Riddles for Household Items

Press the button for one riddle about a thing in your home, then tap Show answer.

  1. Why is a thoughtful person like a mirror?
All 27

How it works

These riddles for household items are 27 old riddles about stoves, doors, windows, lamps, mirrors, buttons, eggs and the rest of a home. Each answer stays hidden until you tap Show answer.

Read the full guide

Kitchen, rooms and small things

Kitchen riddles has 11, from raising strawberries with a spoon to the cook who poaches eggs. Rooms and furniture has 10 about beds, doors, windows and stairs. Small things has 12 household object riddles about lamps, mirrors, pins and a pair of scales.

Where they come from

Each riddle is in an old riddle book, free to read at Project Gutenberg and named under the full list. Some things have changed since: where a riddle needs an old stove or an oil lamp, the answer says so.

Tips
  • For a hunt around the house, read the riddle, then send everyone to touch the thing it names before you tap Show answer.

Questions and answers

What are good riddles for everyday items?

Ones where the answer is right there in the room. "What has feet but never walks?" was a stove when stoves stood on iron feet; "Which pain does everybody make light of?" is a window pane. Both need only one second meaning.

Where are the sponge, candle and key riddles?

On the main riddle page, which already holds what-am-I riddles for a sponge, a teapot, a candle, a broom, a key, a mirror and a pair of scissors. None of the 27 here repeats them.

Can I use these for a scavenger hunt?

Yes, if the thing is in your house: a door, a window, a lamp, a spoon, a button. Hide the next clue by it. Riddles about old things, such as fire tongs or a pair of scales, work better read aloud.

All 27 riddles

Kitchen 11

  • Made in London, sold in York, it stops a bottle. What is it? A cork. It rhymes with York.
  • We are twins, alike in every way, made of brass or iron, and we hang by the neck on chains. What are we? A pair of scales.
  • What has feet but never walks? A stove. Old iron stoves stood on feet.
  • What is the best way to raise strawberries? With a spoon.
  • When does a cook break the law? When she poaches eggs.
  • When is a baby like a breakfast cup? When it is a tea thing (teething).
  • Which is the hardest soap? Cast steel (Castile, a kind of soap).
  • Why is a cook like a hairdresser? Both dress hair (hare).
  • Why is a cook noisier than a gong? The gong makes a din; the cook makes a dinner.
  • Why is an egg like a young horse? Neither is any use until it has been broken.
  • Why is an overcooked egg like an undercooked one? Both are hardly done.

Rooms and furniture 9

  • Long legs, bent knees, a little head and no eyes. What am I? A pair of fire tongs.
  • The poker, shovel and tongs cost five dollars. What will a ton of coal come to? To ashes.
  • What is a good way to show someone nonsense? Bolt a door with a boiled carrot.
  • What is the first thing you do when you get into bed? You make an impression.
  • When is a window like a star? When it is a skylight.
  • When would a bed make a good place to hunt deer? When it is made anew for rest (a new forest).
  • Which pain does everybody make light of? A window pane.
  • Why is a cat climbing the stairs like a high hill? She is a-mounting (a mountain).
  • Why is a door never sure of anything? It is always wood (would), or should be.

Small things 7

  • What becomes of all the pins that get lost? They fall to the earth and become terra-pins.
  • What does a lamp post become when the lamp is taken off? A lamp lighter.
  • What is a button? A small event that is always coming off.
  • When is a lamp in a bad temper? When it is put out.
  • Why is a lamp like a house? Both have a chimney. Old oil lamps had a glass chimney.
  • Why is a mirror so polite? It always does just what the company does.
  • Why is a thoughtful person like a mirror? Both reflect.
How this list was compiled

Traditional riddles found in 4 public domain books on Project Gutenberg: The Nursery Rhymes of England (J. O. Halliwell, 1886) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32415; The Handbook of Conundrums (Edith B. Ordway, 1915) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32898; The Book of Riddles (1846) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36571; How to Solve Conundrums (1900) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44099. Book texts fetched from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/<id>/pg<id>.txt on 2026-09-24, and a script found the key words of every riddle and answer in one passage of its cited book (the line number is kept in x.line). Every riddle and answer was then told again in plain words for this page. Every answer is a thing found in a house or something done with it. None is on this site's riddle-generator page (which already has the sponge, teapot, candle, broom, bed, mirror, key, needle, scissors and wallpaper) or on another page of the riddles set. Licence: public domain sources (Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html); the wording of each riddle and answer is own work