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

- - jocelynwong31 said
  - 28 Sep 2013
    12:14 am
I keep some of the items though my DH seems to think i’m keeping too much ‘junk’

- - omgjag31 said
  - 23 Sep 2013
    9:22 pm
I think this is a wonderful idea

Thanks

- - missangela said
  - 25 Aug 2013
    8:34 pm
This is a lovely idea 😉 🙂

- - 2forme said
  - 23 Aug 2013
    1:14 pm
A great reminder on creating a memory box for my second child! I’ve done one for my first but haven’t made one for my second yet.

- - jackie_wenke said
  - 21 Aug 2013
    7:00 am
love this idea – each of ours has a box for their memories to go in

- - danielle_morrisson said
  - 18 Aug 2013
    5:49 pm
We have one of these think they’re a great idea.

- - tahlia w said
  - 15 Aug 2013
    11:33 pm
Have made one for both kids. all their b’day cards, first jump suit, wrist bands from hospital. 🙂
- sallty replied
  
  17 Aug 2013 , 8:44 am
  Great idea, I have all this stuff but its just scattered around the place and might get lost.
- - sunava said
  - 13 Aug 2013
    11:19 pm
I will also make a memory box now ,I love collecting my memorable moments
- a-edwards replied
  
  25 Aug 2013 , 7:29 pm
  It’s so nice to look back on.
- - maureen3 said
  - 12 Aug 2013
    4:42 pm
Memories are so precious very interesting article

- - jazrah said
  - 11 Aug 2013
    9:48 am
I love going through my daughters Memory box which contains lots of firsts from when she was a baby, it is a great way to bond together and for me to remember beautiful times with her.

- - missangela said
  - 09 Aug 2013
    8:53 pm
My daughter has so much fun looking at her memory box from when she was a baby.

- - vicky_guillaumier said
  - 06 Aug 2013
    5:26 pm
What a lovely idea, memories are so precious.

- - ginoula5 said
  - 01 Aug 2013
    6:44 pm
Thank you for sharing your lovely story on how you keep your memories, it’s lovely when they look at the memory box a peace and calm comes over them. My young one is the same when we open up our special memory box – opening the box is a memory in itself :).
- earthlydelites replied
  
  09 Aug 2013 , 3:04 pm
  thats so cute! getting them involved is something I didn’t think to do.
- - jaimilayt said
  - 01 Aug 2013
    4:56 pm
Great article! Good thinking 🙂

- - ditto said
  - 31 Jul 2013
    11:58 pm
you need your memories cause life rushes by so quickly

- - melzy99 said
  - 31 Jul 2013
    8:31 pm
gorgeous and a lovely idea

- - mrsfritz said
  - 29 Jul 2013
    10:31 am
Great idea, thanks for sharing.

- - a-edwards said
  - 25 Jul 2013
    2:39 pm
I like the idea of a memory box. We forget things n dates so easily

- - jodie80 said
  - 14 Jul 2013
    8:18 pm
Little treasure box’s are great.
I take photo’s of all my kids drawings and put them into a photo album to put In to there memory box’s

- - jenny9761 said
  - 14 Jul 2013
    10:54 am
This is a great idea, I use a large plastic container so little creepy crawlies can’t get into it.