Collect? Craft? Recycle?

[Gingerbread]

I was inspired to start this when someone in another thread posted about hanging on to things you normally wouldn't just because it's MLP. My brain started firing off the many different things (MLP and non-MLP) I tend to keep with the intention of doing something with at some point. I think many of us do this to varying degrees and as obvious collectors of things we might have some natural magpie tendencies.

It can be so easy to blur the line of collecting and just having a bunch of stuff, especially when you collect multiple things. Do you ever get to a point where you're asking yourself, "do I really collect this" with true intent and purpose? or do I just happen to have acquired some of these things and casually like them? Maybe there will be someone else here who would truly love and use them more?

Then there are the things we "collect" to use at some point. We either have ideas for projects and crafts that some of us (like me) hope to some day get around to or we just hang on to things not with a specific idea in mind but because we might need it one day. For example, I will keep cute paper items for potential scrapbooking and my husband will keep random wires/cables/screws and miscellanea cause one day the toaster might break. At what point is this useful and realistic versus just wasting space and being clutter?

So I thought this would be a fun and maybe helpful thread to air out our dirty secrets and maybe get some ideas and motivation. We can share ideas for organizing the things we do decide to collect/keep, motivate each other and share progress. Do you have something you've amassed and you wanna get some ideas on if you should continue to hang on to it? Do you have something you really like and would like to craft something with but could use some motivation and/or ideas on what to do? Feel free to post it here and share pictures! Think of it like a challenge, what have you got versus what we can come up with to do with it and then let that motivate you to take action!

It can be anything, from collectibles you're not sure you should collect, to random things you just hang on to, to even having too many clothes. Whatever you think you could use help with. We can share our own hoard-shames and get advice on if we should Collect? Craft? or Recycle? it!

and hey, it's Earth Day! A great time to start thinking about taking control of clutter, recycling, reducing and renewing our space, life and planet

 

[darklys]

I have so many books. I have been working on getting rid of them, but there are just so many, and I feel personally connected to a lot of them. Nixe has so many too. I used to collect fun t-shirts (I mean, I had hundreds), but then I learned too much about the clothing industry and now I am trying to avoid doing that so much. I still love getting clothes for Nixie though.
I have collections of tea, and yarn, and ponies, and pins, and books, smelly things (like wax melts and candles), and bath things, and mugs. (Adding all the conjunctions for emphasis and not cause I don't know how to make a list) Most of those, I am pretty happy with, but I also just have a lot of stuff. And I buy WAY too much for Nixie. Every day, I give them a new toy. It's out of control.
---
I want to pare down on my clothes.
I have 5 crates of toys and 4 crates of clothes that were Lynnix's that I am waiting to give to my cousins if they manage to get pregnant.
I want to find a place for all the crafts I have abandoned. Resin, solar dyes, maybe even my yarn dye. I don't do it enough to justify keeping it.
I want to get rid of some of the yarn I don't love. We have like 600+ skeins in the basement.

I have a tendency to hoard things. I can't just take them and drop them to donate. I have to find a person to give them to. I don't even need money for them, but I need to know that like, A PERSON will take them and use them. I have to know that they're doing something somewhere else. We literally have an entire room in our house of stuff I have promised Gwenn I will get rid of, but I don't want to take to donate.

Just this week, I found a random mom and was like, "Your kid wears orthotics! What size? I have orthotic shoes!" I was able to get rid of 4 old pairs of Nixie's shoes. But it's like ... a drop in the bucket.

I hate that I am this way. I have such a hard time with the idea of waste - food, items, anything. My mental health is always better when things are open-space, but my habits mean that I am always stepping over things and always losing things.

 

[Gingerbread]

It's not hoarding if it's books! At least that's what I've heard and I tell myself. I have so many I've run out of room on my bookcases and have resorted to putting them in boxes in closets, it's a work in progress! For me I find they all typically fall into 4 categories, 1) I want to keep cause it's a favorite but I'm willing to loan out 2) It's a "collection" book and I will not loan out but have bought cause I love it and found a rare printing (like 1st edition Christmas Carol) 3) ones I haven't gotten around to reading yet 4) ones I've read and enjoyed but don't need to keep.

My neighbor and I went in together on a "sharing library" from Amazon that we put in the neighborhood and started keeping filled and I started a free book bin at work. I find myself less likely to hang on to ones that I'm not really, super crazy for when I know it's people in my neighborhood and coworkers that are enjoying them. I actually get a little excited when I put some in and then see they disappear and I'm like oh.. someone's gonna like that one! It was good! and sometimes it strikes a conversation if you know who took it, cause they're like "I'm reading such&such was that one you put in?" and we talk about the story. Sometimes people put their books in too and I come across one I'll take but I don't get into trouble with it cause I put back plenty more.

