Baubles, doodads and thingies: Add a little whimsy to your day at these trinket boxes
Tony Canas, aka the Red Hat Magician, has stopped by the Atlanta Trinket Trade box on the Eastside Beltline almost every day since it opened about a month ago to drop off some stickers or pick up a new trinket.
The trinket box, created by Atlanta resident Ava Loughlin, is made from a white junction box, typically used to house electrical connections. It hangs on a pole along the Eastside Beltline just beneath the North Highland Avenue Bridge next to a graffitied green ATLien. Inside is an assortment of small objects, like a beaded bracelet, stickers or small plushie keychains. Throughout the day, anyone can unlatch the box, pick up a trinket and hopefully leave one behind to share.
“This is just a great way to show love for the community,” Canas said on a recent afternoon, standing by the trinket box while wearing a red top hat and red heart glasses. Usually, he wears a red jacket, too, but the humidity wasn’t suitable for it.
“The person that left something behind knows that somebody will benefit from it, and the person that picks something up knows that somebody cared enough to leave something behind,” he said.
The Atlanta Trinket Trade box is part of a growing movement around metro Atlanta and in the wider world where people set up their own trinket boxes for strangers to enjoy. The boxes’ sole function is to bring joy to people’s lives. It relies on generosity, community trust and that human urge to collect mementos from the world around us.
Bring your doodads and baubles
Portland resident Rachael Harms Mahlandt launched the Worldwide Sidewalk Joy map in September 2024.
The map has various categories, from puzzle exchanges to free little greenhouses, but she said in the past two months, the number of listings has almost doubled from around 800 to over 1,500, and a large part of that growth is thanks to trinket trade boxes.
She said Philly Trinket Trove was one of the early participants in the trinket box trade when they repurposed a junction box last September, offering people a low barrier of entry to start their own version.
“This is just like a big, giant game of telephone where everybody is seeing somebody else’s spot, and it’s inspiring them, and it’s expanding so fast,” she said.
Mallory Gay and Madison Glines, co-owners of Smyrna bookstore Sincerely Yours, were inspired to start their own box after seeing the Atlanta Trinket Trade on the Beltline. The two women recently held a mini grand opening for their pink trinket box, complete with a tiny ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Their bright pink trinket box is studded with colorful star stickers and attached to a Little Free Library filled with donated books in front of the store. At any one time, a trader can look inside the box to find buttons, bookmarks, key chains, bracelets, local art and even a collection of “Twilight” stickers.
There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule for what qualifies as a trinket, though trash and broken items are discouraged.
“A little doodad, a little bauble,” Gay said. “A little thingy you can hold in your hand.”
Trinkets are basically tchotchkes, those little objects beloved by collectors, sentimentalists and nostalgists who recall the days of trading Silly Bandz and friendship bracelets on the playground.
@atltrinkettrade She is upppppp ✨✊💞💅🏼😝 📍Under the N Highland Avenue Bridge on the Eastside beltline trail!!! Come trade😗🤞🏼 (sorry it’s dark I was trying to be sneaky and it was lowkey was so scary w all the ppl) #atlanta #beltline #trinkets #trinkettrade ♬ original sound - Samantha Swayzie
Loughlin decided to start the Atlanta Trinket Trade because she had an excess of trinkets at home that she wanted to share. At first, she was refilling the box every day with her own supply and with some of the magnets and crafts she makes herself, but as her collection started to dwindle, she started to let it run itself.
“I know that some people had the same type of hobbies, but (I) didn’t think people would care as much as they do,” she said. “Having something physical that you can go and visit and trade something with strangers, there’s something so sweet in that.”
Gay believes it’s part of a larger cultural trend that’s drawing people to trade, thrift, upcycle and just add more fun to the everyday, like how she tops her iced coffee with colorful sprinkles in the morning.
“It’s like doing with what you have instead of creating new things in the world,” she said. “Any little thing anyone can do to wake up and try to have a good day is really important.”
Taking care of each other
About eight months ago, Alyssa Bickel and Wendy Mizerek added a Little Free Library to a corner of their neighborhood in Marietta. Jamerson Forest’s Fables began with just the one library, but over time, it has grown to include a painted rock garden, a dog library, a geocache and a trinket/treasure box.
Since coming to life, Jamerson Forest’s Fables has welcomed field trips from local kids, temporarily housed a little free pantry when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were paused and was the site of a recent Easter egg hunt for local children.
There was even a spontaneous water gun fight at the corner a few days ago, Mizerek said.
Bickel and Mizerek nailed the treasure box onto the kids’ library and started adding random objects to it. The community soon started contributing their own treasures, like 3D-printed toys, fidgets, key chains, notebooks and stickers.
“I think we wanted to reach another audience,” Bickel said. “How could we get kids to just come over and be exposed to books without necessarily opening the books? So we added (the treasure box), and it’s been extremely successful. We have to fill it constantly.”
“We wanted to put kindness out into the world and goodness out into the world,” Mizerek added. “And we felt like by giving the treasure and the books and the rocks, it just kind of could brighten somebody’s day, and especially a kid.”
Mizerek and Bickel said the corner is getting people to talk and get to know each other, and neighbors have asked how they can help support Jamerson Forest’s Fables, too.
“I guess that what resonated the most with us is seeing how many people want community and want to help and want to care and take care of each other,” Bickel said.
Getting to know the community was a big part of what inspired Harms Mahlandt to introduce her own installations to her yard in Portland several years ago.
While she started tracking the Sidewalk Joy projects just in Portland, it soon turned into a larger endeavor that showed her how many existed around the world.
“I think the same thing that’s helping trinket boxes grow is the same thing that’s helping Sidewalk Joy grow, which is that the world is heavy, we feel divided, and everybody could use a little bit more joy, a little bit more community,” Harms Mahlandt said.
Where to find trinket boxes in metro Atlanta
Check out some of these trinket boxes around metro Atlanta, and if you’re interested in starting your own, Harms Mahlandt shares blog posts at worldwidesidewalkjoy.com/blog and social media videos on how to get started.
Sincerely Yours Bookstore Trinket Trade. 2450 Atlanta Road SE, Smyrna. instagram.com/sincerelyyoursbookstore
Atlanta Trinket Trade. Eastside Beltline beneath the North Highland Avenue Bridge. tiktok.com/@atltrinkettrade
Sandy Springs Trinket Trade Box. Located inside the Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore. 5531 Roswell Road NE, Sandy Springs. instagram.com/sandyspringstrinketbox
Jamerson Forest’s Fables. 4763 Jamerson Forest Parkway, Marietta. instagram.com/jamerson_forests_fables
Lville Trinket Trade. 42 S. Clayton St., Lawrenceville. tiktok.com/@noturaveragemawma
Find the full map with more Sidewalk Joy projects at worldwidesidewalkjoy.com
About the Author
Olivia Wakim is a reporter on the lifestyle team. She joined the AJC as an intern in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in school, she reported for The Red & Black, Grady Newsource and the Marietta Daily Journal.
