Collecting can be a thrilling pastime if you have a passion for something in particular. Whether it’s vintage fashion, mid-century furniture, board games, or signed film posters (okay, those are ours) you have to keep them organized or they can take over your environment.
This photo is an example of one of the little galaxies in a collection of thousands of items from around the world that an amazing woman invited us in to see. Her home is a museum that makes her happy, wrapping her in memories of adventures from a life well lived. Someone less committed could very well be lost in a landslide of what would appear to be random what have you.
Take a Sunday afternoon and give yourself this hoarder exercise:
- Organize. Divide your tchotchke into 3 piles – keep, giveaway, or trash. Keep your emotions out of it.
- Evaluate. Look at the keepers, look at your environment, and consider whether you have the space, and if so, how you will organize and display it.
- Take action. Now that you’ve gotten it together, come through with the displays, shelves, wall hangers and whatever else it takes to put your collections in place, and actually do it.
- Maintenance. Don’t let a day or two go by without keeping it all in check. Dust it, straighten it, whatever it needs to stay pure to your vision.
- Add with caution. Make sure you have room if you want to grow your collections. Really stick to it, and if you realistically don’t have the room, stay away from eBay and estate sales.
Enjoy it. If seeing your collections doesn’t make you smile, what’s the point? The more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you.
Happy collecting!
