Collections: Vintage Advertisements & Packaging

It's kitschy collection time! I've shared several collections on the blog, including my ice cream cone cookie jars, printer drawers with miniatures, and my ever-growing collection of local matchbooks.

I refuse to pick a favorite, but let's say that my vintage advertising and packaging collection is up there. In fact, almost every room in my house is in on the fun.

I have a bunch of vintage toiletries and medicine containers in my bathroom and a combination of cleaning products, spice containers, and birthday candle boxes in the kitchen.

The dining room has become a prime spot for vintage ice cream containers, and the living room has everything from a retro set of bean bag ashtrays to cardboard boxes of laundry detergent.

Variety is the spice of life, they say.

My vintage packaging and advertising collection has taken years to accumulate. And the fun part is that I will never be finished with it. I'm kind of picky about what I buy, so I don't enter full-on hoarder status. However, I rarely turn down something really cool (and affordable).

Sometimes, one of the biggest hurdles when collecting is figuring out where the heck to put everything. I've owned a couple of mid-century plant stands over the years, and I have to say ... they can be used for practically anything.

I placed mine in front of the fireplace in the living room (front and center), and it's been fun decorating the shelves with old packaging.

Happiness is an unused 3-pack of Beanie Jr. ashtrays in the original box. Among other things ...

I'm constantly amazed at the illustrations and fonts used on simple things like a box in the freezer. It's a work of art. 🤓

This bright red sequin headband is one of my most recent finds. Isn't it great? I've never seen anything like it.

This is the packaging that Hershey's chocolate bars came in back in the 50s. How have things changed so much over the years?!

I don't have a ton of them, but I love old buttons and necklace-making supplies. The illustrations are perfect.

I was so excited (definitely more than the average person) when I found an unopened package of sour orange gum. How does an old pack of gum remain unopened for so long? One will never know.

The rainbow sprinkles were in my grandma's kitchen cabinet from the 1980s until she passed away a few years ago. It cracks me up that she kept them for so long, but I'm forever grateful she did. I secretly hope they were used on one of my birthday cakes.

It's not often that you find an unused frozen food saw in the original box. A frozen food saw?? Again, the designs are priceless.

Can you guess which one of these cleaning supplies is my favorite?

I stare at this shelf a lot. It's one of my favorite things in my house, and maybe of ALL TIME. The plastic ice cream cone container in the back is full of Avon bubble bath. The box it came in is equally cute.

The vintage Galaxy syrup bottle (it doubles as a coin bank) next to the bubble bath is a true gem—it was one of the first things I bought that made me want to start collecting vintage packaging.

Related Post: Collections: Ice Cream Cone Cookie Jars

Back in the olden days, you could buy cough syrup with chloroform in it. Can you even imagine? Lol. The box has the original glass bottle inside, and it's still filled with a black syrupy liquid. It's both terrifying and cool, in my opinion.

Related Post: 1970s Bathroom Makeover

Don't forget to smear on some Groom & Clean Hair Dressing and take a pull of Astring-O-Sol before you leave the house in the morning.

Here's another perfect example of the allure of vintage packaging. Band-Aids never looked so good.

I often wonder if people realized how COOL everything looked before the 1980s. I mean, even boxes of white chalk and bottles of Pine-Sol had character. Are people going to look back at today's packaging and want to collect it 50 years from now? I have a lot of questions!

xoxo, Jacki