I still have lots of books and I need to find more time to read to go through them faster but I do find myself enjoying the giving away of them too. If they aren't a absolute favorite I'd read over and over or a "collectable" like described above I really do find myself giving them away easier cause I get excited to restock my free libraries.

this is the neighborhood one we got

and this cute flag to go beside it

for the work one I just got a rubbermaid tote and ordered some cute "take a book" "sharing library" decals from etsy and I put it in the breakroom.



I feel like with all the crafty knitters around here we'd have friends who would totally use up some yarn!

I hate being wasteful too! I try to repurpose or recycle as much as I can and I will use something until it is thoroughly done. My husband teases me about shoes in particular. I will wear them down to holes in the soles before I let them go LOL

I have tons of clothes and that's something I need to work on. I don't shop often but I keep it forever, even when it doesn't fit. If it's stained or ruined I'll turn it into a rag but this is more a problem with keeping clothes that don't fit. I have some really old clothes that are way too small that I hang on to cause I love them and I say "one day I'll be that size again". I have a wardrobe for a person size 8 to size 16, cause over the years my weight has come and gone. I'm always in some state of trying to get in better shape and lose weight, and over the past 20 years my motivation (and size) has fluctuated in that range. I will do really well and get down in size and start wearing things that haven't fit in so long, and I get rid of my bigger clothes thinking I'll never go back but then I get off track and put some weight back on and then I have to get some bigger clothes but I'm still holding on to those size 8 cause I'm hoping to get back there and next thing you know here we are with all these clothes again and I can only wear like 10% of them I am currently in this boat again as I've seemed to gain the "covid 20" each year we've had covid I'm trying to get motivated again to make progress in my health/weight but ugh, I'm just not feeling it and would rather eat a cookie. Maybe I need to pull out some of those favorite pieces of clothing and hang them on my closet door where I'll see them everyday and maybe be encouraged to try to get back into them.

 

[darklys]

We have a 3 box little library out front I'll post a picture next time I go outside. Nixie helped us paint it. It doesn't get enough traffic, honestly. I bought 1800 books for my classroom library when I was teaching elementary, and those are all getting slowly funneled in as well as some of my old fantasy.

I have been getting rid of books I can buy digitally, but I read a lot of obscure philosophy that was not ever made available on digital. And kid's books on digital is just not as good.
---
I bought a voucher to turn t-shirts into a t-shirt quilt, I just need to get that all gathered up and shipped. If it works out well, I'll do like ... 4 more. LOL. I think I want to keep some of my favorite things Nixie has outgrown for a similar project. Two years ago, my 16 year old cousin Star died in a motorcycle accident (for real, March and April are so bad - both my grandparents, Star, Tyler, Len...I just can't keep people alive in these months), and her mom did a keepsake of her clothes, and I liked the idea. Hopefully just for memories though. Lynnix had better outlive me.
--
I have offered yarn on here before and not had bites, but I didn't take pics. I might work on that =D
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I recently lost some weight, but I am not ready to buy new clothes yet. It's funny though cause all of my pants and bras are falling off now. :/

 

[Locket]

I used to have a ton of penguin plushies because one day I said around my friends (early on while we were still getting to know each other) that I love penguins. So I kept getting tons of penguin stuff to the point where I just had this whole pile of plushies. Eventually, I got rid of most and only kept a few really cute ones for Christmas decorations. I don't even like penguins that much anymore. LOL

I'm really bad at hoarding Halloween-themed paper crafts. I have so much, and I always go to craft stores looking for more. I really like making Halloween themed cards, and I do have a bunch, but I def buy more paper faster than I use it.

 

[strawberrypony32]

Stuffed toys are a problem for me, i feel bad when I see them needing someone to love them, but I have waaaay too many. So i try not to buy any that arent super important to get or very small. I slip up sometimes tho.. <.<""" i really shouldnt its a problem. I cant get rid of the ones I have bc of sentimental value but im trying not to get anymore unless essential like g1, g2, or g3 plushies.

