The Things We Keep in Boxes

I have an old Norcross Christmas card box that I bought in around 2005 when I was buying a stock of old greeting cards from the US. It was already vintage when I found it, probably dating from the mid 1950s. The lid is decorated with children rolling enormous snowballs, all red scarves, rosy cheeks and little fir trees. It was purchased complete with its original cards, long gone. It's rather battered now, with marks and worn corners, but I've never considered throwing it away. It hasn't held Christmas cards for a very long time. These days it's full of my bookbinding tools. Awls, needles, thread, clips and all sorts of useful bits and pieces have taken the place of Christmas cards. I suppose I could buy a proper storage box, but why would I?

A vintage Norcross Christmas card box, probably dating from the 1950s. Bought in 2005 and kept ever since, it now holds my bookbinding tools.

A Box Is Never Just a Box

There is something rather appealing to me about an old box. Sometimes it's the decoration, sometimes the shape or the faded lettering, and sometimes it's simply that it has survived. We keep boxes because we think they might come in handy. We put them on shelves, tuck them into cupboards and occasionally forget about them altogether. And then, years later, we open one and find something unexpected. Not necessarily anything valuable. A few buttons, an old photograph, a length of ribbon, perhaps a collection of things that don't really belong together. But somebody thought they were worth keeping. .

The Little Things Left Behind

A collection of old photographs, postage stamps, ribbons and fabric fragments, the sort of little things someone once thought worth keeping.

I often come across boxes in the wild containing the most curious mixtures of things. Mostly they are full of an old button collection but sometimes there is a photograph tucked behind a piece of fabric. A handful of old postage stamps. A reel of thread, a scrap of lace, a little object whose purpose isn't immediately obvious. There is no particular order to any of it, yet I find these collections fascinating. It's easy to understand why someone might keep a wedding photograph or a letter from a loved one. But why the odd button? Why a few inches of ribbon? Why an empty packet or a tiny broken ornament? Perhaps they intended to use it one day. Perhaps it reminded them of something. Or perhaps, like me, they simply couldn't bear to throw it away. We can only guess.

Giving Old Things Another Purpose

An old cardboard box originally made for hat and coat hooks, now filled with little treasures. Its lid has been given a new life with a beautiful portrait of a woman in red.

Some boxes have already had several lives. An ordinary cardboard box once used for hat and coat hooks can be transformed into a home for buttons, beads or little sewing treasures. I rather like that. The original purpose becomes almost irrelevant, although the old label remains as a reminder. The same is true of my Christmas card box. Twenty-one years later, it's still useful, just not in the way anyone originally intended. Perhaps that's part of the pleasure of keeping old things. They don't have to remain exactly as they were.

Christmas in a Box

An old Fortnum & Mason box filled with vintage Christmas cake decorations, tiny Father Christmas figures, ribbons and festive ornaments, carefully kept together long after their original celebrations.

On Wednesday I came across an old Fortnum & Mason box filled with Christmas cake decorations. Little Father Christmas figures, miniature ornaments, red ribbons and all sorts of cheerful bits and pieces, piled together in a wonderful muddle. Some have clearly seen better days. I found myself wondering how many Christmas cakes they had decorated. Whether the same little Father Christmas appeared year after year, brought out from the cupboard each December and carefully put away again in January. There is something lovely about the thought of these small decorations being saved when so many others must have been thrown away. They weren't particularly precious objects, but someone had taken the trouble to keep them together. And now, here they are.

The Beauty of an Old Box

An old Yardley English Lavender Soap box, its original contents long gone. Now home to little brass horse ornaments and fragments of lace, an unexpected collection of treasures.

Sometimes the box itself is every bit as interesting as what is inside. An old Yardley English Lavender Soap box, its printed lettering faded and its surface beautifully worn, has become a home for little brass horse ornaments and pieces of lace. I love these unexpected combinations. The packaging was never intended to survive for decades. It was simply something to hold soap, or sweets, or stationery, before being discarded. Yet here it is, still doing its job, long after the soap has disappeared. There is a quiet sort of resourcefulness in that.

What We Choose to Keep

An old French Pain d’Épices d’Alsace box, with its wonderfully worn lettering and colourful illustration. Even the simplest packaging can become something worth keeping.

Of course, not everything we save turns out to be useful. Most of us have drawers and cupboards containing things we've been meaning to sort through for years. But I wonder whether we're sometimes too quick to dismiss the little things. An old box can tell us something about the time in which it was made. Its contents might offer a glimpse into someone's interests, habits or everyday life. And occasionally, the most ordinary object becomes something we wouldn't dream of parting with.I doubt whoever designed that Norcross Christmas card box in the 1950s imagined it would still be in use some seventy years later, holding bookbinding tools in a London home.

But that's the thing about boxes. You never quite know what they'll end up holding.