While packing up my place in Sydney, I found an old storage box with partitions that I sometimes use for storing jewellery. It is made of hard plastic and probably dates back to the 80s. My father would sometimes be gifted Diwali sweets and the tin or box it came in was reused. Particularly because these were often decorative, at least by the standards of the time.
In fact pretty much any packaging that we received was rarely thrown away. Even cardboard boxes which my brother and I would gussy up with leftover wrapping paper. Painting over things was a Sunday afternoon past time for us, be it a cheap earthenware vase or just little paintings for our wall. Sometimes my grandmother would give us a print from a Japanese calendar, my uncle had been to Japan and a calendar would often be sent to him. We would get a single print which we would mount on left over plywood. All of this was far cheaper than buying a curio or a print - even a Taschen calendar poster was unaffordable.
I discarded a lot of these when I moved to Sydney a decade back except this box. And for a cheap plastic throwaway it has lasted a long time. What's more it is in perfect condition despite being in careless hands.
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