Smurfs were a huge part of my childhood. I remember playing with the cute little figurines and watching the cartoon daily. At the time when I started collecting it seemed really harmless. I bought a few figurines here and there. Soon though it turned into over 150! Then the mushrooms houses came, along with anything else that had a Smurf on it. I currently have four totes devoted to just Smurf items. Only for the first years of my collecting I had it all on display. Fast forward through time, I moved into my first house and got married. After that most of the toy collection ended up just stored in plastic totes stacked to the ceiling. You need a lot of room to display an entire collection.
The Mickey Mouse in the photo is actually from my childhood visit to Disney World.That entire collection turned into also collecting CareBears, Rainbow Bright, Wuzzles, lunchboxes, books, many little figurines, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Little People, My Little Ponies, Trolls, Garfield, PowerPuff Girls and many more items. (I think you get the idea.) While working at the antique mall the business of reselling vintage items really sucked me in. I sold items in my own booth for awhile. It was really fun. That meant shopping for inventory on a weekly basis. While thrifting I would find vintage toys almost every time. Making my collection grow larger and LARGER!! When you find a cute stuffed animal for nine cents it's hard to pass up. Looking back now I wish I would of!
All the things that I am sharing photos of are things that are currently displayed in my office. They are the items that I seem to still be drawn to. When we moved across the country almost two years ago I realized how much stuff I really do have. Especially when it comes to my collection. Sadly I "thought" I had downsized before our big move but I will never forget the day when the semi-truck came to our tiny apartment with all my stuff. I counted thirty totes full of just my toy collection alone. Please know that as I'm typing this I'm busting out laughing at myself. Thirty totes? Really? I have never ever considered myself a hoarder. But that statement of thirty totes doesn't help my case.
However there is a light at the end of tunnel for me. I am finally sick of moving totes and more totes around the country back and forth. I'm not ready to get rid of everything yet, but I am planning to downsize the collection. Some of my collection is some of my original toys that were mine from my childhood. I still have my very first baby doll and some of the Barbies I played with. I am a very sentimental person. I get attached to items very easily because of a memory attached to that item. Even though I know that I won't lose my memories. Of course I find that's not entirely true because over time we do forget things and it takes something to "trigger" a memory to bring it back. This happens to me all the time.
Lately I have been spending a lot less time glued to my computer. It has been awesome! Giving me more time to do things like go through tons of totes and make tuff decisions on who goes and who gets to stay. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be just because I've changed so much. Items that I used to be very fond of mean nothing to me now. I am literally just storing it. Cody and I are always talking about our future. Where the next place will be that will live, etc.. I may not know what state or city I will end up in but I do know I will probably have a lot less space. I think that collecting is fun. I know why I have always done it and why others do it. The hunt becomes rather addicting and a hobby. It's been a long time since I've really bought a vintage toy because I know my collection is rather large.
So far I have three totes overflowing of vintage toys that I plan to sell or get rid of. I also have a huge box full of vintage stuffed animals. I am very confident that there will a lot more that I will be parting with. I figure I shouldn't keep holding on to items that I have no love for anymore. Especially when there is someone out there who would really enjoy having it.
I even have Harry Potter Valentines. I guess I could mail them to people next year??? (I'm kidding)
We got sucked straight into these cute little guys. Trading the duplicates you get is addicting. Once you take a step back from it you realize all this. But sadly by then it's too late and you own two hundred of them. hahaha The way I look at collecting is it's great as long as you don't let it take over your entire house or life. Having things to decorate with is pretty cool and fun. For me the main problem is the amount of times I move. I just have to downsize my entire life sooner or later because I've realized I'm probably just going to keep moving. Having a huge collection of adorable things just isn't for my lifestyle anymore. I hope that this proves that I'm not a hoarder after all. :)
Do you collect things?
You can view photos of all my toy collection on Flickr HERE.
All my blog posts featuring Vinylmations HERE.
