+
upworthy
Most Shared

11 emotional, hilarious, and moving photos from the Museum of Broken Relationships.

A new museum in L.A. is helping people process their broken relationships by treating objects with sentimental value like art.

After she broke up with her boyfriend, this woman says she immediately removed her breast implants.

Her boyfriend had convinced her to get them, and she didn't like them much anyway. But she kept those implants in a drawer as a memory, anyway, thinking that someday she'd figure out what to do with them. When she heard about The Museum of Broken Relationships, she knew she'd found the perfect place.

This heart-wrenching confession from an anonymous donor is one of hundreds of objects and stories sent to the Museum of Broken Relationships every month.


The Museum of Broken Relationships opened in June 2016.

It's located on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles, and it's a museum where all material remnants of relationships past can go to tell a story.

The concept of this unique museum comes from Croatia. Founder and president John B. Quinn was on a family vacation in April 2015 when he visited the original Museum of Broken Relationships there, and he thought it would be a great fit for the City of Angels.

According to director Alexis Hyde, the relationships represented in the museum could be with yourself, with your best friend, between a father and daughter, or they could even be about broken relationships with the church.

The museum is laid out in a loop: The first objects are icebreakers so people can get acquainted with the museum's theme.

"There’s a cheerleading costume, a wedding dress stuffed in a jar, a box of love letters, so you really start to get a flavor of what you’re about to be getting into," Hyde said.

"After seven years together, five of them married, my husband told me that he felt stuck and that he 'probably' didn't love me anymore." Wedding dress in a jar. Image via Museum of Broken Relationships Los Angeles/Instagram.

As you go deeper into the museum, the actual physical space becomes smaller.

The ceilings start to get lower, and it becomes a bit more private as heavier subject matters start to show up. That's where you see items dealing with major loss or remnants of long-term relationships gone wrong.

Then, as you loop back around toward the exit, the objects once again become lighthearted.

Hyde said she often watches visitors discuss their relationships with amusement, maturity, respect, and fondness as they walk through the museum.

Hyde said the way people respond to the museum is pretty close to how they respond to broken relationships.

"Everyone responds differently, so we really do get like a whole rainbow of reactions, that's really beautiful," she said.

While some people openly cry right away, others sort of brush off the fact that they're a little uncomfortable by acting silly. And, of course, there are the couples who start making out not long after coming into the exhibit.

As for the most interesting donations they've received, Hyde said they're all pretty wild.

The museum has received over 300 donations so far from all over the country. But Hyde's favorite story is the one behind the breast implants, mentioned earlier.

She said the woman first approached the museum about donating the implants that her ex-boyfriend had convinced her to get. She had to have two reconstructive surgeries to get them right before they broke up and she took the implants out. So they already carried a lot of baggage (literally). He also made her pay him back for them.

The woman wanted to get rid of the implants to remind herself, and others, that no one should dictate her worth or how she should feel about the way she looks. After a long talk with the woman, Hyde said she received a biohazard bag in the mail with the implants inside.

As for why people donate items that have such emotional significance to them personally?

Hyde thinks there are several reasons: There's good old fashioned closure, of course. And it's also a type of catharsis, of letting go of repressed feelings that may still be hurting you.

People come to the museum for similar reasons. They want to feel connected, and they want to find stories that are similar to their own to remind them that they're not alone.

"It's nice for people to honor their relationship or to have a place to put something that isn't the trash or eBay," Hyde said. "It's a way of saying, 'This may be over, but it mattered.'"

This wacky museum reminds us that not every broken relationship is bad.

It's almost impossible to go through life unscathed, without a single broken relationship. But while they were tough, broken relationships are also proof that we were alive and a part of something, and that's why this museum exists.

Pop Culture

Here’s a paycheck for a McDonald’s worker. And here's my jaw dropping to the floor.

So we've all heard the numbers, but what does that mean in reality? Here's one year's wages — yes, *full-time* wages. Woo.

Making a little over 10,000 for a yearly salary.


I've written tons of things about minimum wage, backed up by fact-checkers and economists and scholarly studies. All of them point to raising the minimum wage as a solution to lifting people out of poverty and getting folks off of public assistance. It's slowly happening, and there's much more to be done.

But when it comes right down to it, where the rubber meets the road is what it means for everyday workers who have to live with those wages. I honestly don't know how they do it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

5-star Scottish resort offers whimsical afternoon tea experience with 'naughty sheep'

Cameron House's Woolly Wellness retreat includes tea in the garden with adorably rude guests.

