AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Inside a green wooden box mounted to a steel fence, a treasure trove of trinkets awaits. Just a few miles north is another goodie box, this time covered in leopard print and inside a craft studio. Farther east, a simple white trinket box sits mounted on a wooden pole, decorated with stars and a crow saying, \u201cThanks for visiting!\u201d<\/p>\n
These boxes, filled to the brim with stickers, keychains, jewelry, collectibles and more, are known as trinket trade boxes. Austin has seen a sudden surge in these boxes over the last few months, and despite their varying locations, one sentiment ties them all together: trinket trading is a fun way to bring a bit of joy to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle things that bring people joy is so important right now, which I think a lot of us can agree with, and I\u2019ve seen all sorts of people use the box so far,\u201d said Anna Arocha, whose trinket box is in The Triangle neighborhood downtown. \u201cLittle kids and all the way up to people in their 50s and 60s, I\u2019ve seen stop by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trinket trading operates on a simple system of take something, leave something. People can swap a toy car for a lanyard, a bracelet for a Sonny Angel, or a Pok\u00e9mon card for a rubber duck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was somebody who was just walking by with their kid in the stroller, and there was a finger puppet inside of the box, and I saw her swap something out and walk away with the little finger puppet,\u201d Arocha said. \u201cAnd it was just such a cute moment to see a mom and a kid enjoy something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arocha put her crafting skills to work and made her green wooden box in just one day using craft wood and a wine crate last month. Amy Elms opted for a small, white junction box to ensure it could withstand harsh Texas weather. Ani\u2019s Day & Night on East Riverside, which has a large outdoor space for picnic tables and food trucks, gave Elms permission<\/a> to place her trinket box on their property in January.<\/p>\n Ally Chavez used her own property, Create! Studio ATX<\/a> on West Anderson Lane, for her leopard-print box that opened in March.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a ton up here in the north area, so we just kind of wanted to put it together and put it up for the studio just as a way to connect with the community in a way that no one has to spend money,\u201d Chavez said.<\/p>\n Since their debuts, all three trinket boxes have garnered thousands of interactions on social media. When Arocha posted about the opening of her box in March, she racked up 100,000 views on TikTok<\/a>. But with the excited comments came a bit of negative attention, and her cameras caught a thief trying to take all the trinkets. Arocha now locks the box at night.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody wants to do that, so be it,\u201d Arocha said. \u201cWe can start over, and if the joy that it brings outweighs that every time, I think it\u2019s worth doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Arocha, Elms and Chavez\u2019s boxes are now registered on a website called Worldwide Sidewalk Joy<\/a>, alongside all the others in Austin and across the globe, as trinket trading grows to become a kind of new, modern geocaching.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s been I think even better than I expected so far,\u201d Elms said. \u201cI\u2019ve had people\u2026 visiting Austin from out of town, and they\u2019re making it a stop during their visit. I\u2019ve also had multiple people reach out to me to ask how they can start their own trinket trade box, too, which I really love.\u201d<\/p>\n