 

[OctoberMoon]

Well I know how easy it is to start a collection, it's always been a thing in my life. My grandmothers both did it and my mom. My still alive grandmother collected Avon bottle dolls and porcelain dolls, when my Papaw got too sick with dimentia, he had to into a nursing home. She had to move out and sell the house and all of her beloved stuff to help pay for the home. She bounces back and forth between my two aunts houses every two weeks. It was very hard for her to do that. There were so many dolls! She had them in a curio cabinet and scattered around the house. My late grandmother collected birds of all kinds and lefton china, once me and my cousin were running around and the top shelf in the curio cabinet let loose and it made all of the birds fall from top to bottom. My amazing grandfather took every piece of broken bird he could find and reconstructed almost every one, we helped as much as we could, it was like a lot of sharp puzzle pieces. My mom collects turtles and always has, and nativity scenes. She got me started on MLP I'm sure of it. Once she found something I like, I started getting more and more. She also helped me with my fairy collection and my giraffe collection. She also started my ornament obsession, got me one or two every Christmas. She did the same thing to my sister, tried zebras and cherished teddies, didn't stick and then they discovered beanie babies and Littlest pet shop toys. That was their thing while I was growing up and out of mine (10 years difference in our age). So needless to say I blame mom lol but that's ok, it was great to have something fun to do together. She is a wonderful mom.

I have a cousin that crochets she might can use the yarn. But I am sure if you posted it with pictures on here these crafty peeps will snatch some of it up.

We have tons of books too! I have enjoyed reading to my son for years but he's grown out of some. We've donated a lot to his school and my nephew. He has a sentimental attachment to a lot of them that we have kept. Lots of great memories with them. He's into chapter books now and graphic novels.

My hubby collects DVDs and CDs, he's a movie buff. Now that we have a basement, he has a place to enjoy some of that stuff.

 

[Mintyeon]

I have so many books. I have been working on getting rid of them, but there are just so many, and I feel personally connected to a lot of them. Nixe has so many too. I used to collect fun t-shirts (I mean, I had hundreds), but then I learned too much about the clothing industry and now I am trying to avoid doing that so much. I still love getting clothes for Nixie though.
I have collections of tea, and yarn, and ponies, and pins, and books, smelly things (like wax melts and candles), and bath things, and mugs. (Adding all the conjunctions for emphasis and not cause I don't know how to make a list) Most of those, I am pretty happy with, but I also just have a lot of stuff. And I buy WAY too much for Nixie. Every day, I give them a new toy. It's out of control.
---
I want to pare down on my clothes.
I have 5 crates of toys and 4 crates of clothes that were Lynnix's that I am waiting to give to my cousins if they manage to get pregnant.
I want to find a place for all the crafts I have abandoned. Resin, solar dyes, maybe even my yarn dye. I don't do it enough to justify keeping it.
I want to get rid of some of the yarn I don't love. We have like 600+ skeins in the basement.

I have a tendency to hoard things. I can't just take them and drop them to donate. I have to find a person to give them to. I don't even need money for them, but I need to know that like, A PERSON will take them and use them. I have to know that they're doing something somewhere else. We literally have an entire room in our house of stuff I have promised Gwenn I will get rid of, but I don't want to take to donate.

Just this week, I found a random mom and was like, "Your kid wears orthotics! What size? I have orthotic shoes!" I was able to get rid of 4 old pairs of Nixie's shoes. But it's like ... a drop in the bucket.

I hate that I am this way. I have such a hard time with the idea of waste - food, items, anything. My mental health is always better when things are open-space, but my habits mean that I am always stepping over things and always losing things.

Wow! You have so much yarn you have to get rid of it!?!
I couldn't imagine having that much!
90% of my "stash" is what most yarn crafters consider "scrap skins" that they donate to goodwill, where in the yarn gets dumped into a taped-up bin for 4.99
Then I come along and greedily snatch it up because it's PERFECT for small amigurumi projects!

As for hoarding, I'm a skip a gen craft supplies hoarder!
I have incomplete projects from BOTH of my great-grandmothers!
I have my gg Hellen Jane's (on my mother's side) original sewing kit
And my gg Nancy (on my dad's side) had started a Daisy afghan that I'm dreaming of completing for her!
I even have the yarn she was using and the half-finished flower still on the loom!
It's like the project was frozen in time! Just sitting in my great grandfather's house just waiting for me to finish it!

(Please ignore my tiny baby hand in the photo the papers wouldn't unfold xp)

 

[ActionHank]

We have loads of books at my house and quite a few of them are mine, and I see nothing wrong with having a lot of them.

When it comes to stuff that I have a lot of it turns out it's gas powered equipment like lawn mowers and stuff, and I'm not sure why I keep accumulating that stuff, but at least I was able to fix the lawn mower I pulled from a dumpster. Right now I'm working on a 5,000 Watt generator a neighbor gave me.

 

[Gingerbread]

Stuffed toys are a problem for me, i feel bad when I see them needing someone to love them, but I have waaaay too many. So i try not to buy any that arent super important to get or very small. I slip up sometimes tho.. <.<""" i really shouldnt its a problem. I cant get rid of the ones I have bc of sentimental value but im trying not to get anymore unless essential like g1, g2, or g3 plushies.