I get what you mean. The only reason I don't have lots of things is because I don't like that many things and the ones I do like cost a lot of money (which I don't have). I now only 'collect' with special occassions. For example, I only have 4 vinylmations. I bought a set of two with Halloween and two with Christmas as a present for myself. My next two I'm going to buy when I'm in New York! I used to collect all things Hello Kitty but I don't like it that much anymore. I'm not throwing anything away though. I also collect Diddl papers. I don't think it's famous in the US? Thank god it's a collection that doesn't take up too much space haha. Sometimes I buy myself some new papers. I like that I can add to my collection in small amounts without it getting expensive. I also have a box full of polly pocket. I'm not throwing it away but I'm not adding anything either. My only other collection is dvd's. I do buy them from time to time. I was so pissed when bluray came out haha. I'm afraid dvd's will dissapear. That does take up a lot of place though. Overall, I don't have that much stuff. Simply because I can't really find the things I like in thrift stores for example. But if that should've been the case, I'm sure I would have tons more. Sometimes I let things go because I'm just not into them anymore. Like some hello kitty stuffed dolls for example. One I gave to my cats and they destroyed it haha. At least they had fun with it!
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of Diddl papers. I will have to google them. I was also mad when the switched to Blu-rays. It's so annoying how they change things all the time. Not all of us have the money to replace everything all over again. I buy most of my dvds used now. I only buy movies that I really love since they do take up a lot of space. A few years back I got rid of all my cd cases and just started keeping my cds in little paper sleeves. Way better to store that way. I'm also over all my Hello Kitty stuff. Of course I still love Hello Kitty but I just have too much of it. I'm so glad that I don't really buy stuff anymore. You should totally get a few vinylmations from New York. That will be awesome. You are going to have so much fun. I can't wait to hear about your trip!
DeleteAnother thing that helps with saving movie space is to put them on hard drives. All of our movies are put on a hard drive. So I was even able to donate, the other day, my three empty dvd holders. I love hard drives for that. That and it makes playing on the tv easy. We also have a hard drive for music and one for pictures. They take up very little space and are compact smaller hard drives. Two days ago I also scanned in many of my filed documents and put them on a hard drive, organized by topic, and we keep backup storage too. But then I was able to get rid of my little file folder. Yay! :)
DeleteThat is a great idea actually. We currently have one hard drive that I keep attempting to organize all my photos on. My photos are the most important thing to me really. :) We probably have some movies that could be donated anyways because we never watch them. I'm so glad that we don't buy them anymore.
DeleteI love your collection! I don't think it's hoarding until you have so much of something that you can't find a place or it? Or maybe you can't move? I don't know. But I love your collection, so awesome to see. Will you be selling some online?
ReplyDeleteThanks Angel. I would like to sell online, but I know it will take a lot of time. I need to get it organized. I thought about putting it on Etsy but since I don't know what I am doing, it will take me awhile. Plus I would want to be open to international buyers and I have no idea what to charge for shipping. :( It makes my brain hurt even thinking about it. hahaha Do you collect anything that I may have? If I have something you may want please let me know.
Deletehonestly you have a lot of things that are very cool. I don't really collect much, just a lot of toys/figures and cartoony stuff. If you ever figure out the shipping let us know! :]
DeleteI used to collect Buffy the Vampire Slayer action figures but that was about it. I have since sold them all. I thought I would lose the memories but I have pictures of them, so they are not forgotten. We don't collect otherwise. We don't even have storage, no garage, and even our closets aren't full of forgotten about things. We've slimmed down and minimized so much over the years. Yesterday I took a nice trip to Treasure City Thrift, one of our lovely thrift stores in Austin and donated even more. Now our dining room is completely empty and we are down to only the things we use except one thing. I have this stuffed Tigger. He's about three feet tall and he sits on the floor next to my bed but that's all he does. I get emotional thinking about giving him up but I have, over the years, learned to separate stuff from memories. So instead I took a picture with him to remember and I'm donating him today, knowing that he will probably make some kid very happy.
