Time capsule ideas!

[scullie]

We're doing a house renovation and while the floorboards are up I thought I'd put a time capsule underneath for future generations to find.
I'll put a newspaper of the day and a short letter from my sons (aged 10 and 12) in there and perhaps a banknote or two but am looking for inspiration. Does anyone have any fun ideas?

A plastic shopping bag! Hopefully they will be obsolete by the time it's dug up.

I feel the same way about notes and coins. Great idea thanks

a photograph of the front of the house with the date written on it as if years from now there is a different house there someone finding the capsule will know what the house looked like in 2019

Now that is genius! Thank you.

List of top 10 books, films and music.

Your most recent till receipt from a big grocery shop - may be a good idea to scan and print as they fade quite quicky - then future generations after much inflation can marvel that a loaf of bread costs less than £20 and wonder what a 'Twix' was!

photos of the area too?

Top tens are in! I'll enjoy doing that shop too

You and your sons could put on the outfits you have that you feel are most representative of 2019 fashion and take a group photo - standing by where you are going to bury the time capsule.

My sister and I buried a time capsule in the early 1980s - my parents still live in the same house but I can't remember where we buried it or what we put in it .

Maybe a run down of your typical day - commute, what you do at work, what you eat, what do do after work/in the evening, what the kids have done at school. Just a snapshot of a day in your life so to speak.

Yes to a photo (maybe just the boys not me!) I bet there was some great stuff in the one you buried! I love the idea of someone in the family or someone completely new finding it and laughing at how we used to live (or wishing life was still like that, who knows?)

Ours went in the garden, so unless I spend a few days digging random holes (my dad would be thrilled - not!) I am unlikely to strike lucky - I do remember it was a biscuit tin and we crammed it with things. It would be lovely if it happened to come to light.

Yours sounds like it's going to be great. I would love to find something like that in my house!

@ScreamingValenta please try a metal detector and then come back here and reveal it!

What a lovely idea op, I would absolutely love to discover something like this!

Any old small electricals like a remote control or old phone, rubiks cube, keys, coins, a mug, outgrown small toys like cars, playground craze such as football cards, sellotape/stamps, library card/store card, marbles, matchbox, pen & pencil, old birthday card, CD, tape if you have one. Maybe an old passport that's been cut and sent back.

There is no accounting for what will change. I remember being fascinated by the pencils at my grandparents' house because they were sharpened by penknife. I think the charm's in the most mundane of things really. It's a lovely thing to do, have fun with it.

@GingerRogers84 If me, a metal detector and my parents' garden can ever come together, I promise I will do a live-unearthing thread on MN!

I agree with Ambydex that mundane things from the past are often really interesting.

I like the old phone idea, especially if it had messages on it for the people of the future from your family. I suppose you'd need to put a charger in with it too.