Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
A grey ceramic mug on a wooden table beside an open notebook.
The collectionExhibit No. 003

A domestic institution

The mug nobody else is allowed to use.

Ceramic. Slightly chipped. Subject to household law.

The story behind the object
The storyplayful

There are eleven mugs in this cupboard. Ten of them are available to guests, family members, and anyone who has come to fix the boiler. The eleventh has rules.

It was not expensive. It is not especially beautiful. Its owner claims that tea tastes better from it, an assertion that has never survived a controlled experiment because nobody is allowed to conduct one.

A small chip appeared on the handle some years ago. This was treated as a family incident. No one has confessed. The investigation remains open.

The museum recognises this object for its outstanding contribution to morning routines, unspoken boundaries, and the sentence: you know that’s my mug.

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 Jessica Lewis / Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

A grey ceramic mug on a wooden table beside an open notebook.

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.