ReplyDeleteI think one thing that helps is that we want to live off the grid and build a home with few things in it. So one of the first things I did after we decided that was sold everything in the kitchen that is electronic and I don't need. So, for example, I had a citrus juicer. You plug it in and it makes it easier to juice citrus. But what a waste of electricity I thought. Why not just hand juice? So knowing that has helped. I also have my Kitchen Aid Mixer for sale on Craigslist because I can just mix by hand. I think, sometimes, that electronic kitchenware takes away from the connection of creating a meal. The only thing we have that's electric is a blender and only because I can't chop that small sometimes.
I'm so excited to build this home and be free of carpet which means good-bye vacuum, another electricity sucker and another thing we don't need. I don't use the microwave, or at least very little, so we won't have that either and we hate regular sized refrigerators and can't wait to build our house and get a European sized fridge. We just don't need that much room. But anyway, most people who come into our home may find it quite empty but we like it that way. I think the more we embrace white space the less we are tied to things. Another thing that helps us slim down and not care much about collecting is we worry so much about the future of the planet and it puts things into perspective and how meaningless stuff is when things do start to get worse because I do believe they will.
But otherwise the only thing that might be considered collecting is books but we only have maybe 20 books in our permanent shelf. They have to be ones that we love so much we'd read again and again or would hand out to others who want to read. The last thing that helps with not collecting is that I'm super cheap and when I see things bought to just sit on a shelf I see it as a waste of money. To some people it's not, but again, I'm super cheap.
The other thing I realized when I collected the figurines was that the more I collected the more it wasn't as special. It's kind of like going out to eat twice a week and then switching to once a month, all of a sudden that once a month meal is extra extra special because it doesn't happen often. So when I take the time to really think, do I really really want this item? will use it? etc and then rarely bring things into my home it makes those things extra special because they are few and far between and things I thought about and really really wanted. Also being on a budget helps. I have $100 allowance each month. I rarely use it all but when I use it I buy supplies for my Etsy items. But if I do use it to buy a new shirt or something off of Etsy it's that much more exciting because I had to think about it for a long while since it's coming out of my allowance. So a budget helps tremendously. That and waiting to buy. If I see something I really really like, at a store or online, I wait. I give it a few days to a week and if I still really want it and plan to use it then I get it. But if it slipped my mind or I start questioning then I don't get it.
DeleteYou are so right about becoming attached to things. Not emotional, but physically. When you move all that stuff (aka crap) it all has to go with you as well. I'm glad I've reached a point in my life that I'm not buying anymore. We haven't used our Kitchen Aid Mixer in a long time. It's so darn heavy!! I have hated moving that thing to one place to the other. Cody makes mashed potatoes now with a hand masher. We like our potatoes lumpy anyways. hahaha
DeleteI love that having less space means you have no choice but to have less stuff. That is exactly what I see happening to me in the future. I'm actually really excited to go through my stuff and donate it. I've always donated things, but this time around it feels more exciting. Your Tigger story was sad. I guess I could really relate to that story with some of my toy collection. Thanks for sharing. It's very inspiring and motivates me to simplify my own stuff.
This just warmed my heart! All of my childhood favs. When I around 5 years old, my family moved from Germamy back to the US (military brat) and my collection of over 50 smurfs were lost in the move back. I was so sad and even more sad now that I've seen this. Brought back good memories!
ReplyDeleteOh that is sad! Losing toys would be horrible, especially vintage ones. Military moves never go smoothly. Things seem to always get lost. My Smurfs aren't going anywhere for now. The figurines are small anyways and they actually are fun to display. :)
DeleteI wish I had unlimited dollars, so I could buy your collection. LOL. Is that bad? I've always admired it and thought it was so cool. But I can understand how difficult it is to have and display, especially with the AF life. But you have to save some for your babies! (Did I just tell you to save some for your babies? LOL. But your collection is so sweet).
ReplyDeletehahaha You said babies. I am going to keep some things for sure. Especially my vintage Carebears!!
Deletegreat post! i loved reading this! i also love collecting, and yet i like sparseness and simplicity - as you know. it's always a delicate balance. plus our tastes change over time.
