What is a Collection?
What is a collection? A lot of people collect items, but does that make it a collection?
No.
A collection is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an accumulation of objects gathered for study, comparison, exhibition, or hobby.
I don’t collect much but when I do, I display what I have. This way I can enjoy and show the items off. I think that if you are not proud enough to show off your items then they aren’t a collection. They’re just stuff.
Do you collect? Are you honoring the items and your collecting efforts by displaying your collections? If not, work to do this. Clear off the top of an end table or a shelf. Gather items of the same type, and arrange them in a pleasing display. Now you and others can enjoy your collection.
What is a collection? A lot of people collect items, but does that make it a collection? Click To Tweet
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
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I notice children like to have collections. It’s a great opportunity to teach them about what a collection really is, and how displaying it or interacting with it is part of the experience… not simply just stashing things away in boxes. I don’t think I collect anything, but my father has an impressive corkscrew collection and it is all on display! (I would post a photo in my comment but I don’t know how to do that…)
That’s a great point about kids and teaching them what a collection is and how to best experience it.
I love the way you define collections.
Thank you!
Hmm. you’ve definitely got me thinking – especially “I think that if you are not proud enough to show off your items then they aren’t a collection. They’re just stuff.” Maybe I need to think of ways to show off my postcard collection instead of keeping them all in shoeboxes…
Yes, showing it off could be a fun project.
Both me and my husband are collectors. He tends to like big things and I prefer small ones. He collects large porcelain signs (like Texaco, Coca Cola, etc…) and I collect Pez dispensers, tiny fidgets and miniatures. They are incorporated into our home so that we can see and appreciate them.
Sounds like you have a good balance with your husband. Incorporating them into your home is wonderful so you can enjoy them every day.
I think your perspective on collections is really interesting. On the one hand, I often explain the difference between collecting and general acquisition (or even hoarding) in terms of the intentionality of it. Researching, planning, budgeting, acquiring, and maintaining things well are all hallmarks of keeping a collection, especially of things that are purchased.
On the other hand, there are things we keep because of their personal significance that we may have no desire to display. Maybe it’s because I’m not a visual person, but when I had a coin collection, I followed all of the hallmarks of collecting, but I prefer to have my collection tucked away, not on display. I didn’t want to see coins UNTIL I WANTED TO LOOK AT COINS, and I had no desire for anyone else to look at my coins. It wasn’t pride, but an aesthetic preference. I’m not much of a collector of anything right now, but I do like to collect interesting fortune cookie fortunes; I can’t imagine doing any kind of craft to show them off, but when I get a new one, I add it to the collection and take time to review what I like about the messages in them.
So I definitely agree with you about weighing the value of your stuff to make sure that it’s a collection and not a pile of random stuff, but I’d also say that willingness to display is not necessarily required for something to be a collection. Assuming one does not collect in excess, a collection can still be a private thing.
Hi Julie. I never thought about a collection like coins. Of course, I would want to display those either, but I would want them contained in some way, so maybe that’s a way of displaying them. Food for thought.