The first time I walked into a Limited Too or a Justice, my little girl eyes lit up at the brightly colored, random assortment of items I absolutely had to have (but would probably never use). There was an actual section in the middle of each of these stores that housed all the knick-knacks. It was a plastic tower of bins filled to the top with stuff, and oh how I miss all that stuff. This here is a list of all of the things I wish I still had or could go buy—the ultimate list of must-have knick-knacks.
1. Fuzzy Pens
There used to be this cup filled with pens—really awful pens if you ever tried to actually use one—that all had fuzzy balls at the top. It was like a combination of a pen and a cat toy. Super fun to play with, awful for writing.
2. Fuzzy Journal
I mean, come on, you couldn't just get the pen if the matching fuzzy journal was right there; especially because you could pet that journal, and when you pushed the fur in one direction it became a different color blue (well, blue for me—I always got a blue one).
3. Lip Smackers
Possibly some of the worst lip gloss in the world, but they had it in every flavor, so whatever. I used to get the pink one and pretend it was lipstick, but now that I'm older I wish I just liked the fact that my lip gloss tasted like Skittles instead of "original."
4. I still don't know what these are called.
All I know is that I'm still confused by them, but also have the urge to poke them.
5. Inflatable Furniture
I never had to redecorate my room as a kid because you could just inflate a new couch and you were done. They were never very comfortable and always make that squeaky noise, but if you had an inflatable anything you were the coolest kid in school.
6. Slap Bracelets
I could never tell if these were an accessory or a weapon, but either way they were fun, stylish, and for some reason every book fair I went to sold them.
7. Tamagotchi
This little thing taught me about loss WAY before I should have learned about it. That weird glob thing needed to be fed all the time, was more needy than some dogs, and died on me every other day. Too much loss at such a young age. RIP Tamagotchi.
8. Sparkly Pencils
I think everything in the 2000s needed some form of sparkles on it so they just decided to roll every number 2 pencil in a ton of sparkles and sell them for a dollar. But sparkles make it really hard to sharpen; you had to sharpen it all the way to the eraser before it had a sharp point.
9. Lisa Frank
Anything at all Lisa Frank. That shit was everywhere. Everywhere.
10. Felt Posters
I colored two of these in a week. I could've started a damn business. These things were glow in the dark sometimes. And Lisa Frank made these, too. Shocker.