Cameron House/Naughty Sheep

Cameron House's Woolly Wellness retreat includes a unique sheep encounter.

Remember when "goat yoga" was all the rage? And then "cow cuddling" and "turkey cuddling" made everyone's bucket lists?

Now we can add "nuzzling with naughty sheep" to the mix, but with a fancy Scottish twist.

Less than an hour from Glasgow, Scotland, the Cameron House resort sits on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, looking as if it were plucked straight out of a fairy tale. Sprawling green grounds, gorgeous lake views and a four-story castled mansion greet guests as their "home away from home" (only better), and a perusal of the reviews show guests raving about the 5-star resort's elegance, beauty and exceptional service.

I mean, just look at this place:

drone view of cameron house grounds and lakeCameron House sit on Lake Lochmond in Scotland.Cameron House


Keep ReadingShow less

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
@caitlin.the.realtor/TikTok, used with permission

Wait, so 90's fashion is in, but 90's hair is out?

Every era has its own version of what’s attractive. And very rarely does that aesthetic hold power with the following generation. In fact, it often becomes the opposite of cool.

Just think of Elvis. He might have been a universal sex symbol for a time, but it also wasn’t long before his pompadour became passé. Same goes for Paul Newman’s rugged manliness, David Cassidy’s babyface, Tom Selleck’s mustache. Indeed, for everything a season.

Which brings us to the 90s. The age of beach blonde surfer boys (real surfing skills not required, but a plus). Of flannel, lots of flannel, and super chiseled bodies. Let’s not forget this was the dawning of the term “metrosexual,” and also the time period that brought us that Calvin Klein ad with Mark Wahlburg.

How exactly would these guys measure up with the Gen Z kids today?

Keep ReadingShow less
popular

A wild Eurasian crow befriended a toddler and won't leave his side

Crows are so much smarter than we think.

A Eurasian crow.

A family from Denmark has created a touching video montage documenting their unique friendship with a wild Eurasian crow. This crow, affectionately named Russell, has become an honorary member of their household, forming special bonds with each family member, including the pets.

However, the crow's relationship with their son, 2-year-old Otto, is truly extraordinary. “They could spend hours just playing,” Otto’s mother, Laerke Luna, says in a video shared by The Dodo. "When Otto is outside, he will never leave Otto’s side.”

Russell, the free-spirited crow, ventures away from the family's home from time to time, but never for too long. He always comes back and announces his return by tapping on the door, swooping in to lounge on the sofa, or awaiting Otto's return from school atop their roof.

“When we are inside, he will sit inside the window because he wants Otto to go outside with him,” Laerke said.

The family’s relationship with Russell didn’t come out of nowhere. When Russell was a young bird, he had health problems so the family took him and nursed the bird back to health. Eventually, they witnessed his first attempts to fly.

Recently, Russell became friends with another family member, their second child, Hedwig. Although he does get a little annoyed with the bird’s frequent attempts to nab his pacifier.

Even though it’s rare for humans to strike up such a close bond with a crow, according to research, it’s not that surprising. Audubon says that crows are “some of the smartest animals in the world” with an intelligence “on par with chimpanzees.” They are also very social and family-oriented, so no wonder Russell loves Otto and his family.

Crow Named Russell Waits For His Favorite Kid To Get Home From School | The Dodo


Learning

Why you shouldn't throw your dishwasher pod into the bottom of your dishwasher

Dishwashers actually use the dirty water to know how to wash your dishes.

Photos by cottonbro studio and PhotoMIX Ltd. via Canva

Why your detergent shouldn't go in the bottom of the dishwasher

There always seem to be something going on with the pods and powders you're supposed to use in the dishwasher to clean your dishes. Either the pods don't dissolve completely or the powder gets all goopy and hard, never really fully dispensing into the dishwasher.

The inconsistency in product dispensing can leave you wondering if the dishes are even getting cleaned, causing some to toss the detergent pod into the bottom of the dishwasher. It would seem that placing the detergent at the bottom would allow for it to actually reach your dirty dishes. But Melissa Pateras, a domestic expert, explains that doing it that way isn't doing what you think it's doing.

Pateras actually breaks down exactly how dishwashers work to clean your dishes while explaining why putting the detergent on the bottom is ineffective.

Keep ReadingShow less