Came in fancy tin boxes

[beccabear67]

Ever buy things coming in tin boxes that were decorated more for the box than the contents? I was always sold on anything looking elaborate, especially vintage Japanese or Indian graphics; an octagonal biscuits tin with some sort of faux oriental design is one of my favorite things even though it's a bit tarnished in a couple of spots, handed down from those now absent. My Mum has a later chocolates tin that looks like a treasure chest and it has a lock and simple key lid that still works (might've been Quality Street chocolates circa 1970s). I have a small Hello Kitty tin that's my travel pills box now that the little cherry candies are long gone from it, and also used half of it to stamp out kitty-shaped Christmas cookies (my boyfriend was then too sentimental to want to bite).

What tin containers do you hang on to? Any brand names on them, like Oxo? I prefer without logos.

[Richard1978]

My Dad had a treasure chest like box holding some small bottles of port, after they were drunk I was given in & still have it. I punched a couple of holes in it so I could lock it with a padlock.

[George 1978]

We had boxes to keep teabags fresh and all that - I think we also had one for sugar and one for rice as well.

[beccabear67]

I remember a danish butter biscuits tin full of crayons at my grandparents. My grandfather also had tins that tobacco came in in his workshop with various auto parts, screws and nails as he used to roll his own.

Seems funny to see DVDs and CDs in tins!

[Richard1978]

It seems that every other older woman interested in sewing uses an old sweet or biscuit tin to keep some of her sewing kit in.

I remember my Mum used to use old Elastoplast tins to keep the small cotton reels in for her sewing machine.

[George 1978]

I always think of the elderly ladies who used to have old biscuit tins in the sideboard cupboard where the deeds are stored (Alan Bradley in Corrie just before he went on a six month "holiday" to Risley in 1989 springs to mind). Not to mention that 1980s tradition of elderly folk keeping their "lucrative" pound notes in biscuit tins upstairs on top of the wardrobe as bank accounts were unfamiliar to them, and Crimewatch strongly recommending them not to do that as any burglar would think that all of their birthdays had come along at once.

My late mother stored needles in an old throat pastels tin; my late father had old photographs and scrunched up old newspaper in a Blue Bird toffee tin, and so on.

[George 1978]

What tin containers do you hang on to? Any brand names on them, like Oxo? I prefer without logos.

Red Oxo tins were all over the place, and some came in different sizes - every family member had once. I could have sworn that the Ogdens in Coronation Street had a blue on on their sideboard just below their "Muriel". Looks almost like one.

[beccabear67]

Elastoplast tins also makes me think of some vapor-rub stuff for bronchitis that came in a shallow round tin. Not a fond memory or smell. My brother had breathing trouble so bad they put a glass streamer thing in his room at night as well as that stuff on the chest. We survived though!

Sooty used to endorse Oxo, would love to find an Oxo tin with Sooty on it.

[George 1978]

Sounds like my late father - he was always a hoarder.

[beccabear67]

I prefer the term accumulator to hoarder.

When my Grandad passed there was one of his cronies who also repaired machinery who kindly adopted all his tins of bits. There wasn't anything like classy radiator caps, entire front grills, or rare motorcycle accessories... mostly all small and often rusty things.