Turn your children’s ‘pocket treasures’ into keepsake lamps

For all the parents who are constantly discovering little toys, stones, papers and other “found treasures” in their kids’ pockets and around the house, you can turn this childhood flotsam and jetsam into keepsake lamps.

One Reddit user shared how his mom kept things she found in his pockets over the years in a glass jar on a laundry shelf.

“I remember as a kid, wishing soooo hard that I could get some of the items back, but it was forbidden to even go near the jar,” justgrant2009 posted.

So, when his mom pulled out a clear lamp she’d filled with all his “pocket treasures” collected over the years and presented it to him at his rehearsal dinner, the Reddit user “started tearing up before she had finished talking.”

Another pair of boys’ keepsake lamps is shown on My Old Country Home’s blog from when her two sons were younger. One lamp is filled with matchbox cars and the other is filled with collectible figures.

Karen from the Sew Many Ways blog did something similar. Over the years, her two daughters kept their various treasures and sentimental items in storage drawers. Then when they were grown and out of the house, Karen put the items into “memory jar lamps” to give to them at Christmas. She also planned to make mason jars with metal lids into lamps using a lamp kit.

With fillable lamps that you can open and close as much as you’d like, you could add little treasures as you go or even rotate the items inside.

If you’re not into the idea of a lamp, clear jars and containers are also decorative ways to display kids’ found objects.

Twitter user @LaguitoGal shared a photo of a mason jar stuffed full of “bones, a snakeskin, a turtle shell, beach glass, fallen nests, birch bark and way too many rocks” that her kids collected on hikes.

If you’re more of a minimalist, you might follow the lead of photographer Melissa Kaseman, who artfully arranged and photographed the items her child brought home from preschool.

Now I just need to find a lamp-like container big enough to store the sticks, rocks and shells my kids want to bring home from nature and beach walks. Taking suggestions!