A normal Tuesday
I went through an ordinary Tuesday and checked when each part of it became normal.
At 7:04 on Tuesday I opened the fridge. Six minutes later I boiled a kettle. I didn't think about either of them.
Ordinary Abundance goes through an apartment and stops at everyday things that once looked miraculous. I tried it with a whole Tuesday. It got slightly out of hand.
I've mostly used the date something became common. The first prototypes were often decades earlier.
Before breakfast
Breakfast used refrigeration and the electricity grid before I had properly woken up.
Open the fridge
The household survey stopped asking about fridges in 1985 because nearly every household had one. ONS General Lifestyle Survey
Depends on: refrigeration, pasteurisation and the gridBoil the kettle
The 1990 World Cup semi-final shootout was followed by a 2,800 MW surge, enough for more than a million kettles. National Energy System Operator
Depends on: forecasting, reserve power and grid controlHot water on demand
In 1967, one in four English homes lacked at least one basic amenity, a list that included a bath or shower and hot and cold water at three points. English Housing Survey history
Depends on: treated water, pressure and a boilerIndoor plumbing
In 1961, nearly 7% of households in England and Wales had no toilet inside or attached to the home. ONS census history
Depends on: sewers, pumps and treatment worksOut the door
By half eight I'd used safer roads, a weather forecast, card payments and GPS.
Drive on much safer roads
Great Britain recorded 1,538 road deaths in 2025, down 4% in a year and less than half the 2004 total. Department for Transport
Depends on: road design, crash testing and emergency careKnow whether to take a coat
The Met Office says its four-day forecast is now as accurate as its one-day forecast was 30 years ago. Met Office
Depends on: observations, supercomputers and forecast modelsPay by touching a cardRecently normal
The UK made 19.2 billion contactless card payments worth £311 billion in 2025. UK Finance
Depends on: NFC, card networks and settlementKnow where you areRecently normal
The US switched off the intentional degradation of civilian GPS in May 2000. Existing receivers became more accurate without modification. GPS.gov
Depends on: satellite clocks, radio signals and receiversSpeak to another continent
Subsea cables carry more than 99% of intercontinental data traffic. Satellites handle a tiny share. TeleGeography
Depends on: mobile networks, fibre and cable landing stationsForty minutes later.
Work and lunch
At work I used ChatGPT and Wikipedia. Lunch depended on refrigerated transport.
Ask a computer for help in plain EnglishRecently normal
ChatGPT received 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same part of 2024. Ofcom Online Nation 2025
Depends on: data centres, chips, training data and fibreLook up almost anything for free
English Wikipedia now has more than 7.2 million articles. Its live statistics page also counts over 1.3 billion edits. Wikipedia live statistics
Depends on: volunteers, servers and content delivery networksEat something grown in another season
The Dunedin's first frozen-meat shipment left New Zealand for London in 1882. After 98 days at sea, its cargo arrived in sound condition. Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Depends on: cold stores, refrigerated transport and portsSix hours pass.
Evening
By bedtime I'd cooked dinner, played some music, taken a tablet and checked the smoke alarm.
Cook without filling the room with smoke
About 2.1 billion people still cook on open fires or inefficient stoves. Household air pollution caused an estimated 2.9 million deaths in 2021. World Health Organization
Depends on: clean fuel, electricity and ventilationReplay a human voice
The first machine that could record and play back sound was built in 1877. Edison tested it with "Mary had a little lamb." Library of Congress
Depends on: recording, storage, streaming and speakersTake a tablet and expect it to work
Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. Florey and Chain helped turn it into a mass-produced medicine by 1945. NHS England
Depends on: fermentation, clinical testing and manufacturingGo to bed with a working smoke alarm
In the 2024-25 survey, 93% of English households said they had at least one working smoke alarm. English Housing Survey
Depends on: optical sensors, batteries and fire standardsThis was a British Tuesday.
Billions of people still live without some of the things I used without thinking.
people lacked safely managed drinking water in 2024
WHO and UNICEF JMP
people were still offline in 2025
International Telecommunication Union
people had no access to electricity in 2023
World Bank and Tracking SDG7
children died before their fifth birthday in 2024
UNICEF
Household technology by year
Choose a year to see which of these were common by then.
2026
At 23:00 the house is warm, the food has stayed cold, the tablet worked and the smoke alarm has a battery. I doubt any of this will cross my mind tomorrow.