collecting stuff
 

I was sitting on the floor going through my cigar boxes filled with 'stuff '

I am fortunate that my apartment is rather small, otherwise my magpie habits would over-flow into the hallway.

I love to collect all sorts of things, Lava-lamps..paper-wasp nests..fossils..
folding knives..cartoons...books..

When the apt. starts to get to full I enjoy giving away stuff to appreciative friends.

What kind of things do you like to collect?

Paychecks :D

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Social wasps use paper (wood pulp) to construct their nests. The process is simple... a wasp collects wood fiber by using its mandibles (mouth parts) to scrape it from worn and weathered wooden fences, buildings, telephone poles, and other sources. Sometimes it collects fiber from man-made paper products such as paper bags or cardboard boxes. The insect then chews the wood and mixes it with saliva. This makes the wood fiber extremely soft and moist. After a period of chewing, the wasp adds the paste to the nest structure and spreads it out with her mandibles and legs. After it thoroughly dries; a type of tough, durable paper is formed.

Paper-wasp nest after the fact.

It resembles a high rise building with the honey-comb holes still intact and the structure left behind is a fragile paper-like material that reminds me everyday.. do I want the Red pill.. or the Blue pill?

Books. I have hundreds. I keep them in my bedroom, my office, the family room. I find it very difficult to part with a book once I have purchased it.

i am forever enlightened...

Books, like Jadast. I have a full bookshelf in the upstairs lounge, one in my bedroom, and one downstairs in the living room. And then there are still about six more giant Rubbermaid totes full of them in my garage...and another 10 or so cardboard boxes of books in my parents' garage. I have been informed that the books are not moving with my parents once they sell this house. The last two moves my parents made I had to move the books myself--no one else would do it. I could probably start my own used bookstore with all of the books I own. I should probably learn to check books out of the library instead of buying as many of them as I do. Of course, being in and around a university campus I have ways of getting too many books for cheap/free. Nothing delights me more than finding that a professor has gone through their books and left a stack outside their door for students to take. Plus, being in the English department, we have regular book exchanges--not that I ever give any away.

I also collect all kinds of little boxes. I love little boxes--specifically those covered in decoupage. I also have a nice box from Tiffany. They're great for holding all of the little treasures I have collected over the years--my clay cat whistle, a picture of my cat who died, a rose from a date in high school, a necklace my dad gave me, etc.

Somewhere in a box in my parents' garage I also have a significant collection of cool piggy banks. Some of them are actual piggy banks with various designs on them, one is an obese, sleepy pig, one is a lion, and one has Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it.

I also have a large collection of marbles, all contained in an old glass Kraft Mayo jar--one of the foodservice size jars. Some of the marbles are made of semi-precious stones, purchased from national park gift shops. Additionally, I have a collection of semi-precious stones, minerals, and fossils/petrified wood, left over from childhood along with my seashell collection (which includes a rather large conch and a tiny seahorse).

I think that's all. I'm a collector, but I try not to be a packrat. There is a fine line.

I collect molds, spores and fungus.

I used to collect rocks. Just small stones that I could put in my pocket. If I went somewhere with my family on vacation, was at a birthday party at the beach, visited a lighthouse, hunting, anything that I felt like I wanted to remember. I would look for a cool looking stone. Quartz were often a choice because of how the broken ones might glitter. I kept them in a quart jar that I glued a piece of rubber to the bottom of so it wouldn't slide. I could tell you where I got each one and what I did then. Unfortunately a roommate at college accidentally dumped the jar off my bookshelf and broke it. They didn't tell me until after they'd put it all in the garbage. They really didn't know it was anything more than a bookend I guess.

Only thing I collect now is Indian pottery. I have some from several different tribes. Alpaca, navaho, and one other tribe I can't remember at the moment.

Mostly what I end up saving now are school papers and art projects that my daughter has made. I have one small (TINY) pottery bowl that she made in Art class in Kindergarten and I use it for putting earrings or a ring that I take off by my recliner.

I used to collect little boxes too. Alas, when my parents split my box collection disappeared, and I have since stopped collecting them. My favorite was a set of 3 that my grandparents got in Mexico. *sigh*

The closest thing I have to a collection now is books, although I don't actively seek to collect them...I just never get rid of them once I obtain them.

I used to collect pencils, erasers, stickers. bouncy balls, rocks, and other random things. Now, I don't really collect much- I like to collect old and foreign coins I guess.

Despite getting one every two weeks for the last quarter century, I've yet to be able to collect many of them.

Expensive metal things that make loud noises.

Trucks, motorcycles, firearms.

I try not to collect anything anymore. I find that all collections just end up as more clutter in my life and I am trying to reduce that clutter as much as possible.

Lists.......it's a nightmare......

Look at you collecting organization!

Yeah, same here... I have yet to be able to just frame one. Turns out I gotta trade 'em for stuff like groceries and socks and alcohol in dark, smoky rooms.

Dust.

I can collect dust in my bedroom (or apartment) like a champ. I don't just collect it in a jar or something, either- I collect it all over the top horizontal surface of everything I own.

Kidding. :)

Yo-Yos


I have a little over 2,000.



And I'm always looking for more. So if any of you have a cool Yo-Yo you would like to send me. Let me know.

I can't stand clutter, so I don't collect anything. I grew up with a bunch of packrats and it drove me crazy.

well, I have a very small Coca-Cola collection but I won't let myself get anything else because it's just too much.

i used to collect more things, but now am more or less in the same place as charlatan.
but i do collect strange objects that make cool noises on a piano.
lots of them.

