What’s in the box? Inside Orange County’s Trinket Exchange

Photograph by Trinity Johnson, Photographer

Bring a trinket, leave the trinket and take a new one home with you. Whether it’s because they have too many collectables, or because they’re hoping to find something new and exciting, the Orange Trinket Exchange, located near the Orange Circle at Soulland Lab, is a little piece of community that allows Orange residents to participate in trinket trading. 

“Say you have a trinket that you love, or something that you might not even love as much, and you want to find it a new home. You would take it to the trinket box and exchange it for something else that you love more,” said Cassandra Sotelo, owner of the Orange Trinket Exchange. 

Sotelo is the face behind the Orange Trinket Exchange, maintaining the wellbeing of the box since she founded the idea in January. Native to LA County, Sotelo wanted to bring the trinket swap idea to Orange to foster a strong sense of community. 

“I grew up in a city where you can go become friends with your neighbors, you can go to community events and know who you're talking to and I know who people are,” Sotelo said. “I wanted to bring that sense of homeliness back, that sense of community and joy. I just wanted everybody to heal their inner child, to get a sense of happiness in a hard, weird time, and I'm hoping that I accomplish that.”

The concept started in Philadelphia when the curator of the original trinket box was inspired by similar trinket swap places on social media, such as the “Shrek Box” in Philadelphia and the “Duck Library” in New York City. In collaboration with Worldwide Sidewalk Joy, trinket swap boxes can be found via a map on the website marking all official trinket swap boxes around the world, as well as similar projects all with the intention of bringing happiness to people along the street. 

Scrolling on TikTok one day, Sotelo stumbled across a video of a trinket exchange box, and loved the idea. When she first started the idea, Sotelo had to supply many of the trinkets herself, either store bought or homemade, but social media encouraged many local traders to use the box soon after. 

“Most people who come to the box come from social media. I've had a lot of people reach out to me thanking me for putting it on social media so that they could see it because they would have never known that it was in town. So it brings a larger crowd than it would for just regular foot traffic,” said Sotelo. 

The trinket box captured the attention of many community members in the Orange Circle, but not everyone who uses the box follows the rules. The trinket box runs on an honor system, similar to a Little Free Library. 

“A lot of people who have been a part of the (trinket trading) community for a while have been really honest and they've been really helpful,” said Sotelo. “They try to stock up as often as possible, but it's just an honor system where you just kind of have to hope that it's doing well and that people are able to work on this project together.”

Sotelo ran into issues with the city of Orange temporarily in April, when an Orange resident alerted her that a city official had taken down the box from its original placement. “I went to go track it down. I had called five numbers that day. I kept getting transferred, but I wasn't going to let this box go. There was no way, I needed to continue,” Sotelo said. 

After tracking down the location of the box, Sotelo took to social media to ask if any businesses in Old Towne Orange would be interested in hosting the trinket exchange in alignment with the city of Orange’s expectations. After receiving offers from many interested businesses, Sotelo settled with Soulland Lab, who also assisted Sotelo in the management of the box over the summer while she recovered for medical purposes. 

“Soulland Lab has been an amazing host, and they do their own part for the community. So I thought it was a perfect match, and they've just been so amazing with it,” said Sotelo.

The heart of the Orange Trinket Exchange stems from Sotelo’s late mother. When Sotelo first saw the trinket box idea on TikTok, she knew this was exactly the type of project she needed to do. 

“This box is dedicated to my mom, who passed away a few years ago, who loved, as she called, a ‘chácharita,’ which is, in Spanish, ‘trinket,’” Sotelo said. “And I'd been wanting to do something fun and giving for a while.”

Along with crafts and trinkets, Sotelo said her mom loved birthdays and party clowns. In fact, her mom loved the idea of being a party clown. One of the names her mom had as a clown was Daisy. Fittingly, Sotelo nicknamed the trinket box “Daisy” to pay homage to her mom. 

“I know that's just so silly, but I just thought it was so whimsical and so funny, and it just brought magic to the box for me when I made it,” said Sotelo. 

Orange residents have shown a lot of love to the Orange Trinket Exchange over the past few months, and Sotelo intends to continue the idea of bringing everyday happiness to Orange. 

“I want to make sure that people are remembering the box. Maybe they're having a bad day, and they decide: You know what? I want to be happy. Let's go trade a trinket. Let's go fill up the trinkets and bring happiness to someone else.”