What do your collections mean to you emotionally?

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I hate those TV programs where someone with a truck comes and "helps" someone by removing their clutter!....A bit of help when asked for, is nice, but when people say "If you dont use it or need it, then throw it away". My collections are my family. My little objects hold emotions and represent connections to others (and myself).

What do you collect and what does your collection mean to you?

Oh dear....Sometimes it seems that they are so much a part of me that removing them would sorta be like removing a chunk of who I am...Other times I take them for granted....Sometimes I feel detached and empty about my collections...but maybe that is me feeling detached and empty about myself.
I collect homemade toys (which I also make)..They fall into several different sub-categories...and I collect for each of the sub-categories
I have a huge collection of homemade clowns that I love.
Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls....my favorites are the homemade ones..
Antique dolls
Quilts....
hats...
SOCKs (that I never wear)
costumes...
sewing notions...
vintage fabrics
fonts


Flakey collects books...he is a mass-hoarder of books....he does not care if he has several copies of the same book...he does not care it is a book on a subject of little to no practical interest to us or 99.99999% of the population....if it is funny or unusual...into our cramped overflowing library it goes.
He especially likes childrens books and young adult fiction.

I come from a family of book hoarders, so there are only a few books that I place any real emotional value on. My parents garage is a musty heap of books...and inside the house my dad has some really fine and well-kept collections of antique books, and that has been one of his special interests since he was very young.

Flakey really collects collections...He thinks it is funny to pick one certain object and then start accumulating that object...just for fun...till he eventually loses interest.

One of his latest collections is obnoxious novelty flip-top character cups..the kind that are purchased as souvenirs from the circus or Disney on Ice. He gets them from thrift stores We have a growing display of them.

I think I must be a bit like Flakey. I was once given a glomesh purse by someone....which i thought was odd because im not very girly.... THEN......well try and stop me gathering LOADS of glomesh! I have an embarrassing collection of it now.....but it harms no one!
And i would feel Id lost a part of me if I lost that collection, BUT I also love it when i move onto a new obsession and relinquish an old one. I love to find someone else who may collect that same thing, and love it as i did, and offload it! So i will have more room to collect my new thing.

I collect only things that are old (pre 80s) .....or home made.
Books on astrology, animal figurines from japan/england, silly politically correct out-of-date books...
Glomesh! Haha....

My daughter was being rough with my teddy from childhood one day and i said to be careful. She said "you love this teddy more than me dont you?" I said "Dont make me choose. This teddy has stuck by me through everything."

My ex landlord threw away all my property going back to my teens that included collections of all kinds, including old books, mcdonalds toys and disney musical globes. It felt as if a huge part of me had just been wiped out and I grieved for it all and still do when I think of it. I wanted to kill the scum.

We can't off-load anything....People off-load their stuff onto us.
If the habit of collecting something is relinquished...we would never dream of getting rid of that collection. It just sits there...and no part of it can be removed because it is part of a collection.

I feel like I am sort of hard-wired to be prone to collecting.
It runs heavily in my family...
If I lost everything I owned, I am sure the mentality would remain for me to start new collections.
In my family there are many hoarders.
On my grandfather's property after he died, there were found to be numerous storage sheds full of stuff that he had meticulously hoarded....all the yogurt and cottage cheese cups and toilet paper rolls meticulously packed away into boxes.
30 umbrellas were pulled from the back of his station wagon...
That's just the tip of the iceburg..

My main complaint is that it is very difficult managing all the stuff.
Flakey likes to collect stuff...but the fun stops with the buying...I have to figure out what to do with everything.
This is what happens when hoarders meet

I collect guns and I'm very attached to them. I recently even got a Federal Firearms License that is just for collecting.

yes......poopylungstuffing

I prefer to think of hoarders as "archivists"

Without people like us, alot of treasures would have been lost. There would be no museums!

And Graelwyn.....my thoughts are with you!! People have NO idea about how much of our identity is tied up and reflected in our collections. Its our life work or calling for some of us! I hope you find some more nice things to help sooth some of the pain of that loss.

I'll collect random sci-fi stuff: toys, books, games . . . be it a Lego, action figure, or model. They are part of my world, a reminder of myself and what i hope in the future (as far as technology goes). I also like figuring out poses for some of them, seeing if i can make some action-esque scene with them (in my head or physically). They are my inspiration for ideas.

I have B&J photos and posters. I still have yet photo frames to buy. I also have the expo Spokane stuff from the world's fair. My husband got it for me. It's all Spokane and it means Benny & Joon.


I also had key chains but I left them in Montana. I have my TY Beanies now. I also have old Lite Brite refill pages I was collecting. I also collect old Nintendo Power mags and I am almost done with the collection. I can't keep on collecting everything because I have no room.

Thanks.
I have not yet started collecting anything else... not sure I can afford to really, but fortunately I still have all the books I had in my apt at the time that hadnt been put in storage by him. He had asked why I kept all that junk when I had no room for it, and it wasnt a matter of it being thrown away for any reason other than that he could. And he got away with it as the court didnt consider its value to outweigh the cost of taking him to court. I had removed my old postcard collection from it, so fortunately I do have those.

He threw your stuff out just because you had too much stuff? s**t.

Heh old story. His daughter didn't like me, and saw me as a freak. In turn he started to dislike me also, for my odd ways, and I never had the courage to ask about my property he had in storage until I had left and got a lawyer to deal with it. He denied all knowledge claiming he never had any of my property. Presumably, he sold it or just threw it out. It was about 20 boxfuls of stuff in all. All rent was paid etc, so there was no justifiable reason for him to have done it. Never trust a landlord with your property in storage lol.

I would add to the things we collect: Old stuff from other peoples houses that have been thrown out on the curb.
My neighbor moved away very suddenly and her house was gutted...there were tons of old artwork and journals and stuff...we archived a few of those things...
Also, another neighbor passed away and all of her belongings were put in plastic bags on the curb. I have hundreds of old family photos dating back to the 19th century that otherwise would have gone to the landfill...not to mention vintage sewing notions...

Well when you move out and leave your stuff behind, the landlords will clean out the house or apartment or storage there and get rid of it unless you both agree when you will come back and get it. I don't know if you both had an agreement on when you will be back to get it or if he didn't even wait a month for you to come back and get it.

Heck if my husband and I decided to move apartments and we left some of our stuff here but we still hadn't officially moved out because we were still paying the rent, then the landlord can't come and take our stuff until we officially move out meaning we gave up our lease and were done paying rent. But if we had already paid it for that month, I don't think she can still come and take our stuff until the following month.

Yes TadAuty---I agree with you on collections. They are my family too. I hate those shows where they take away people's stuff. They better not come to my house. My collections create joy and completion to me. I am driven by my special intense interests. I can not tell you how much they drive me. Take them away, and I would be lost. I love the challenge of getting my treasures.

My latest treasure is another house plan blueprint from the early 1970's. It is an International style contemporary house plan with over 4000 square feet, similar to some of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses. An architect from the house plan company went into their storage area to dig the old blueprint up for me. I feel like a little child waiting for Santa Clause awaiting them to arrive at the post office.