ReplyDeletei wrote you a novel, then it wouldn't fit in the comment section, so i may have to answer you on my blog. this is a topic that interests me greatly, especially since i've become so interested in simple living.
yes i picked up on your humor! what color are you dying your hair this weekend? :)
I have always admired how you are able to de-clutter your collections. You have always been good about getting rid of stuff when you bring something new into your home. Not me. :( hahaha With all my moves though and "age" I'm getting sick of all the same stuff. I plan to be donating a lot of my vases that I just have sitting around and do something with some of these toys. I don't really have time to list it all on Ebay. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. As far as my hair, Cody needs to touch up my roots and then I think I will put pink on the under layer of my hair. I'm just going to see if my work says anything to me or not. hahaha I'm such a rebel. (not really)
DeleteHey Jess,
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're quite to the point of being a hoarder with all your toys. :)
You have a large collection, but that's usually what happens when we collect things. We keep wanting more of that type of object to keep us interested in the hobby. But, many times we eventually lose interest in the hobby due to various factors. It could be the cost, or like you mentioned, it becomes too large, and that forces us to stop the hobby. But, we're always going to see new things that we like for whatever reason. Like the Vinylmations, that's something more recently you began collecting. For me, it's back to license plates!
I've collected many things over the years. I used to have tons of baseball cards in my early teen years. My aunt gave me about 80,000 of them at once, and that was literally a closet full! It was a ridiculous amount, and I sold them for pennies. I've collected coins, old paper money, National Geographic Magazines (heavy!), of course license plates, and road signs. Remember when I collected the insulators? Those were VERY heavy and took up a lot of space...plus they were glass and very fragile, so I had to display them properly. I've accumulated and sold off so much stuff over the years. It's easy to look back and wish I still had all those insulators, but at the time, there was a reason why I had to part with them. I was moving, and needed cash...and space!
So, with your toy collection, I think if you feel there is a valid reason for downsizing the collection, you will not have any regrets. Keep anything that has special importance, but if it's just taking up space, then you'll be fine getting rid of it.
Whatever you decide to collect in the future, my only advice is to "specialize" in one or just a few categories. Instead of collecting "toys" in general, only focus on Smurfs, or Vinylmations, or whatever you choose. Where I've gotten into trouble over the years is making impulse decisions. With insulators for example, there are so many types, that I was just trying to get ANYTHING different. Looking back it would have been better to focus on a specific color, or specific manufacturer, instead of just buying random types. When I used to travel around and go to antique stores, I'd usually buy at least one item so it didn't feel like I wasted my time. Well, that's really not a good reason to buy something! But now, I'm much better about just browsing, and only buying something if it will fit into my collection. There are lots of cool things to collect, but it's impossible to have it all. When we collect, we want it ALL! But if you focus on something specific, I think it will have more meaning to you.
If you decide to sell off anything, which sounds like you may be doing, maybe there is a toy show you can sell at over the Summer. Ebay has gotten very hard to sell cheaper items individually. It's OK on higher priced things, but not worth your time for less expensive items.
Collections usually do start with one or two items, then can get carried away. Also, if you collect things with real cash value, it's much easier to sell and get your money back if you lose interest. My brothers used to collect Pokemon cards about 10 years ago. They lost so much money on those! Usually, vintage items are safe. Certain items that become trends is where you can lose a lot of money if they become less popular all of a sudden.
Your toys do look cool, and very colorful!. But, I know the feeling of having to move stuff too many times. There will always be other things to spend our money on! Haha.
Good luck!
