When I was younger, I used to think men who kept screws and nails in tins with labels like “3/4 inch self-tapping” and “flat countersunk heads” were boring old gits who had no mates and spent far too much time on their own in garden sheds.

It’s funny as I get older, I’m liking putting things into tins and boxes. I’ve got plastic garden ties in a jam jar, used garden wire in another and my seed collection is split into “veg” in a lovely oval Scottish shortbread tin and “flowers” in a Persil non-bio plastic container. Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it, eh?

Thinking about boxes, when we were kids at Christmas my mum used to buy a big tin of Family Circle biscuits as a treat. Rather than let us all dip in and take all the best ones, there was a rule in our house that we could only had “two plain and one fancy” per sitting. Under the plain category were Rich Tea and the like, with fancy being Bourbon and above. The pinnacle of the biscuits would be the chocolate coated ones in coloured foil which you’d only get five per tin. The youth of today have never had it so good, bring back national service etc.

What’s your favourite box or tin? Do let us know.