I keep old un-used prescriptions in the kitchen cabinet, first out of laziness, then later, it was fun to see the looks on my friends snoopy faces as they
started to realize just how many different mood stabilizers and anti- psychotic medications the Doctors had tried to get me to take.

These were all prescribed for insomnia and general anxiety.

I understand some people need these type of meds, I fortunately have found that a good diet, exercise, and orgasms have kept me relatively sane.

As I get older my collections have taken on a 'Quality vs. Quantity' theme.

It's too easy for me to collect almost anything. I still have my coin collection that I started about 50 years ago. I have a decent record collection ...as in LP's that play on a turntable. I have a pocket knife collection, but it's expanding into knives you couldn't fit into your pocket. Books?... if I get a book I can't possibly throw it away, that seems like a sacrilege. So almost anything, if it looks cool to me I save it. Every part I've ever taken off my car during the process of building it up to ~600hp and roadracing capability I still have in my garage and basement. I collect magazines for a while, but then eventually edit them out and only keep the really interesting ones; most I throw away after a few months of collecting dust, though the dust usually gets blown off and stays in my collection. Even after all this my house is not really too cluttered yet so I'm continuing on. And I figure it might be genetic, since my younger son, now 11yo, is a collecting freak; everything he gets he has to have in numerous quantities in every color, shape, etc. He almost never buys just one of anything, it's always bulk or at least one of each variety.

I collect ideas, and almost everything everybody's mentioned, except for firearms.

Ideas take up less space, but I value where they come from.
Hence, all the clutter.

One thing I used to collect was Wired Magazine. I had every issue. As I was packing to leave Canada, and getting rid of my "stuff", it was the one thing that I had the most trouble parting with.

I donated them to a library. They accepted. I still read the magazine and have to work hard to make sure that I pass them on to others when I am finished with them rather than let them pile up.

I think if I had an extensive magazine collection like that, that meant so much to me, I might look into getting them bound into volumes. There is a bookbinder here in town who does that kind of work for reasonable prices. But I'm glad that your magazines are now somewhere where lots of people can use and enjoy them.

i have a box full of comics in my closet. i don't buy that many, maybe 1-2 a week usually, but they build up over time

Like raeanna, stones are it for me. (sorry about your collection, rae)
I like natural or man-made polished stones, but if a stone has an interesting shape, or hew, I'll add it to my collection.
I regularly have 3-4 in my pocket.

I don't really collect books, just seem to have a rather large collection of paperbacks, and some hardbacks.

Also, WK's cool-factor went up another 20% in my eyes. :thumbsup:
I like a good yo-yo, too. Just don't have a collection.
I had a Yomega stolen from me at school back in the early 90's. Saddened me.

Best. Movie. Ever.

I collect knives and books. Thats all I can think of at the moment. but I hold on to lots of crap once I get it.

power tools. I am a power tool junkie. You should see the circular saw I got for Christmas and the big power drill I got for Mother's Day. That thing has levels, looks nifty, and sticks holes in almost anything. It's a real killer.

books. mostly mystery, a few romantic comedies, books on writing.

scents. I have a collection of perfumes. Also, I don't know if this is "collecting" because I use them up, but I have 7 different scents of dishwashing soap in my kitchen, a few scented lotions, a row of scented air fresheners. I'm not even going to go count the number of scented bath/body washes I have.

music. I have so many cd's I am thankful I can change them to mp3's now and get rid of the cd's. I finally parted with my large collection of 45's a couple of years ago, when I no longer had anything to play them on.

I can't seem to throw away back issues of magazines. Also I have boxes of boxes of Star Trek: The Collectible Card game I haven't brought myself to toss out.

World's king person, I had a friend who collected yo-yos, one had Mexican jumping beans in it.. I spose they are dead by now, oh well.

Not many people would say I'm more cool for collecting Yo-Yos.



My car was just broken into last week and one of my favorite Yo-Yos was taken. I try to always have one on me so I had it in my messenger bag. I left my bag in the car for the first time in years... I was more mad about then Yo-Yo then I was about my camera that was also in the bad.

instruments.........

2 acoustic guitars
1 electric guitar
1 acoustic bass
3 electric basses
2 drumkits
1 banjo
1 violin
and percussion instruments out the ying-yang.


never get rid of your gear i say........

geez, fly...you string players.
my brother's like this too, except for the percussion part (straight bluegrass player).


sorry to hear about the yo-yo theft, wk.
2,000 of them?
do you have a display wall for them?

how do folk manage these collections more generally?
do you have the stuff up for you (and folk who happen by) to see or do you keep them stored away?
do you classify objects?
how?
there's some indications both ways already, but i'm curious about this.

In my old house I had most of them on display. I don't have anywhere to put them in my house now so I have them all in boxes. Separated by style, brand and age.


I used to have a large collection of super balls. A little over 1,000 of them. I donated them to a local children's hospital... We dumped them off the top of a parking garage. It was pretty fucking cool.

dumping kids off the top of a parking garage does sound pretty cool.. :p

Um... Yes. But the super balls was really cool.

the funny thing is.......i'm a drummer to the core....i love me some percussion....i used to just mess around with the strings back in the day but,the last 6/7 years have been all about the stringed things......especially the bass.


it's nice to be able to pick up whatever instrument the mood brings eh.......


never get rid of your gear folks........:thumbsup: