We’re in the business of storing stuff, so naturally we’re always on the lookout for storage-related tidbits for everyone to enjoy. One day last week we stumbled across the craze of phone box stuffing. Intrigued, perplexed and delighted in equal measure we thought we’d find out a little more and have a look to see what obsessions the human race has had with seeing how much stuff we can get into things over the years.

While none of these are strictly London-based, do not let that put you off. While we can’t wholly endorse any of these activities ourselves, we’re sure Londoners have done their fair share of small-space stuffing – just look at the size of the flats most of us live in!

In the beginning, there was phone box stuffing

It probably comes as no surprise that the idea of seeing how many people could be squeezed into a telephone box was dreamt up and fully embraced on university campuses, and it was students at Durban’s university that claimed the world record for the number of people stuffed into a phone box, clocking it at an impressive 25 people in 1959.

Students at a university in California claimed to have smashed this record a few years later, with 35 souls squeezed in, but it was later discovered that the attempt hadn’t been completely above board: a larger phone box had been used, much to the shame and dismay of the phone box stuffing community at large.

Car stuffing

As a former driver of a Mini (the ‘actual’ one, not the more recent and not-so-mini version) I know only too well that they are in fact considerably more capacious than you might expect, but my personal record (4 people, 4 bags, a French horn, a sewing machine, two art portfolios and some windsurfing kit, in case you’re interested) pales in comparison with the actual record of 27 human beings, set in 2014. Even when the Guinness Book of Records people weren’t on hand to verify car stuffing attempts, the fad was well documented through the late 50s and 60s. Take, for example, the folk (above) who appear to have had a very jolly time indeed, crammed inside a Renault.

Hearse stuffing

At Colorado State University in 1963, 50 students – presumably wanting to get in on the fads for cramming people into phone boxes and VW Beetles but not possessing said items (pure conjecture here) – managed to cram themselves into this hearse, which several of the party had bought together for the purpose of taking their dates out around and about – like you do. Seems a bit macabre to us, but then each to their own…

VW Camper stuffing

51 people squeezed into this 1974 classic to claim the world record at Busfest in 2015. Can’t you just see those wheels sinking deeper and deeper into the Malvern countryside?

Tree stuffing

You can totally imagine the scene at the University of Maine in the early years of the 1960s. A bunch of strong-minded young students with the world at their feet go for a stroll through the campus grounds (maybe discussing the latest fad for phone booth stuffing and bemoaning the lack of phone booths in the vicinity), where they stumble upon a hollowed out tree and, having nothing better to do, see if it could accommodate an actual person. 13 women were eventually squeezed into this tree, followed swiftly by 15 males…

Train stuffing

Not so much a world record here; rather, a sight to behold. We might complain until we’re blue in the face about the London transport system, but compare it to peak time traffic at certain stations in Tokyo and it helps put things into perspective…

Outhouse stuffing

Yup. At some stage it was inevitable, wasn’t it? But some enterprising folk at Brookings, South Dakota, chose one fateful day to cram themselves into a toilet. More perplexing still is the fact that there were apparently rules for this sort of thing, as MentalFloss report:

“According to South Dakotan rules of the day, half a person’s body could remain outside the crammed edifice and still count – hence the pile of dudes sticking out the front.”

No further comments.

Box stuffing

These three New Zealanders hold the world record for the longest time spent in a small box (6 minutes, 13.52 seconds). We’re feeling our calves cramping up at the mere thought of spending any length of time at all in such a teensy tiny area (measuring 66.04 x 68.58 x 55.88 cm), and yes, we did wonder if we should consider trying out our Boxman self-storage boxes for size. We can report that it’s unlikely you’ll fit more than one adult in a box, but you can get a whole lot of other stuff in there.

 

It goes without saying that self-storage should not be used for storing people… even if it is in the name of experimentation. Boxman is an on-demand self-storage company, meaning that we take all the hassle out of storing your possessions – we’ll drop off wonderful, bright blue boxes to your door and return to collect them when you’re ready, leaving you more time to try and cram yourself into less pretty containers to your heart’s delight.