What I Put In My 2020 Renovation Time Capsule
/When we opened up the walls during our remodel, I knew I had to leave a time capsule behind the drywall. Plus, 2020 is quite a year to immortalize in the walls. Here's what I hid away to be found years and years from now! Decades from now? Centuries maybe?
I actually did a couple of time capsules!
A note in the spot where the California Cooler used to be. I included info about the history of the cooler, a note, a quarantine postcard, and a hint at where I’d be putting the main time capsule. You can see this one here.
I found an original door to the original kitchen, but it’s in rough shape and I don’t have a need for it. Instead of pretending I’d have a use for it, then never making anything from it, I returned it to the kitchen where it belongs. It has a note on a quarantine postcard and I’ll wedge it in between the cabinets when those are installed.
This time capsule! This is the real deal one with all of the goodies. I’m storing it in a cavity behind the kitchen walls and above the hutch in the dining room. This area is accessible from the attic, so I’m hoping someone will find it in a few decades without having to destroy my kitchen or hutch. Plus, I can add another time capsule down the road!
Here’s what’s in my time capsule
Floor plans
During the permitting process, I had to print a bunch of copies of the floor plans. I took one of the pages that had the original layout and the new one. Maybe one day someone will look at this and be surprised that my new layout isn’t the original. I hope my design is cohesive enough that it could pass as the OG.
Packaging from a local shop
I wanted to collect items from local shops. This coffee bag from a local coffee roaster does the trick. I’m hopeful it still smells delicious when someone opens this in a few decades.
Front page of newspapers
This renovation lasted for so long and so many things happened around the world. I could have easily included 100 major headlines. I picked two. One from April when the pandemic was still so new to us. And the other headline when Kamala Harris was announced as the VP pick. I had to be sure to pick days when Tr*mp wasn’t on the front page because I didn’t want him in my walls.
Food prices at a local market
This advertisement with food pricing will hopefully be fun for someone to compare the cost of red radishes in a few decades.
Old home history
Our house has been on the local historic home tour twice. I included one of the books featuring the house when it was on the tour. (psst! I photographed the wrong book, oops!)
Pressed flower from the yard
I plucked a California poppy from the yard and pressed it for a few months. To store in the tin, I wedged it between two pieces of brown paper, then ran the perimeter through my sewing machine so it’s safely tucked away.
2020 quarantine postcard
Remember when I made a custom quarantine postcard and shared the tutorial for you here? Well, I obviously had to include that.
House key
We recently had all of our locks re-keyed, so I tossed an extra one in the tin. Who doesn’t like metal trinkets?
Flash drive with a house tour video
I’ve made so much content about the house for the blog, I had to include it. Since the blog may not be around (and who knows if the internet as we know it will exist) in decades, so I put files on a flash drive. It has all of the house tour videos I’ve made, a link to the blog, some floor plans, and some historical information about previous owners of the house.
Yes, I know flash drives will be obsolete in a matter of years, but I’m still going to include it. If I found a time capsule with a VHS, I’d track down a VHS player. So I’m sure someone will figure out how to get the data off this drive.
Stamp
A stamp from the year is a nice trinket. This one is actually designed by Ross’ brother, so even thought it’s from 2019, we had to include it!
Bee specimen
As a lover of bees, I included one in a tiny vessel. I’m hopeful that bees will still be around when this time capsule is open, but if not, maybe they can do a Jurassic Park DNA extraction and repopulate the earth with my favorite pollinator.
Bookmark to notable museum
Ross and I got married at The Marston House, a 1905 mansion in San Diego. I also volunteer there, so I had a bookmark handy.
Photo of us
We had this card printed from our wedding, so I tossed it in. It’s about five years old, but it’s still us! I included a photo of us sitting in front of the house on the flash drive.
Drawing of home
When our home was on the historic house fair, a local artist drew the home and we received it printed on cards.
Letter to the future owner
We wrote a letter to the future owner on that very card. We also included our email addresses so they can reach out to us when they find the time capsule. Hopefully, I’m very old and get a kick out of it.
Old newspaper found under the kitchen floor
I forgot to take a picture of this, but I included one of the pages of old newspaper we discovered during demolition.
Tin to contain everything
I put everything inside a plastic bag and then inside a cute tin. I ordered this one and had to do the hard work of eating the cookies it came with. Tough work, but someone had to do it. The tin is on the small side, but it works perfectly and keeps everything nice and snug.
I hope someone finds this one day and is tickled to go through the trinkets. If a developer finds it in 10 years after they demolished my kitchen, I’ll be livid. I mean, what happens to this house after I leave is out of my control, but it does pain me to think about someone demolishing it. Or worse, demolishing the historic elements that can never be recreated the same way.
I’ll admit that planning for someone else to own my house and to mess with it really hurts. I’m not ready to think about someone else calling my home their home. Ugh - feels!
I drew inspiration from lots of folks about what to put in my time capsule. Lauren shared what she put in her time capsule here. Carla and Paul gave a look at their time capsule here and here.
I didn’t include everything that was suggested to me nor did I include everything I could have. But feel free to leave your suggestions for what you’d put in a time capsule in the comments!
Don’t want to forget this idea? Pin the image below to Pinterest!
