Glory box is an expression I used to hear more often when I was a child. People would comment that I could put some item or another into my glory box, so I always knew what it was. It’s:

‘a box in which a woman accumulates items in preparation for marriage; the collection itself’ (Australian National University).

These items can include clothes, bed linen, towels, tablecloths, cutlery and crockery.

It’s only recently that I’ve realised that this expression is mainly used in Australia (and New Zealand) and not more widely. It’s called a ‘hope chest’ in the U.S.A. and ‘bottom drawer’ in the U.K. All three expressions, though, are probably considered a little old-fashioned nowadays.

I like the idea of a glory box, but I don’t think it needs to be just for women or just for when you get married. Keeping items to use sometime in the future, to my mind, seems like a sensible and thrifty thing to do.

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Glossary

accumulates – to collect a large number of things over a long period of time

bed linen – the sheets and covers you put on a bed

cutlery – knives, forks, and spoons used for eating food

crockery – cups, plates, bowls, used to serve food and drink, especially made of china

old-fashioned [mainly disapproving] – not modern

to my mind – in my opinion

thrifty – showing a careful use of money, especially by avoiding waste