Treasure your memories with a memory box

In our home there is a very special box.

It’s a large chest made of Silky Oak and over 60 years ago, it was a young girl’s Glory Box. The young girl was my maternal grandmother and her 4 brothers handcrafted the box for her. For her sweet sixteenth family and friends endowed her with gifts of linen, doilies, tatting, napkins and cutlery – in readiness for the day she off and got married.

I digress (sorry). The point is that we now have the box at home and we’re creating our own special memories with it. My children call it the Memory Box.

On purpose it’s well within reach. In fact, it’s our coffee table. So lifting the lid and exploring the contents is easy.

Our memory box is our own version of the attic or the basement. A place where we store snippets of lives racing by so that at any time we can revisit, recall and rejoice.

Inside our memory box you’ll find ultrasounds, baby cards, first locks of hair, 4 tiny pairs of shoes, a plaster cast of a tiny foot, the one dummy that somehow managed to escape the dummy fairy, a selection of each child’s most memorable outfits, a few first drawings and a random assortment of collectibles.

It doesn’t matter what goes in – it’s just about creating a spot where we can either sit as a family and remember (or I can sit on my own and bawl my eyes out for the children that are growing way too fast).

I love that my children respect the contents of our memory box above all else. It seems that a peace settles over them as they lift the lid and they are enthralled as they look at photos together and recall memories in accordance with the item they are looking at.

If you don’t have a memory box, I urge you to start one today. You could devote a cardboard box per child, a plastic storage container … whatever. As long as it becomes the resting place for all things special that will allow you to spend quiet time remembering.

Do you have a tradition of saving special treasures in a special place? What precious memory just popped into your head as you read this?

118 Comments

- - ljsalomon said
  - 03 Jan 2014
    11:34 am
I love this idea – thanks for sharing

- - bankstownbrats said
  - 31 Dec 2013
    11:17 pm
Thank you for sharing this .

- - jadeeeee said
  - 29 Dec 2013
    12:20 pm
great idea – thanks for sharing

- - coppin85 said
  - 22 Dec 2013
    8:14 am
Thank you for sharing this 🙂

- - neenee said
  - 19 Dec 2013
    1:10 pm
Lovely idea. I keep my childrens love letters to me in a special box that we pull out from time to time.

- - coppin85 said
  - 13 Nov 2013
    9:39 pm
This is such a beautiful idea!

- - catlover said
  - 13 Nov 2013
    12:52 am
I have the very same things

- - mrsreg said
  - 06 Nov 2013
    9:11 pm
I have little love notes and items saved from when my husband and I first met. I’ve already started putting away little keepsakes since my baby girl arrived. Such a lovely idea.

- - meimei said
  - 02 Nov 2013
    11:54 am
Brilliant idea to put all happy moment on a memory box 🙂

- - catgrrl3 said
  - 31 Oct 2013
    7:27 pm
all life is memories , great idea

- - snoopy said
  - 31 Oct 2013
    3:07 pm
Yes just one box is not working for me, maybe I need to narrow it down more.

- - kathryn said
  - 30 Oct 2013
    10:49 am
My problem is limiting myself to a box. I have trouble letting one outfit go! I do have a box with her hospital tag and that sort of thing but mainly I have lots and lots of photos.

- - sonja_holness said
  - 24 Oct 2013
    1:47 am
I think a memory box is a great idea. I have one and just have bits and pieces of things and keep sakes I’ve collected over the years.

- - rainbownerds said
  - 22 Oct 2013
    9:39 pm
this is a lovely idea. I should start one

- - barch said
  - 22 Oct 2013
    4:34 pm
I am not really a sentimental person when it comes to collecting things, however that said, I think it is a great idea for those who are.

- - liz007 said
  - 21 Oct 2013
    1:06 pm
I have a treasure box just a few silly things that are mine and not really for sharing a few things was going to be thrown away by other people .. Eg the flower off my dads birthday cake. .. I took it from her bin then I asked my mum. .. She said yes. Dad died 6 weeks later he was 60,,

- - meltingmoment said
  - 18 Oct 2013
    11:37 am
I think this is a really great idea – thanks for sharing.

- - katith21 said
  - 15 Oct 2013
    2:35 pm
I think this is a wonderful idea

- - sanjipanj said
  - 14 Oct 2013
    11:00 am
I have a chest with my children’s s hol work & special keepsakes they made me. I also have a box which gets bigger each year filled with special memories whether in paper form, tickets, love notes, shells etc from the moment I me the love of my life after a 25 yr absence. I am very sentimental & keepsakes are important to me 🙂

- - kjgarner said
  - 30 Sep 2013
    11:00 am
I have a memory box from when I was little and have also made some for my 3 daughters for their memories. Its good to go through the box every now and again to reflect on those memories
- ginoula5 replied
  
  18 Aug 2014 , 5:29 pm
  It’s something so special to go through that box and remember some beautiful memories.