We All Need a Safe Haven Right Now, And Mine Is Inside A Caboodle.
Pre-Covid, I regularly hunted for Caboodles at my favorite thrift store, but I never found one. And by “never found,” I mean, “never found in a condition I was comfortable bringing home.” Occasionally, there would be dingy ones on the shelf, but I just couldn’t do it. The Caboodles cases of my ‘90s memories—and thus, the Caboodles cases of my 2020 dreams—were pristine.
For those who missed Caboodles during their first wave of popularity, the concept can be summarized as: pastel tackle boxes with rounded corners, marketed to girls, because…beauty products. During my tween and teen years, I grew a whole collection of them. Each case served her own, important purpose; one kept beads and beading supplies, one kept jewelry, one had trinkets and stationery, and so on and so on. They lived in the bottom cupboard of a shelf unit in my bedroom, so they could bask in each other’s glory and have secret meetings in privacy.
To be completely honest, I don’t know why I still care about them. It probably has something to do with the fact that they’re aesthetically pleasing (bubbly like a cartoon! And such pretty colors!) and they also represent a level of organization that I can really only manage in breadbox-sized doses. For someone who also had a healthy Lisa Frank obsession and a borderline unhealthy boyband phase…
