This might come as a surprise to you but I don’t collect cats. Not anymore. I began collecting cats when I was 10 years old. The green blown glass cat (the middle cat on the top row) was my first. About five years ago I let it be known that while I appreciated all the cute cat gifts, I was also kind of over it and all catted out. I went so far as to pack the majority of my cat collection away. And yet when I looked around today, I spotted at least 12 cats lurking around the shelves of my house. Hmmm
Growing up, in addition to the cats that I no longer collect, I also had post card and salt & pepper shaker collections. I haven’t seen the post cards in years but what remains of my s&p’s is safely packed away in a container with some other cherished childhood keepsakes.
The truth- I’m addicted to buying notebooks, journals and planners. I cannot help myself. I use 3 subject notebooks for my writing notes, meeting notes, website notes…..random notes. Each one has it’s own special notebook. I have way more brand new blank journals than any one person should have. I just picked up two new journals that I just could not resist. I’m drawn to that aisle in every store I enter.
I have no plans for these journals and notebooks. I could never buy another one and I could easily satisfy all my writing needs with my collection. But something tells me my journal collecting days are far from over. 🙂
Then I have a few smaller collections or maybe they are pre-collections- such as the variety of colored cut glass bowls, plates….. that I seem to have purchased while I wasn’t consciously collecting them. Or the cute little tea bag holders…is 3 (oops, make that 4- I just found another one) considered a collection? Oh, and did I mention that I like Pyrex? What do you think? (I swear my house doesn’t look like a scene out of an episode of Hoarders!)
Just between you and me, I don’t want to take a closer look around my house or I’m afraid I might stumble onto more collections…..
Hi! My name is Kat and I collect… collections!!!
What do you collect?
Dandelion Fuzz 
I don’t have any collections but I am a pack rat. I finds it difficult to throw anything away.
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I don’t formally collect much. Recipes. I informally collect postcards. I used to collect rocks and seashells, but I’m getting pretty ruthless about discarding things I don’t use/not letting certain things come into the house, because clutter is a problem for me. I do have a pile of tickets to things— plays and movies and their programs— that I’ve held onto over the years, but I’m hoping to take pictures of them and write down the story of the evening (either for the blog or in Evernote, and then throw the actual ticket/program out.) I’m sentimental, though, so I’m not sure whether I can manage it.
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I’m part pack rat so it’s going to be a long time before I could possibly rid myself of my collections and past collection. I do think that I will be able to part with the past collection stuff in time. It’s funny though because there are some things that I’ve kept for 20 years because I thought I had sentimental attachment to them and it turns out, I was wrong. lol
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I hear you! I was raised by a pack rat to be a pack rat, and it’s been a long road for me. I hit on a strategy early of always living in a place that was slightly too small for my stuff (first by necessity, then, honestly, by design), so that I was forced to make some tough decisions. Because if I have a place to store it, I’m never going to make those decisions. I’m a single woman living alone in a house with 6 closets and an attic, and all of them are full to bursting, which is kind of stupid.
In fact, I made the mistake, last night, of asking my mom if I should throw out old dog toys/bones that the dog doesn’t play with anymore. We’re not even at six months, he and I, and he’s got more stuff than he could possibly pay attention to. She said categorically no— he needs every half-eaten hoof, so that I don’t have to spend more money on him. Except I will spend more money on him either way. The question is, if I take away half of his half-eaten and mostly ignored bones, will he resume eating my coffee table, or does he really need a heap of them to lay on, like Smaug from the Lord of the Rings? Where do discarded bones go, in a sane house? The ones he can possibly eat, he has eaten. Sometimes, he’ll gnaw on the others, but I suspect that familiarity breeds contempt, an argument for taking half away even just to put them in a box and rotate them out (mom’s suggestion). But then, Mom would have me rinse out and reuse sandwich bags, so can she be a reliable advisor on this?
Decisions, decisions!
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Oh gosh, dog toys! Yes, that’s a tough call. Ari likes to disassemble her stuffed toys, which is fine, but then we have to decide if we really need to keep the half of unstuffed toy because she likes to play tug of war with it. She has so many body parts laying around she wouldn’t miss that scrap or two, would she?
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