Keepsake box

Its so very easy to forget things in life. Good moments fade, cherished memories are forgotten, and great friends fade from view, and you are left with a grey and empty life when you look back.

I have kept a keepsake box for the last 16+ years. It has grown from a small cutlery box to a shoebox to now a large storage box. I fill it with little keepsakes of goods times, cherished people and meaningful memories. I keep putting things inside, but every now and then, sometimes as rarely as every couple of years, I crack it open to have a look through. I just did again and ended up signing to myself as I remembered so many films I went to see, friends I haven't thought about in years, concerts I had forgotten but so enjoyed, holidays and adventures, sermons which push me forward, plays that touched me deeply or split my sides with laughter, a favourite drinking song from school, a book full of lovely messages from my wife, handwritten stories of my great great grandfather.

There is sad in there too, a love rejected, times I cant reclaim, friends and family who died. But it is important to see that the balance of meaningful memories were good, and to cherish the losses because there was at least something worth lamenting the loss of.

Every time I open the box and stop long enough to start checking out its contents it envelops me in a wave of warm nostalgia and a sense of a life well lived. I think it is a practice anyone should keep. Silly little things like ticket stubs, playing cards, a stone picked up from a cave, or a postcard become doors to happiness and better times, something we could do with being reminded of.

What a wonderful idea!

Thanks.

Photo albums are good too, but there is something nice about having these random little objects that each spark a whole memory rather than photos where you end up asking "When was this again?"

Heh, ive been actually trying to get rid of old trinkets and other "useless" stuff that just hang around gathering dust for years and years. Ive always thought of these kind of like an illusion, if that makes any sense, like its something i need to keep for a memory when in reality its the memory that is important, not the object.

But this is just me, i think i simply dont value objects. I also hate photo albums or taking photos and theres nothing worse than getting trinkets as a gift of any kind

It's a great idea. I save too many things, but just laying around, as I'm terribly unorganized. They eventually get lost or destroyed. I would like to have such a box, but I'd need to have a way of labeling really random items that I wouldn't be able to identify.

I do this for my children and have recently purchased a faux trunk to hold it all. My own little mementos are scattered in boxes.
This past week I read about an adult who had their own trinket box, and found just the right one at a thrift store, but it sits empty. Thanks for the reminder @Dante to put something in it.

I never labeled anything that went in my box. I only put stuff in there than meant something, so I recognise almost all of it on sight.

I just opened my box as an example and picked up the following:
1) A script for the film "The Room" signed to me by Tommy Wiseau (Any film lover with a twisted sense of humour will recognise the significance)
2) Two stones in picked up at the end of a cave over 100m below ground. It took about an hour to get that deep and was more than concerning when the guide told us if we stopped hearing running water it meant the cave was filling up, which it does sometimes, and we have to run because the previous area was already almost completely flooded to the ceiling.
3) A single card from a deck of Shark Top Tumps, given out to everyone during a sermon about how stepping out of your comfort zone is not just necessary for faith, but just about everything great in life. The card was meant as a reminder to not shy away. 20 years on, its still doing its intended job.
4) An old mobile phone which contains the last photos of my best friend from school before he died. The phone is dead too, but I remember the photos still, and I always think of those times when I see the phone.

My box is overflowing with things like a bottle cap, a pen, some old Origami flowers, tickets to films I saw long ago, even some crap someone gave me to try to convert me to Buddhism. He gave them to me in a park on a lovely day in London with Auri. They remind me of the day. None of the items are that special, but they all trigger forgotten memories when I see them. If I had to label something to remember what it was, I don't think I would put it in.

You're welcome. My keepsake box has become one of my most treasured possessions, despite the fact that intrinsically the combined worth of all its contents is probably less than £20. I think its a great practice.