12 things boomers keep in their homes that are rarely used anymore

Ever opened a drawer at your parents’ house and felt like you stumbled into a time capsule?

Tucked away in closets, basements, and cabinets across America are artifacts from a different era—objects that tell a story about how a generation lived, worked, and connected. These aren’t just random old items; they’re clues to a world that valued permanence over portability and tangible quality over digital convenience.

What we’re seeing isn’t just a spring-cleaning challenge for their kids. It’s a clash of generational values—preparedness versus convenience, tangible memories versus digital clouds—and it’s playing out in junk drawers and china cabinets across America. Here are 12 household items that Boomers cherish but are fading from modern life.

The trusty landline phone

Remember when a phone was a place, not a person? That corded phone on the kitchen wall or the chunky handset by the bed was the communication hub for the entire family. For many Boomers, it still is.

But for the rest of America, the landline is becoming a relic. According to 2022 data from the CDC, a staggering 73% of American adults now live in wireless-only households.

The generational divide is stark. Chamber of Commerce reports that while only about half of adults 65 and over have gone wireless-only, there’s less than a 2-in-10 chance that someone aged 25-34 has a landline in their home.

That ‘special occasion’ fine china

That massive, glass-fronted cabinet in the dining room is a museum to a more formal time. Inside, pristine sets of fine china sit waiting for a special occasion that, in many modern households, never seems to arrive.

This isn’t just a feeling; it’s a documented cultural shift. According to wedding registry experts at The Knot, only 15% of couples today are registering for formal table settings. Instead, they’re opting for stylish, durable, and practical dinnerware that can handle both a Tuesday night takeout and a Saturday dinner party.

A full set of encyclopedias

Before we could “just Google it,” there was the encyclopedia. A full set of World Book or Britannica volumes lining a bookshelf was a symbol of knowledge, parental investment, and intellectual curiosity. It was the original search engine, powered by paper and ink.

Today, it’s a different story. Encyclopædia Britannica, after a 244-year run, ceased its print edition in 2012 to go fully digital. World Book is now the only American encyclopedia still in print, a stunning testament to the digital takeover.

The VCR and a library of VHS tapes

The VCR was a revolutionary piece of technology. It brought the movie theater into the living room and, for the first time, gave families control over what they watched and when. Today, it’s a clunky box connected to a library of degrading magnetic tape.

The official end came in July 2016, when Japan’s Funai Electric, the world’s last VCR manufacturer, ceased production. The company cited dwindling sales—down from a peak of 15 million units a year to just 750,000 in 2015—and the increasing difficulty of sourcing parts.

A hulking, dark wood dining room set

You know the one: the heavy, dark, matching set with an imposing table, six to eight chairs, and a coordinating hutch. For decades, this was the pinnacle of “grown-up” furniture, a sign that you had established a proper, formal home.

But interior design has moved on. “Matching dining sets with bulky, dark wood tables and ornate chairs can make a space feel overly formal and dated,” says Meg Spellman, founder of Meg Spellman Interiors. Today’s trends favor lighter, more eclectic looks that mix styles, materials, and eras to create a space that feels personal and curated, not purchased from a showroom floor.

The Rolodex for managing contacts

Long before LinkedIn and digital CRMs, the Rolodex was the ultimate power tool for any serious professional. This rotating wheel of cards was a physical database of connections, a tangible representation of a person’s network that was often a jealously guarded asset.

Invented in 1956, the Rolodex (a mashup of “rolling” and “index”) became ubiquitous on office desks. It was so valuable that in the 1980s, departing employees would sometimes try to take their Rolodex with them, leading to lawsuits over ownership. A 1985 episode of the TV show Moonlighting even involved a stolen Rolodex being ransomed for $50,000.

The rise of digital tools in the late 1990s began its decline, but the final nail in the coffin was the advent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. These platforms could not only store contacts but also track every interaction, analyze data, and manage sales funnels—something a simple paper card could never do.

An old-school sewing machine

For many Boomers, a sewing machine was a household essential, a practical tool for mending clothes, hemming pants, and making curtains. It was a symbol of self-sufficiency and thrift, rooted in a “waste not, want not” culture.

That culture has been largely replaced by fast fashion, a model built on a rapid cycle of buying and discarding trendy, inexpensive clothing. The consequences are stark: $500 billion of value is lost annually due to clothing underutilization and a lack of recycling.

The standalone alarm clock

Before the smartphone became our everything-in-one life remote, a simple, single-purpose device sat on the nightstand: the alarm clock. Whether it was a digital model with glowing red numbers or an analog one that ticked loudly, its one job was to wake you up on time.

Today, most of us are woken up by an app. But for many Boomers, the standalone alarm clock remains a trusted ally. Why? It’s dependable, it doesn’t require software updates, and it won’t fail if your phone dies overnight. It’s a classic example of a single-task device in a multi-tasking world.

A physical phone book or address book

Remember the thud of a new phone book landing on the doorstep? For decades, the White Pages and Yellow Pages were the definitive guides to finding people and businesses in your community.

Those days are long gone. Today, when a phone book arrives, it often goes straight into the recycling bin.  While some states still legally require phone companies to provide a White Pages if requested, demand has dwindled to almost nothing.

The personal address book has suffered a similar fate. Once a treasured keeper of contacts for Christmas cards and letters, it’s been replaced by the contact list on our phones.

A carousel slide projector

For many families, a special occasion meant gathering in a darkened living room for a slide show. The whir and click of the Kodak Carousel projector was the soundtrack to countless vacations, birthdays, and holidays, projecting cherished memories onto a pull-down screen.

This was the original form of social media—a communal event where a curated collection of images was presented to an audience of family and friends. The technology itself dictated the social ritual. It was an occasion, a performance that brought people together in one place at one time to share in a collective memory.

Kodak, the giant behind this ritual, discontinued its iconic Carousel projector in the early 2000s, marking the end of an era. The slide show has been replaced by the endless scroll of a photo feed on a personal device.

Collector’s plates displayed on a wall

During the 1970s and 1980s, collecting limited-edition plates from brands like Bradford Exchange and Franklin Mint was a massive hobby. These plates, often featuring art from the likes of Norman Rockwell, were marketed as valuable investments that would appreciate over time.

Unfortunately, that promise never materialized. “Most collector plates from major manufacturers feature very detailed back stamps and usually include the year the plate was made,” notes antique expert Terry Kovel, who adds that plates made after 1980 usually have no monetary value. Today, these once-prized collectibles often sell for less than $10 apiece on sites like eBay.

The market collapsed because the “limited edition” scarcity was largely artificial, and younger generations simply don’t share the same collecting tastes. While Boomers were drawn to commemorative plates, Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to collect things like vintage sneakers, Funko Pop figures, or rare vinyl records.

The ‘bag of bags’ under the sink

Open the cabinet under the kitchen sink in a Boomer’s home, and you’re likely to find it: a chaotic, overflowing plastic bag filled with… other plastic bags. It’s a nearly universal phenomenon that often baffles younger generations.

But this isn’t about hoarding or messiness. For the Boomer generation, saving every plastic bag is an act of thrift and preparedness. They were being eco-conscious long before it was a trend, just without the trendy name. Raised in an era of “waste not, want not,” they see a plastic bag not as single-use trash but as a valuable resource to be reused for lining small bins, packing lunches, or carrying leftovers.

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