Recently I read a Facebook post along the lines of how nice it is to find a good sturdy box. As a person who gets a lot of satisfaction from re-purposing a good box, I was intrigued by the post. There were numerous comments, ranging from “no, just throw them out, you’ll never use them”, to “if only we had room to store more of those lovely boxes”, “I wish the cat didn’t find them and trash them”, “there’s nothing quite like finding just the right box fit for purpose”. It’s nice to find kindred spirits.

The most annoying thing is knowing you had exactly the right box for a task … but you threw it out in a uncharacteristic fit of tidying up/decluttering. If only I’d kept that random box I’d hoarded for 25 years and only discarded last week!

One thing I like about Japanese culture is their beautiful presentation and wrapping. Although it would be easy to be aghast at their overwrapping of fruit and vegetables in plastic (I think this may be improving these days), their presentation of gifts is magnificent. Beautiful wrapping with cloth furoshiki, gift wrapping in stores, beautiful bags, and boxes. The lovely lightweight wooden boxes used for presenting fragile gifts are so useful. There are many of these to be found in our home, housing all sorts of items from makeup to lanyards, medicines to ribbons.

I’ve been known to purchase souvenirs on our travels just for the box. I kept the box which held the “welcome” chocolates on our pillow at the Iroquois Hotel, New York. The box containing chocolates purchased from a small manufacturer in Honduras. A box of cigars from Havana, Cuba (unfortunately the actual cigars were sub-standard, but that’s completely another story). Dates from the United Arab Emirates – this box the perfect size for housing the craft hot glue gun!

I’ve been known to keep boxes for far too long, but I have tried to be more selective in what I keep recently. I now only have one (or so) large boxes of smaller boxes, stashed away for future use.

Probably my oldest and most-loved re-purposed box is library book box from the mid-1970s, primary school days. My sister Margaret was working at the Port Augusta library and her boss, Cynthia, turned the sturdy library book boxes into personal treasures. My box was covered in pre-teen girly pictures, and was used to hold toys and other possessions, housed “under the bed”. It suffered a bit with lots of use, and the patched-up corners unfortunately don’t really match the original theme of the box. Later, in school and Uni days, it housed books once again, and has been kept over the years moving from house to house.

These days, some 40+ years later, it still has a particular place and particular purpose. It now houses presents bought and yet to be gifted. It’s probably no longer a secret that it’s where the birthday and Christmas present stash is kept. It is just the right box.