Dispersing A Childhood Collection
Back in the day, I thought I was the cleverest kid in the world. Almost every kid has a collection of some sort (be it seashells, comic books, or yes, even trolls). I was sure my collection was not only the coolest but also the most compact.
Every time my family went somewhere, I picked up a few postcards. They were cheap, easy to fit into my suitcase, and even easier to stash in my bedroom. And stash I did. Twenty years later and I still have all these postcards that were hiding out in my parents’ house:
You can probably guess it’s time to part with my collection. I’m willing to bet you might have some surplus postcards laying around the house, too, right?
The bad news is that we can’t really send people a “hello from the nation’s capital!” postcard when – hello – we’re not there, and haven’t been there since who knows when. My collection is really bad. Some postcards are from places I’ve never been. (I was dorky enough to ask people to bring me unused postcards from their vacations so I could add them to my heap.)
It doesn’t make sense to toss these cards. So I’ve been brainstorming and weeding. Here’s part one of the plan:
A half dozen postcards are the perfect care package to give to people heading off on vacation if you have cards that match their destination. Tied with a ribbon, it’s the perfect bon voyage gift… as long as they understand they should not be sending you one of these souvenir postcards!
I think it’s going to be a while before people hit up all the bazaar destinations in my collection, though. So short of tossing all those great postcards, I’ve come up with a few ways to declutter. If you’ve got extra postcards laying around, gather ‘em up. We’ve got some projects coming…
And while we’re at it, wanna share what your childhood collection used to be (or still is if you’re like me)? I seriously doubt it could get more embarrassing than the postcard I have from the backside of Mount Rushmore where our past presidents are showing their bare backsides, too. Take us back. What did you collect?
(Images for Making This Home)
I used to collect small porcelein (sp?) figurines. I am embarrased to say that I was really going for quantity rather than quality. My mother recently made me take them out of her house and I got rid of most of them at a yard sale. Maybe this explains why I am so anti- collecting things that aren’t useful. My only collection now is silver napkin rings, which I enjoy using. They are just expensive enough that I won’t end up with too many of them. My favorites have other people’s names/initials on them. Dorky story: one of the napkin rings says “Minnie Moore” on it. For birthdays, the birthday person gets that ring. So then we can sing Happy Birthday, and end it with “and minnie moore (many more)”!! Sorry, that probably didn’t need to be shared. :)
Lori, that is too cute! I love bowls and dishes. I am seriously in need of a weed out though.
Katie, you could send those postcards to your family and friends with a remember when message on them. Just a thought.
I partially collected a lot of things. My most noticeable collection were my barbie dolls which to this day are still in their original boxes, unplayed with. When I went off to college my mom and I looked to see if any of them are worth anything, and surprise surprise they aren’t. We went through them and kept only a couple of the prettiest ones and donated the rest. I had shelves put up in my room to show off all my dolls, I must have had 50 or so.
I also collected smooshed pennies, the kind you pay 50 cents to get a pattern pressed onto your penny. I still have all of them cause I don’t know what to do with them. Should I toss them in the trash, give them to goodwill? they don’t take up much room so I keep them, which tempts me to make more whenever I see the machines to add to my collection.
i collected (still kinda do) playing cards. I can use them on vacation and later remember a trip by them. And if you’re a Nerts player (think Dutch Blitz) each player needs their own set, so they get used later too. The only thing is that they take up storage space. I should say that I only pick up sets that are especially memorable, so that editing process keeps the deck count low =)
I always get a postcard from museums we go to or trips we take and then write about our day/experience on the back of them. They are usually about the same size as a photogragh so they can be stored in a photo album.
When I was little I collected tea sets (I only had about 9 or 10 thank goodness). They were nice except for when it came time to dust them! A year ago I got rid of most of them.
I really like Lori’s philosophy about only collecting things that are useful. The napkin ring collection is a great idea!
I actually think the post cards are cool. Could you use them for craft projects? I’m sure some of them would be great to frame or something like that.
As for me, my childhood collection was soap. I had over 200 novelty soaps. Those things were big in the ’80s. I had soap in the shape of roses and hearts and Ziggy and Garfield and seashells. The problem with the soap collection is all that perfume stunk to high heaven. The kids at school complained when I brought my soap collection to show off. Now that I know about the chemicals I kind of shudder to think about it, actually.
Your former collections rock, everyone! It’s funny how we look back at what we thought were the coolest things ever, huh?
Lori makes a fabulous point that we can all see now as adults – the best collections now are things that are useful. Goodness knows I’d rather not have more stuff to dust!
Katie
I collected elephant figurines. I think every kid should have a collection of some kind of figurines, so that way when you get to be in your 20s, you look back at your collection and go, “holy crap, that ‘s a lot of junk. I haven’t looked at it in years.”
As for my elephants? They live in a box in the closet. I haven’t looked at them in a year, which means that they are going in the donate pile for sure.
I collect vases, but (and this is the important part) I don’t tell anyone I collect vases. Once you start telling people about your collection, suddenly everyone knows just what to get you for your birthday or Christmas and then your collection just becomes too much out of control clutter and you have to get rid of it all together. Right now, I can fit all of my vases on one shelf on my smallish bookcase. They look good grouped all together (grouping limits visual clutter) and I use each one regularly.
I like to mix in postcards with my photos from vacations. The quality of the postcard photo is always better than a picture you take “on the fly”.
I was a dabbler, not a true collector as a kid…..when I became adult, it was a whole ‘nother story!
I had Barbies that I gave to my younger cousins long ago. I have held on to my ceramic dolls, only 10 but all have violins. I still have all of my New Kids on the Block posters and Beanie babies over 200 of them.
I have no idea what will become of the New Kids On the Block posters but I plan to have the dolls and beanies for my own kids.
I used to collect magnets, but stopped doing that years ago and got rid of most of them. I have a small collection of Australian stubby coolers (beer coozies) from traveling around Oz, which we use. I also used to collect stamps. I still have the collection, but now only keep Australian and other foreign stamps in a box when I get them on mail. I also used to collect coins, but don’t do that anymore either, though I still have the collection.
I will keep the stamps and coins to see if my boys want them. My husband has the state quarter collection too. He’s only missing a few now I think.
I still collect fridge magnets from all of our destinations. OOPS forgot to get one in Chicago! UGH! And I bet people would love getting a postcard from you even if you haven’t visited whereever the postcard says recently. I know I think that would be fun!!!