The Happy Homemaking Blog

These days hope chests are an outdated concept. Not many young women have them any more, or probably even know what they are! But I strongly believe they should be brought back. 

This post will mainly be for women, as this is a practice that is really only for women. But young men can also read this post and hope to find a young lady that takes part in this practice, as the benefits of it also impact husbands. 🙂

What Is A Hope Chest?

A hope chest is a wooden chest containing household items that are stored by a woman in preparation and anticipation for her marriage. These chests often contained clothes and linens, but they could contain whatever the young woman wished to save for her future marriage. I received a hope chest on my thirteenth birthday, and today I want to tell you why I think it’s such a good idea for young women to have them, and give you ideas for what to put in them!

Why Should I Get A Hope Chest?

Most young people desire to someday be in a relationship, and probably to be married. If that’s something you desire for your life, then why not prepare for it now?

Hope chests, especially when started at a younger age, promote thinking about and preparing for marriage earlier on in life, and I think this is a wonderful thing to do. If you want something in life, then I think it’s important to actively be mindful of how to best achieve that thing in a way that is glorifying to God. 

These are some good questions to be asking yourself as a young woman desiring to be a wife:

• What qualities are most important to me for my husband to have? 
• What good qualities should I have that will be important to my husband?
• Am I meeting the expectations that I have for my future husband?
• What are the duties that my husband will have in our marriage and how can I best support him in fulfilling those duties?
• What will my duties be as his wife and how can I best fulfill those duties?
• What things can I do to prepare for my husband and our marriage now, even if I haven’t met him?

Well, starting to collect for your hope chest is one of the things you can do to prepare for your husband and your marriage now. Trust me, it’s one of the best things I brought to my marriage. I first showed my husband the contents of my hope chest when we were engaged and he felt incredibly honored and special to know that he was marrying a girl who had thought about him and prepared for him for so long. Unpacking my hope chest when we moved into our first home together was such a special, meaningful day for me, and it’s one I’ll never forget. 

Having a hope chest is so worth it. 

What Do I Put In A Hope Chest?

Here are some ideas!

• Dishes. My hope chest was mostly filled with dishes. There was a certain dishware company that I liked and wanted to fill my home with, so I got them any chance I found. For holidays and birthdays, I also asked for dishes or kitchen tools and over the years I built up a decent store. This was an amazing collection to have going into our marriage. Already having most of my kitchen stocked made it so that I could put other things we needed on our wedding registry.
• Baby Items. If you are a woman who desires to be a wife and mother someday, absolutely start collecting baby and children items! These can be items like bottles, pacifiers, diapers, clothes, swaddles, burp cloths, baby toys- anything you anticipate using when raising your children. Collecting these items ahead of time will make it so that you can put other, more expensive, items on your baby shower registry, such as a stroller, crib, car seat, breast pump or high chair.
• Gifts for your future husband. One very special gift that I saved for my future husband was a journal of prayers and letters that I wrote for him. I think this is an extremely meaningful gift to give to your spouse, and I highly recommend the practice. But you can include any gift you wish to give your future husband. It could be a family heirloom that you wish to give to him, a scrapbook, or perhaps some pretty lingerie that you wish to save for him.
• Homemade Items. Some things included in my hope chest were knitted blankets, homemade quilts, crocheted and knitted rags, a homemade tree skirt, embroidered dish towels, and homemade aprons- all made by myself, my mom, my grandma, and my great-grandma. There was so much meaning and love from all the generations packed into my hope chest. But even if you don’t have thrifty family members that want to contribute to your hope chest, your future husband will love it if there are items in your hope chest that are handmade by you. 
• Other things for your house. In my hope chest I also kept a box of my recipes and recipes that were shared with me by friends and family. I also kept cookbooks that I enjoyed and ones that were gifted to me in my hope chest. Really, anything you desire to save for your future husband, marriage, and household can go in your hope chest. If yours ends up looking anything like mine, it will be filled to the brim and you may actually have more than will fit!

It may seem as though a hope chest will cost a lot to fill, and you may not have a large excess of finances. But like I said above, for many birthdays and holidays, I asked for items for my hope chest. I also found a lot of things at thrift stores. Your hope chest doesn’t need to be filled to the brim with expensive items. If it only has a few things that you are lovingly storing, your future husband and marriage will be greatly blessed. 

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There you have it, this has been all things related to hope chests. Hopefully we can bring back the tradition, as I think that it is such a special, beneficial one.