Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
A yellow miniature toy car standing on a tabletop.
The collectionExhibit No. 011

Small adventures

A thousand carpet miles.

One miniature car. An unusually large world.

The story behind the object
The storyplayful

This vehicle once maintained a regular service between the dining table and a highly exclusive settlement behind the sofa. Delays were generally caused by a sleeping cat.

Its driver has since acquired a licence, insurance, and a less imaginative relationship with traffic. The toy car now parks on a shelf.

All four wheels still turn. The museum considers it roadworthy, provided the route remains entirely on the carpet.

A fictional story, written for this sample exhibit.

What ordinary thing would you keep?

Make an exhibit of your own

Fictional sample exhibit · Back to the collection

Photograph by Surja Sen Das Raj / Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

A yellow miniature toy car standing on a tabletop.

An ordinary thing, given extraordinary attention.

The Museum of Ordinary Things

Nothing ordinary
about what we keep.

A ticket. A chipped cup. A watch that no longer works. Some objects matter for reasons no label can quite explain. This is a place to try.

This early exhibit explores how a photograph and a few words can give an everyday thing extraordinary attention.

Create an exhibit with your own photograph and words. Save it privately, then choose when to publish it. The two stories in our sample exhibit are fictional.