Since I’ve been struggling with the consequences of having built several extensive collections, it’s been easy to write about the difficulties associated with collecting.

If you’re an avid collector, committed to tracking down additional items for your collections, you know what I mean. We easily spend a good deal of our free time surfing the Internet or going from shop to shop looking for our next favorite find. We willingly invest our weekly pocket money in acquiring additional pieces, and when we become more knowledgeable about our areas of collecting, we willing spend even more to procure better items.

We serious collectors also willingly use up a good part of our space to display our large collections. Some collectors, like me, run out of space and even end up renting storage units. Packing up collectibles uses up even more of our time, while paying the rental fee each month uses up even more of our hard-earned money.

And at some point, we longtime collectors must forego, however reluctantly, starting new collections or even adding additional pieces to our current collections.

Just yesterday, for example, I was in a suburban department store and had to restrain myself. First, there was a display of summer dinnerware with a vibrant floral motif, and I absolutely love dishes, but there’s absolutely no room to bring a new set into my kitchen. There was also an array of tempting red, white and blue merchandise left over from the Fourth of July, and I so love decorating for every holiday, but I already have more than enough decorations to fill the “Patriotic” box stored in the attic.

After having to resist these recent temptations—or more likely because of having to resist my inclinations to acquire more—I can also write about how easy collecting is for true collectors.

Again, if you’re a longtime, serious collector, you know exactly what I mean: Collecting simply comes naturally to many people—to collectors like me and maybe to collectors like you.

We’ve been collecting one thing or another for as long as we can remember.

• We’re the kids who brought home pretty seashells or autumn leaves and pocketsful of sundry other items.

• We’re the ones who cut pictures of cars or animals or cartoon characters out of newspapers and magazines and kept scrapbooks of them.

• We somehow decided that our toys were both for play and for show, so we took good care of them and probably kept them long after we outgrew them.

We’re hard-wired to want variety and multiples and things in their entirety.

• While other people can choose one of something, we natural-born collectors are attracted to all the colors and sizes or other features of our objects of desire, so we collectors want every variation. We readily recognize similarities among items as well as differences.

• While other people believe one of something is sufficient, we collectors want both, each, every, and all. We like pairs and sets and series. We believe that things that made to go together should stay together.

• While other people can give up one thing and replace it with a newer, better, or different version, we collectors believe “the more, the merrier” and have sound reasons to have duplicates, replacements, and spares.

We dyed-in-the-wool collectors automatically recognize opportunities to assemble collections.

• For most people, their acquisitions fulfill specific, practical needs. If they need a hammer, they buy a hammer, use the hammer, and forget about it until they need it again.

• For natural collectors, however, life is a series of opportunities to remember items and to consider others in relation to them. If we collectors need a hammer, we buy a hammer—and then we notice every innovative version at the home improvement store as well as every vintage one at the antiques store—and we’d probably like to have one of each.

• For me, each stage of my life has been marked by opportunities to start new collections.

o My first apartment meant I could collect dishtowels for every holiday and every season as well as ordinary ones for everyday use.

o Our first house with its full-sized kitchen allowed me to have different sets of dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

o A larger house meant my husband and I could collect different styles of Christmas ornaments and put up three trees.

o A larger yard permitted me to plant more pink and purple and yellow rose bushes each summer.

o And an unfinished garage allows us to pick up rustic baskets of all shapes and sizes for storing a variety of practical things.

For me, and for many others like me, collecting comes naturally, so amassing collections happens easily. That’s why we serious collectors can always find something of interest, something to delight, and something to intrigue us.

That’s why I seriously need to open my new business, The Collectors of Western New York, and get my prized possessions out of boxes and on display.

Signing off for this week.

Patti
The Committed Collector

If you’ve seriously pursued a collection or two, please leave a comment and let us know what you find easy to buy—yet difficult to let go of.

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