Yes, why do they look at you and make you feel guilty!!!! I don't have too many stuffed animals but I could get rid of some if I could stop looking into their eyes and feeling like they're sentient

 

[darklys]

Yes, why do they look at you and make you feel guilty!!!! I don't have too many stuffed animals but I could get rid of some if I could stop looking into their eyes and feeling like they're sentient

A former roomie accidentally threw out a whole bunch of mine (they were stored in garbage bags, so it was an honest mistake), but Nixie has accumulated a bunch.

 

[Gingerbread]

well I guess that's one way to solve the problem LOL *yikes* poor plushies!

 

[Tak]

I save containers. Pretty much anything washable with a lid. Also shoeboxes. Not sure why. I have a garage shelf full of empty storage. I need storage for my storage!

 

[stjarne]

glad to see my threads given some inspiration outside of MLP stuff...

i honestly cant think of anything outside my regular collections that i keep just for the sake of it. coins maybe? i have tons of coins ive found or amassed over the years and never really display them. they're just in a jar underneath my bed. pressed pennies, wheat pennies, half pennies, coins from multiple countries... they just find their way to me. i also have tons of random 'token' coins.

oh and... beanie babies. i think beanie babies fit this threads question a lot more lol. as a kid i used to grab every single beanie i found at thrift stores even if i didnt particularly care for it... ended up in a single cardboard box filled with 100+ of the things. i downgraded before we moved and still have a lot im keeping my beanie collection to mostly bears i like now, because theres a beanie baby bear for basically... everything lol

as for other families collections... my mom collects orange cat figurines when she spots them, 'spiritual' items and the like. my dad used to collect yu-gi-oh cards but got rid of most his collection not too long ago.
an aunt of mine is an avid collector of cow themed items/figurines and its honestly quite neat.
my great grandma collects horse figurines/magazines, though she's a bit of a packrat. she's trying to downgrade her stuff and she's gotten some help from other family members. i think it's definitely a generational thing in her case.

 

[Sassarazzmadazzles]

since workin on my pony room

ive gotten rid of like 12 bags of clothes, probably like 50 boxes (over time), and been trying to rehome a lot of toys/ponies (thinkin bout thinning out my g3s really soon) - all i know is, there is so much you think you /want/ or /need/ but ya really really dont lol

 

[Cozytoyhoard]

I did a pretty good job last time I moved getting rid of clothes, but I probably need to go through them again. I've gained weight and some of them aren't really my style, they just fit. I don't mind donating them but all we have around us are religious thrift stores and I try not to support them more than I have to. Also I have way too many socks and I don't know what to do with them. ^^;

I'm actually rebuilding my library after a bunch got "lost" in a move. I might pare down some of my art books in the future. Other than that I'm pretty happy just keeping my favs and borrowing/ giving away ones I'm not as into.

Craft supplies... hooo boy. I inherited yarn, fabric, etc from both my grandmas when they downsized (and will probably inherit more when they pass). I've slowly been working my way through it. But I also like to try new crafts adhd style so I have a lot of stuff for: knitting, sewing, crochet, nålebinding, spinning, needlefelting, sculpting, painting, weaving, braiding, chain maille, beading/jewelry, doll making, miniatures, paper crafts, wood cutting, linoleum cutting... and more I'm sure. I do need to condense some of it so I can make room for the supplies I actually use.

I've been bad about snagging all kinds of toys I probably don't need. I truly am my Gma Winnie's grandkid in that I can't pass up a good deal lol. I also have too much empathy for sad looking toys so I have several projects lol. When I get my next big shelf I'm going to go through the toys and see who I'm good to part with.

I've decided my ugly ceramic tchotchkes are family heirlooms I hope my future nibblings enjoy them.

 

[StormMaeker]

After leaving college I had a spare sketchbook journal thing I didn’t get round to using even though I managed to entirely fill all my ones for college. I decided to start a gluebook because I enjoyed making collages but I didn’t really do much yet I kept gathering so much rubbish to use and didn’t even use them. Literal rubbish. Random bits of things, wrappers, all sorts and my art box just became too full.
I’ve done a good job getting rid of most of the stuff now and my art box is still full enough but more full of things I’m most likely to use. I’ve even given a canvas and A3 coloured paper sketch pad to my cousin’s daughter.

But I still have those few things I kept. On the other thread, I mentioned KFC illustrations I cut out years ago from their bags. Here they are:

I did only use one in the gluebook and that’s a small version of the present bucket. I am still yet to decide how to display them and which book to do so.

I have scrapbook of firework wrappers. I have shared my two favourites here