Thursday Thought Provoker: Collecting and Saving
Thursday, July 5, 2012
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I use to collect postcards and still have several thousand. I also use to collect match boxes but have used them up now. Also ornaments (figurines) I still have some of them. Now I collect autographs. Mainly Cricketers but I have a few other famous people including authors etc.
Oh I was collecting the USA quarters I think with the different states I think I was 11 short.
I save to much. although am getting better. Mum was a hoarder of the wrong sorts of stuff and I try to be better and not keep things I wont use etc. I do save letters from penpals and special cards. Like a few I got when I moved or thankyou cards and will save the get well cards. I dont save all the letters etc but do save special ones.
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Ps glad to see the green bar move.
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me too 😀
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There’s not much I collect or save these days. My husband does enough of that for us both. But I am partial to pine cones and will gather some if I come across a spill of really nice ones on our hikes. Then I toss them into a basket and set it out if they’re small, arrange them with books or on shelves if they’re big’uns.
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i love pine cones!
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i collect editions of charlotte bronte’s ‘villette.’ it started in high school because i would comb used bookstores and flea markets for different editions— mostly because i wanted different ideas of on the french translations interwoven in the novel and the appendices and what the editor thought of m. paul’s eventual fate. then it just became a “thing.” i get made fun of for it by my family. i have editions from all different eras and i am always on the lookout for more editions 🙂
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I don’t collect anything specific. I used to collect snow globes when I was a kid. I sort of collect Fontanini figurines for my Nativity, but I’m not fanatical about it. I save things like crazy though – I have a terrible time throwing out anything that looks like it might possibly ever be useful, it’s awful. I’m trying to be better. A lot of times it’s easier for me to give something to the Salvation Army or craigslist it, even for free. I just hate throwing away things that are “perfectly good.” I’ve always hated ruining things and I think it’s connected. Even if I throw something out, I won’t break it or anything first. I’m weird.
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I recently completed a personality profile that’s different than the standard Myers-Briggs (I’m ISTJ there), which gave my top five “strengths” as Input, Harmony (even if they don’t agree to agree, I want people to get along), Analytical, Learner, and Focus. None of these were really a surprise, though the description of Harmony was something I hadn’t seen before and it really resonated with me as did this description under Input:
You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. . . . Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? . . . So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.
Now I know why I have a “casting book” (Excel spreadsheet) with more than 1,500 potential character templates cataloged by name, birth year, actual physical attributes (height, eye color, hair color), place of birth/ethnicity, and where I first spotted them (with separate tabs for men and women). This is why it’s so hard for me to get rid of the physical books I have, and why I keep downloading free books and book samples onto my Kindle which I know I’ll never have time to read. This is why I so easily became addicted to Pinterest. And I’m pretty sure my need to categorize/organize things (my DVDs are alphabetized, most of my Pinterest boards have “prefixes” that keep like boards together in my drop-down list for when I’m pinning, etc.) plays into this, too—it makes “collecting” things so much easier if the places where I’m storing them have structure/order to them.
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I’ve never intentionally collected anything, but looking around my home there are lots of hand woven baskets, hand thrown pottery, and tea things (pots & cups). Clutter drives me wild, so I do periodic “cleansings” where anything that’s not serving a purpose gets tossed/given away. Then I promptly need whatever I tossed the next week!
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My name is Rachel and I’m a collector. And don’t want it any other way!
I collect Nancy Drew books, the old ones. And Hardy Boys and Judy Bolton. I’m anxiously awaiting the release of new Nancy Drew fabric this fall so I can make myself some ND PJ’s that aren’t too short.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid figurines, dolls, books. I’m very proud to say I have all twelve issues of the short-lived comic book, as well as both versions of the original trilogy that kicked it off.
I collect non-fiction about Imperial Russia, and I have a small but growing collection of stuff with purple irises on it. And a small but growing collection of Russian matroishka dolls. If I end up with one more purple fountain pen it’ll qualify as a collection.
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I was going to say I don’t *really* collect things anymore since I stopped collecting pennies, but then you mentioned free Kindle books. Eeesh. I’ve got over 4000 (and yes, the Kindle does work faster when you keep most of them archived and off the device).
I also collect paper. I’m afraid to throw away statements – even if I don’t ever look at them again. Of course, years after the account is closed, I allow myself to shred them and wonder why I kept them in the first place. Only once did I ever have a check try to clear twice.
My husband bought me the Neat Desk scanner last week, so I’ve been making the jump to digital (and purging many receipts I should never have hung on to). Maybe I just like the memory trip while I go through things.
I, too, prefer order, but in my procrastination, I almost never get that elusive efficient, easy-to-manage system in place. (I have a table full of bills just across the room from a filing cabinet and stacks of books roughly alphabetized on their respective shelves). Even in the midst of the chaos, though, I pretty much know where everything is.
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