Discovering the Trinket Boxes of Hawaii By Mikayla Maeshiro

By Mikayla Maeshiro

It is safe to say that I am obsessed with the small joys that trinket boxes bring to communities nationwide.

These boxes have a distinct similarity to ‘Tiny Libraries’ with free books and the ‘give one, take one’ mentality, but instead of dusty-old books, a person can find cute keychains, miniature figurines, and stickers. In an age of unrest and distrust, the honor system of a trinket box truly brings the positivity back to a community, where the best is assumed of society and deemed trustworthy for a small joy that doesn’t require a monetary transaction.

These trinket boxes are such a cute way for community-building, despite the lack of in-person connection. In past social culture, such as trading cards, it would be an in-person trade, where entire collections may be brought to the exchange. Yet, I find the blind trade concept with trinket boxes to be quite endearing. Whatever can be found in these boxes is a snapshot of the community around you, such as what individuals found personal connections to as their trinkets, but also what beloved trinket they were willing to give away to find joy in another. It is an easy way to find new interests and those particular small joys in little knick-knacks with love from their previous owner, left in the box meant to be cherished by a new owner.

Since moving college in California to my home state of Hawaii, I have yet to actually visit any of the four trinket boxes around my community. So, on a lazy Tuesday off from my usual busy barista schedule, I wanted to visit them and discover the small joys of each snapshot of trinket adoration in the communities near me, and even find out if the collection inside each box varies. My plan in mind when visiting all four was to do a ‘give one, take one’ trade with my personal trinkets at each location, in hopes my knick-knacks spread small joys to future trinket traders.

The journey began with Trinket Box 1, one of three boxes run by AlohaTrinketBox on Instagram, located in Kaimuki. I arrived around late morning on a weekday, so I was surprised to see the area practically barren despite various street-level businesses open nearby. There wasn’t much foot traffic occurring other than a delivery man half a block down. I had to pay for street parking, as that was the only available place to park legally, which was a downside. (Realistically, it was only $.30 for twenty minutes, but I have code to uphold.) When I finally got to the box, there was one word that came to my mind: underwhelming. It was just a jumble of things. (There was an adhesive bandage left in it…) Perhaps I have high standards, but the vibe I got from the contents in the box was single-use plastic toy junk. But, staying positive, I did a trade regardless, giving my calming stick I was gifted around the time of my high school graduation for a spooky moth sticker.

Overall ‘Small joy’ Rating: 1/10. Not a good start. I did not want to lose hope about the trinket community existing in Hawaii, but it was slowly dwindling…

Within a ten minute drive later, I arrived at Box 2, AlohaTrinketBox 2 of 3, located in a much busier area of Manoa. The parking was free this time, but that was only because the box was located within a neighborhood, so I street-parked in front of incredibly nice and likely-expensive houses. Just like Box 1, my first reaction to opening the box was that it was mostly just plastic toys, but this box felt more intentional and kid-centric, meant for a child’s idea of a trinket, rather than an outsider using it for their trash bin. This feeling was supported when a woman showed up to the trinket box just as I was leaving, and I had a brief conversation with her. She mentioned she was at the box to ‘donate some stuff,’ and she commented that she had never seen anyone at the box before. Perhaps this box is seen as a kid’s toy chest instead of a community trinket trading post. Regardless, the trade I did for this box was leaving a fluffy pink keychain for a soft penguin squishy.

Overall ‘Small Joy’ Rating: 5.5/10. I think a kid-centric trinket box is really cute, but if it is meant to serve the entire nearby community without any clarification or otherwise, I would assume there would be a few knick-knacks for the older folks, too.

I would say that Trinket Box 3, the final of AlohaTrinketBox’s property, was the most difficult to reach, purely based on location. Box 3 was located in Kaka’ako, surrounded by various construction for the supposed ‘up-and-coming’ high-rises of Downtown Honolulu. Due to this, parking absolutely sucked, to put it plainly. I had to park in a separate location and walk fifteen minutes to get to this trinket box. The walk was not too bad, but as I mentioned, I have high standards. I would describe this box as the most kid-centric of them all, and due to this, I did not engage in a proper trade. Instead, I left the penguin squishy from Box 2 and three other squishies to add to the box. If the AlohaTrinketBox boxes are meant to be for kids, as my gut feeling was telling me, I didn’t want to take anything from the children, anyways.

Overall ‘Small Joy’ Rating: 5/10. I had accepted my fate.

Box 4 was an absolute redemption arc in this entire journey. It is not run by AlohaTrinketBox, but instead, Potluck Hawaii, which is the store it is located within. I believe that it was the best because it had clear rules posted on each side of the box of what was an acceptable trade and what was not allowed within the box. Plus, there were a lot of things to choose from that actually felt like true, genuine trinkets that were prized possessions of someone in the past. For this trade, which is the only one that felt the most authentic to me, rather than for the purpose of this blog post, I gave my motivational crochet pickle for a teeny dino figurine that caught my eye.

Overall ‘Small Joy’ Rating: 9/10. I cannot emphasize enough just how relieving it was to end on this trinket box. Mission successful, based on my high standards, even if it was a 25% success rate.

A saying that really resonated with me during this entire process was, ‘it’s about the journey, not the destination.’ My enjoyment from this self-made scavenger hunt did not come from the boxes themselves, but instead from the treats I gave myself within each trip. Before the first stop, I tried a new matcha place. After the second stop, I was able to slow down for a moment and enjoy the beautiful scenery, even at a gas station. At the final stop, located within a trinket store itself, I got to discover new artists’ creations and even bought myself a few things to support a local business. The drive itself from point A to point B to point C to point D was full of upbeat music and fun podcasts, and it was an indulgence of my daily small joys as well. Sure, there was disappointment that bloomed from surmising that maybe I am not the demographic for these trinket boxes. But every experience, discovery, and memory made that day will stay with me. Plus, it was not an absolute waste of time. I will treasure that dino figurine with my whole heart.

Perhaps it is not the trinket itself that is the root of the small joy, but the odyssey that led to the trinket that creates the joy, instead.