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Collecting random things

HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor

Has anyone else collected seemingly random things, especially as a kid?

I remember I collected various objects for pretty much no reason when I was a kid. I didn't have a specific interest in them besides for wanting to collect them.

I had rock collections, collected things like bread ties, and when I was really little there was a point where I used to collect clovers every time I went outside.

I still like to collect things, but now I just keep it to things I can find an actual use for.

Comments

  • I do collect things, but not randomly. My basketball card collection is carefully organized by type, product, year, team, etc. It's my favorite sport and I've collected on and off since I was a young girl, so there was always a purpose to it. I also have a snow globe collection. I loved those toys as a child, so it brings back a sense of nostalgia and wonder. My other collection is rocks from various museums. My husband years ago (back when he was my fiance) got me a little rock set, and we've added to it gradually over the years.

  • AmityAmity Administrator, Citizen
    edited November 2020

    I collect some things too, but not in the organised fashion mentioned by ting.

    Mine is an assortment of unusual pebbles and shells from different beaches I've visited.

  • @Amity said:
    I collect some things too, but not in the organised fashion mentioned by ting.

    Mine is an assortment of unusual pebbles and shells from different beaches I've visited.

    Those and also feathers, interestingly shaped driftwood, pieces of fabric that have an appealing texture or colors, bits of paper or notes that remind me of someone I was fond of who has died, long handwritten letters from the days of snail mail, and in general, things that make me feel good.

    I’ve often thought I should throw out a lot of it because it wasn’t useful. Now I think that it’s use is to bring me a bit of happiness and that is more important.

  • I'll pick up the odd organic thing, wood, stone, feather, leaf etc. Right now I have a red maple leaf I picked up on display.

  • IsabellaIsabella Citizen
    edited December 2020

    As a child I collected books, baby dolls, and old-fashioned pioneer rag dolls. Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose, although I named all my dolls Amy and I didn't really play with them. I swaddled them very carefully and left them to sleep. I collected them because I loved the way they smelled like vanilla and baby powder, and I liked to handwash their little dresses in the sink, because it was fun to make bubbles and put the clothes on little plastic hangers for doll clothes.

    Many of my rag dolls were handmade. I loved Holly Hobbie and Raggedy Ann, and any dolls from Little House on the Prairie which was my favourite book series / tv show. I loved the rag doll pinafores.

    I also loved animals, and spent hours outside collecting whatever insects or wildlife I could find. I had tubs of minnows from the creek behind our house. I caught little moths with my butterfly net, collected caterpillars, lady bugs, and even crickets or grasshoppers. I kept them for a day or two to study and then released them. For a time I tried to catch birds because my mother said if you put salt on a bird's tail it can't fly. I believed her and spent a lot of time with a box of salt trying to capture local birds to no avail.

    I had a collection of coins and liked to arrange them by size, denomination, year, or other methods.

    I collected souvenir spoons from all the places I travelled. I still have my spoon display here on the wall.

    As an adult I have also collected souvenir sand, rocks, flower pressings, or other bits of nature. I remember being fascinated by clover as well.

    I have a vast collection of Brontë books and memorabilia, along with a large library of books - primarily Victorian literature but also textbooks, critical theory, literary biographies, and literary history.

    I collect antique and vintage picture frames, and use them to display photographs of my ancestors going back about 130 years.

    I have a thing for egg cups, but I only have about six. I was able to stop that one!

    ❤

  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor

    @Isabella said:
    As a child I collected books, baby dolls, and old-fashioned pioneer rag dolls. Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose, although I named all my dolls Amy and I didn't really play with them. I swaddled them very carefully and left them to sleep. I collected them because I loved the way they smelled like vanilla and baby powder, and I liked to handwash their little dresses in the sink, because it was fun to make bubbles and put the clothes on little plastic hangers for doll clothes.

