Nonnie, my paternal grandmother, use to say that she had some things that she collected while other things collected her… which is probably why every room in her house was filled to the brim with stuff. (In the later years, the spare bedroom even had chain link fencing attached to the walls and had part of her teddy bear collection hanging from it.)
Her saying is something that has stuck with me over the years. I’m pretty much a clean person, I like things tidy and organized but I’m not (too) uptight about it. Whenever I am cleaning, I think about if I need what I’m looking at or dealing with or if it can be tossed, donated, given away or recycled. I am not a minimalist by any means and currently, with limited space, I make the most of what I have so I don’t have too many collections. Mommy and Daddy on the other hand are surrounded by collections (some that they collect and others that seem to collect them).
Growing up they collected Hot Wheels, I think it was more for the hunt versus the actually cars, nevertheless the majority of walls at our house were covered (ceiling to about knee high) with cars in their packages. This was one time when the word clutterlection definitely comes into play. I don’t know if the Everydayminimalist coined the word or not, but I am attributing it to them.
I love that word (a combination of clutter and collection). So many times collections really just turn into clutter. Here are some sites to help when your collection becomes clutter.
Over at lifehacker Marc Sotkin talks about evaluating your collections, funny enough, a lot of Mommy and Daddy’s collections actually have value (that’s not just sentimental), but most are not being displayed, however, when they are displayed it is done respectfully.
Peter Walsh has even more tips about Keeping Collections Clutter Free on Oprah.com. Peter says a collection should “be something you love, honor, respect, display and enjoy”. Also that your collection should have specific parameters… you should know what you are collecting and why you are collecting it.
For a look at some pretty spectacular collections look at an article from Woman’s Day for 10 Crazy Collections.
So what about you? Are you collecting things or are they collecting you?
