I have never really identified myself as a collector. As a teenager, I never bought collector’s editions of albums unless they had songs I wanted on them. Nor did I collect band t-shirts (although now I really wish I had since all my band t-shirts have gone the way of the Dodo). Given the number of books in my house that have made several cross-country moves, one could argue that I am a book collector. However, I have a Great-Uncle who is a “real” book collector and my collection’s quality and quantity don’t hold a candle to his. (A brief aside, my Great-Uncle Bernard is selling off parts of his collection, so if you are interested, let me know and I will put you in touch with him.)
I would define myself as an upcycler with pack-rattish tendencies. I hate to throw things away that still have some useful life left in them. That means I keep old skirts or dresses that I can no longer wear because of stains or rips. I take the skirts apart and use their fabric for something else. I also have more pens than I will ever use in my lifetime because I hate to throw away something as useful as a pen. I even tried making an art project with our leftover CubeSpace brochures. Emphasis on the word tried. I eventually gave up and recycled them.
In the past few years I have entered a new stage in life. While I may have spent my first 42 years collecting random detritus, I am now all about purging it from my house. I have too much stuff and I want it out of my life. But, I still can’t bear to throw things away. Thankfully, I live in a great place for a person like me.
Perfectly functional clothing that I just don’t wear? That goes to a swap. Stained or ripped clothes go to Art ala Carte. Anything electronic goes to Free Geek. Anything crafty goes to SCRAP. Books go to the library. Yes, I am now beginning to part ways with my beloved books. But only those that are easily accessible from the library. I am not at a point where I am ready to replace a paper book with an e-book.
And then there are the CDs. Call me old-fashioned, but I am not ready to move all of my music to my spare hard drive/the cloud. Right now the digitized music I have is split between my linux laptop, my android phone and iTunes. The last thing I need is all of my music in a format that is incompatible with whatever the future holds. As long as I keep a single CD player, I am good to go. My vinyl on the other hand…well, that’s for another day.