, loaded with several iconic items that define a home with nostalgic zeal.

Today, we’re taking a look at some things found in almost every home in the 1960s. Many of these have since disappeared into yesteryear, but the enduring convenience of many of these nostalgic staples has some people holding on to these relics with glee. Now, let’s peel back the layers of time and take a deep dive into the past.

Corded Rotary Phone

Rotary phones with cords gave everyone family member a memorable experience / PickPik

Try to explain a rotary phone to a 10-year-old, we dare you, because you’re about to have one heck of a frustrating afternoon. All right, um, there was a circle with numbers and you put your finger in the number hole and, uh, rotated it because… I think there was a dial inside or something.

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Well, to anyone growing up today, corded rotary phones seem like an unfunny prank played by a dumb uncle, but people did live like this. At one point, almost every single house in America was tethered to the wall by a three-foot cord – at least.

But one thing younger generations are missing out on is the simple joy of endlessly wrapping the twisty cord around your finger while on hours-long calls with your buddies or taking the cord to the other room or far down the hall to a different room, testing the cord to its limit because the only thing more annoying than explaining the rotary phone to that 10-year-old is eavesdroppers.

Shag Carpets

Ah, shag carpeting, an idea that seems so great at first but obviously wasn’t thought through very well. For those of you living in blissful ignorance, shag carpets have extra long, extra thick with two C’s fibers, making a pristine one super soft and the perfect place to lay down and play a board game or traipse barefoot without a care in the world.

But these big old fibers were virtually impossible to clean. So, over months and years of use, they attracted all sorts of grit, grime, smells and stains, becoming overall pretty gross and they were also a sight for sore eyes – unless you loved them, then they were gorgeous. With most of them sporting a horrible blend of green and gold that was a blast for your feet but also a blast to your eyes, we think it might be a blessing that shag carpets, while immensely popular in the 1960s, are items that are virtually gone from almost every home today.

Central Vacuums

You know your home is from the 1960s if it has this universal item / Wikimedia Commons

But, you may be wondering now, how did they manage to clean their ridiculous shag carpets in the ’60s?Well, the answer is, of course, a central vacuum system and if you’re like 85% of the population who doesn’t exactly know what that is, think of something similar to central air. You connect a detachable hose to plugs in the walls, one in every room and dirt would be magically whisked away to a central holding area to be emptied whenever you remembered… which was almost never.

A somewhat silly system, but the invention of PVC pipes at the beginning of the decade and the proliferation of shag carpeting, we assume, led to the wide adoption of central vacuums in every 1960s home. They were especially popular in Canada because… maybe maple leaves or something.

Conversation pits

We imagine the person who first invented the conversation pit looked at a traditional living room with manic eyes and slowly said to themselves, “Yes, yes, just like this but lower.” For the uninitiated, a conversation pit is, to quote the dictionary, “an architectural feature that incorporates built-in seating into a depressed section of flooring within a larger room, often with a table or some other feature in the middle.”

They were the perfect spot for rounds of Pictionary, spirited debates about the Vietnam War or, this being the swing in ’60s, of course orgies – and unlike other items on this list, conversation pits are actually very cool items that 1960s home got to enjoy.

So why did they disappear? One main culprit is probably TV, because once every house in America had one, the living room became less about conversation and more about bowing down to our chief babysitter and overlord, and TV in the round still hasn’t been invented unfortunately.

Console TVs

Televisions used to be pieces of furniture in their own right / Flickr

Speaking of TVs, televisions in the typical 1960s home weren’t the flat screen, sleek decorative items of today that take up almost no room, you know, hanging on the wall or sitting on a lovely piece of furniture. Back in the day, TVs were the furniture because technology used to stink and it wasn’t as advanced.

As a result, televisions used to take up a massive amount of room, the screen had to have all sorts of plugs and bells and whistles – hey I’m no engineer but I know enough to know that all helped it work and

so TVs were basically really big boxes, normally incorporating a radio or 8-track player. These monstrosities became statement pieces in their own right, with each model trying to outdo the last style and function and almost every house had a console TV or stereo system and console TV. Seriously, by 1970, 95% of households in America had at least one.

Slide projectors

Did you know that before the days of Facebook, people also subjected their friends and loved ones to both their trivial daily routines and outrageous trips to exotic lands? They did this with slide projectors, of

course! Their photos would be made into slides – probably with magic – then insert it into the machine and projected massively on a wall or screen, and with the touch of a button, the record of a person’s life could be cycled through on loop.

It may seem outdated now, but in the 60s being able to make your own slideshow at home was its own kind of magic.

Colorful appliances

In the 1960s, homes had kitchens stocked with items that were full of vibrant colors / Flickr

We’ve all been to that party- you know, where everyone skips sitting in the comfy chairs in the living room and instead just leans against the counters in the kitchen. It’s just where everyone gravitates. But before the 1960s, this wasn’t the case. It took the 1960s to turn the kitchen into a place not just to cook meals but to entertain guests and also to spend some time, and people obviously wanted to show off, which leads us to our next definitive item in every 1960s home: super colorful appliances.

Wanting to impress their friends led to stoves fridges and dishwashers all matching in the most outrageous colors imaginable. We’re just tired of boring stainless steel and gray wood paneled walls – one decorating trend that should never, under any circumstance, come back is the choice wood-paneled walls. Wooden paneling aged down walls and I know I’m stretching the definition of an item a bit here but they really were everywhere in the 1960s so a PSA is necessary. Who thought Florida ceiling wood panels were a good idea? Also in any shade of brown – it can really make any room feel dark and uninviting, like a cabin in the woods where you’re definitely going to get murdered.

Some 1960s houses even had them in the kitchen. What a travesty – no wonder we were all scarred.

Fondue set

No 1960s home would be complete without the cheesiest items of them all: fondue sets. That magical melting pot of cheese and chocolate that brought the 1960s most delicious ideas right into people’s homes. Just perfect to group around in a conversation pit where we could all drip melted cheddar on the floor and it would blend perfectly well with the shag carpet – everything smells like fondue but I think the most amazing thing about a fondue set is that you can’t use any part of it for any other practical use at all.

A tiny ceramic pot with space for flame underneath, ridiculously long and skinny forks for dipping if you ever decided that you hated liquid foods – you just had to throw the whole darn thing. out I’m sure most were used once and then gathered dust in the attic for years upon years.

Wow, what a list! I think we got most things but was there anything from your 1960s home that we forgot? You know, the kinds that all your neighbors and friends had too? How many of these on our list did you actually have in your 1960s home? Get in the comments and tell us all things 1960!

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