Dross Pots can be found in most human habitats. They are essential items which house treasures gathered by their owners over many years.

They come in many forms:

• A humorously ugly mug given as a gift but never intended to hold coffee.

• A biscuit barrel or cookie jar which sadly never holds its intended contents because they are always consumed before they have a chance to be stored.

• An ornamental pot given by a much loved maiden aunt and tucked out of view because it could never possibly conform to anyone's sense of taste.

Many humans, when setting up a new habitat, vigorously resist the use of Dross Pots but find they have to submit to the inevitable when they realise they have built a Dross Corner¹.

The variations of treasures kept in Dross Pots are innumerable and often very personal, but amongst them you would generally find:

• Small keys (for long-lost padlocks)
• Buttons
• Pen tops
• Screws
• Foreign coins
• Hair grips
• And drawing pins or thumb tacks²

When the inhabitants of the abode start to breed, the Dross Pot comes into its own. Alongside the aforementioned items are soon added such things as:

• Nappy (diaper) pins
• Stubs of wax crayons
• Small plastic cracker toys
• A pebble or two
• Essential bits from board games
• Hair slides or ribbons
• And lots of "I am 4/5/6" badges

Unchecked, the Dross Pot's contents will grow at an alarming rate as owners seek a "safe place" to store the minutiae of life, compelling them to start a second or third Dross Pot or even, in extreme circumstances, a Dross Drawer.

The interesting thing about the Dross Pot is its ability to deny all knowledge of an item specifically placed in its care for safe-keeping. If the owner ever needs to retrieve the item desperately enough to up-end the Pot and spill its dusty, murky contents all over a nice clean work-surface, they will be re-united with items they desperately needed last week but they will never find the item of their immediate desire.