    Many of my rag dolls were handmade. I loved Holly Hobbie and Raggedy Ann, and any dolls from Little House on the Prairie which was my favourite book series / tv show. I loved the rag doll pinafores.

    I also loved animals, and spent hours outside collecting whatever insects or wildlife I could find. I had tubs of minnows from the creek behind our house. I caught little moths with my butterfly net, collected caterpillars, lady bugs, and even crickets or grasshoppers. I kept them for a day or two to study and then released them. For a time I tried to catch birds because my mother said if you put salt on a bird's tail it can't fly. I believed her and spent a lot of time with a box of salt trying to capture local birds to no avail.

    I had a collection of coins and liked to arrange them by size, denomination, year, or other methods.

    I collected souvenir spoons from all the places I travelled. I still have my spoon display here on the wall.

    As an adult I have also collected souvenir sand, rocks, flower pressings, or other bits of nature. I remember being fascinated by clover as well.

    I have a vast collection of Brontë books and memorabilia, along with a large library of books - primarily Victorian literature but also textbooks, critical theory, literary biographies, and literary history.

    I collect antique and vintage picture frames, and use them to display photographs of my ancestors going back about 130 years.

    I have a thing for egg cups, but I only have about six. I was able to stop that one!

    ❤

    I also collected some stuffed toys and insects, too. The stuffed toys I had were dog plushies though. There was a German shepherd I got while my dad was in the hospital that I used to specifically carry around all the time, which I still have but I don't remember its name (honestly its name might have just been "Puppy" so that's why I can't remember).

    I liked collecting moths, and once I tried to collect a bunch of pill bugs in a little bug catcher my parents gave me. I took it into my room and dropped it, so my brother had to help me collect them before my mom found out. I also got another pill bug a couple months ago and kept it in a empty pill bottle (lol) for a little bit so I could watch him.

    Something I forgot to mention collecting that is especially "useless" and random is screenshots from video games. I have hundreds of screenshots of items, NPCs, etc. at various angles so I can catalogue them. I also write down dialogue options from games so I can catalogue that, too.

    What kind of textbooks do you have? Are they about various subjects?

  • I had lots of plushies too. I used to take the city bus by myself when I was about 7 years old, and go to a stationer's shop that sold lots of small ones, often pocket-sized. They were my favourites because they were so portable. I loved my leopard and mouse the best.

    That's a cute story about the bug catcher. I had one too, and I wonder if it was the same type.

    My textbooks? Wow, a bit of everything. Primarily literary theory and criticism, but also Philosophy and Political / Intellectual Thought, Art History, World History, Sociology, Psychology, Mathematics, Statistics, and languages (French and Spanish in particular). I also have some culinary textbooks as well. Many of them were very expensive but they're now outdated and impossible to sell, so I just hang on to them.

  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor

    Lately I have been collecting labels from things such as produce and other items, since they have strings of information on them. I like collecting the same types of labels because I like figuring out what the strings of information are for and looking them up if I can't figure it out. I don't really have anything I'm going to do with this, I just like doing it.

  • Animal bones: I’d find them whilst walking around the hills where I grew up, and soak them in bleach & hot water before scrubbing and (where necessary) reassembling with super glue. Still have the edited highlights of that collection (including a tiny bird skull with the lower jaw intact).

    Interesting sticks: had loads of those, now all gone.

    Glass bottles: mostly small ones, some bought, some dug out of the ground, some rescued from the rubbish. All sorts of different shapes, several colours as well.

    Random pieces of mechanisms/engines: anything that had interesting flanges and knobbly bits... most of these went to the scrap yard eventually though.

    Still have all my birthday and Christmas cards from age six to now, neatly organised by year in cardboard folders.

    Shards of broken crockery I dug up in my parents garden: picked that one up from one of my grandmothers, still have my favourite fragments mounted on felt in a box frame.

    In my twenties I collected bricks: there was a lot of demolition going on near where I lived and I was trying to get one example from each C19th brickworks in the area.

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