Well Dan, you were probably with me more then anyone back during my Smurf buying days. Going to the Earth and feeling like it was Christmas morning staring into those display cases. I do still feel attached to the Smurfs. I just plan to downsize everything else and see what I'm left with for our next move. I just know we are planning on downsizing to a much smaller place. You will hear all about it when you visit. :)
DeleteBEST POST EVER!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is collecting bot hoarding. People get up at me all the time for my toy and comic collection. What do they spend their money on? Clothes? Car? Tv? Dvds? I don't. My money is for what I enjoy comics and toys. I love going to the market with my husband and getting a coffee and holding hands as we rummage through buckets finding forgotten toys what people no longer love. We display them proudly and never get sick of people saying how much they love our house. They look and say I had that He-man or I remember Furbies. Yes we have heaps of toys overflowing in our apartmentment, but we have a limit. We collect what we like, not everything in the world. We clean them, dust them and look after them. Hoarding is for dirty people with a disorder that simply can't let stuff go for emotional reasons.
COLLECT WITH HAPPINESS JESS!!! Your collection is amazing and makes people and your self happy. PS: That rainbow Brite cross stitch is amazing.
From what I have seen you have some AWESOME stuff. If I came to your house I'm pretty sure you would catch me playing with some of your action figures. I am really wanting to collect a few of the Disney POP figurines, I do believe you have the Rick one. I think I saw him in the background of one of your videos. Collecting is so much fun. I just have so many things that I don't "LOVE" anymore. Kinda like, I bought it just because it was cheap and I found it. I never knew how to just walk away from something. It's so different when you focus on a few things. That's where things got bad for me. Too many things!!! hahaha I now love my Vinylmations. Cody and I collect those together which makes it fun for both of us. I'm glad that you enjoyed the post!!!! :) It is your money and it's a great way to spend it. Plus, in most causes the toys are an investment. They just keep getting older and harder to find.
DeleteI really enjoyed this post, because I too am a collector of many cute things. But I also have practical things and hobbies that take up valuable space. So where do I draw the line at purchases? Ehhh, it's a tough call. I still have a few Rainbow Brite toys but have sold and am currently selling part of the collection. (I LOVE that Rainbow Brite cross-stitch by the way. Too cute).
ReplyDeleteI donate often...if I'm satisfied with the time I spent with the object, the space gained in its absence and the thrill some buyer out there will get from acquiring a new treasure. That's the general rule I follow. But I also still have a few books, knick-knacks, records, etc. that I have no plans on parting with anytime soon.
As long as they're clean and organized...and you live and work in an accessible area...you're hoarding-free!
<3 Jackie @ Let's Go Thrifting!
http://LetsGoThrifting.blogspot.com
Thanks for your comment Jackie. I wasn't sure how people would react to this post. :) I think almost everyone collects something and could relate to it. It's funny because since I wrote this post, I've actually gone through random vases and dishes that I just don't need or want anymore and have placed them into a donate box.
DeleteIt's a great feeling to donate things because I probably bought it at a thrift store and was super thrilled when I found it. Now I get to pass that along to someone new. I've just gotten sick of owning so many things as well. If I never moved it wouldn't bother me as much. Once you start looking around though knowing it's all going to have to be packed again, it's tiring. hahaha
Thanks again for your comment. :)
Oh my gosh. Your collection makes me super jealous! I love picking up toys that I remember from my childhood. In fact, I got a puffalump the other day! I absolutely love that Rainbow Brite cross-stitch!
ReplyDeleteCollecting toys from your childhood is super fun. I think I just got a little out of control with mine. hahaha Thanks for stopping by! I've missed having you around. :) Yes, the Rainbow Bright cross-stitch is pretty cool!
DeleteI am in the process of moving from WV to CA for work. I had a good friend in town last week who helped me go through my clothes. I'm single, and I've got two full closets full of clothing and an under bed case full of sweaters (I'm a sweater weather girl). While I was going through, I ran across several things that reminded me of events. I had shirts from 2001 that I bought in Spain; I haven't been able to fit in them since around that time, but I loved them. They went. As I was going through, my friend mentioned that a lot of the things I was keeping seemed to be kept because of the story behind them, which is mostly true. If I can't wear it, it's gone, but if it's ugly but was bought with my friend who was murdered 2 months later... it stays.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool that you are moving to California. Since typing this post I've been going throw a lot of my things. It feels good to de-clutter. I really don't buy anything anymore. Yay! Have a great move.
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