Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
A round analog wall clock with a brown frame.
The collectionExhibit No. 020

Domestic timekeeping

Five minutes fast.

A wall clock operating under a longstanding agreement.

The story behind the object
The storyplayful

The clock was set five minutes fast to help us leave on time. Once everyone knew this, the system became considerably less effective.

It has survived three replacement batteries, two kitchens, and repeated discussions about simply setting it correctly. Nothing has come of those discussions.

Guests are occasionally alarmed. The family is not. We operate in a private time zone, agreed upon without any paperwork.

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 Amanda Jones / Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

A round analog wall clock with a brown frame.

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.