I explore abandoned houses and such places. The rule is not to take anything (or leave anything, like garbage). I photograph the outside of old farm houses mainly, seldom entering them at all. In more than five years exploring the only thing I have ever taken was a green Pyrex bowl which I found out in the deep grass, full of rotting weeds. It took several bleach washings to get the smell out of the bowl. I kept the bowl and I have no desire to sell it. I kept it for the house, the history of the place.
My Mom and I go to auctions, flea markets and thrift stores. We also pick up stuff from the side of the road if it looks good. But, we don't sell it. Most of it gets refurbished and then we give it to family members and friends who need it. We repurpose. The odd time something ends up being left at the bottom of our own driveway for another picker to pick it up and see what they do with it.
A few times I tried selling old things we don't still use or have space to keep around. But, it was annoying to deal with people who wanted to shop, rather than buy.
When does collecting become hoarding? I think a lot of people forget the actual pleasure of having something you enjoy. Instead they just want the hunt, the finding of so-called collectibles and then they just want to own it. Not to enjoy it, but just to own it, like having the right number in their collection. They forget to actually enjoy having it. Someone could move all the items and they could never see them for years and it would make no real difference. They might even prefer to just collect it again rather an feel the loss of it.
I like to watch the shows about antiques, collecting, the storage locker buyers and even (less often) the hoarders. But, I don't think I will take it on as a business. That would take the fun out of the picking up of junk and turning it into something of value. Plus, I don't want to take on more stuff. There is only so much space available and only so much time I want to spend on dusting and maintaining stuff.
The above photo is upcycled jewellery from The Key of A.
The problem with postcards is to know what to do with them afterwards.
I've been collecting postcards for years. They more than fill a shoebox. I don't have them out on display anywhere because there are just too many of them.
I should sort mine out and choose some to keep. Then add those to a frame with a nice backing of some kind.
Then I should get rid of the rest of them. Some ideas I've had are:
- Mail them out to other people
- Take them to the library or museums
- Donate them to be sold
- Recycle them with the other paper
- Sell them to collectors
Another Option for Reusing Your Digital Photographs
I've got a lot of photographs taken over several years since I bought my first digital camera in 2006. Some are photos taken of abandoned houses (my hobby is urban/ rural exploration). But many of the photos are flowers and plants in my Mother's garden, photos she just had to have, but she doesn't do anything with them.
Other photos are family, my sister's children, my own brother and sisters, etc. They take up space. This isn't a bad thing, because they do have value, but no one sees the photos when they are just stored on my hard drive and whatever DVD I burn them to.
What if you pulled out those family photos and turned them into postcards you can mail out to your family?
How I Began as a Postcard Collector
I began collecting postcards as a kid. My Dad would go on a business trip. My Grandmother would take a trip back to the UK to visit family. My family would wander off around Ontario in the summer months. Later I began writing to penpals and was soon trading postcards with them. We would send a pack of them all fresh and tidy in an envelope rather than directly through the mail. I wasn't thinking about keeping them clean or collectible, it was just easier to send them in a bunch than paying for them all one at a time.
I have an unplanned collection of coffee makers. I even have a couple which are old enough to be considered vintage.
The pot I use most often is the French press. I've got three of them now. One is the well-known Bodum brand. The others are brands I don't remember any more, one was no-name. The one I take with me when I visit or travel is the smallest French press. It's great because I can make coffee as long as I can boil water. No need for filters or a stove element to percolate the coffee through the machine.
That brings me to the percolators in my collection. The one I like best is Corningware. It has those blue flowers on a white pot. I found it at a thrift store and miraculously it was not only clean but had all the parts too. I've only used it once, so far. It's a large pot and I don't need to make that amount of coffee on a standard coffee-drinking kind of day. I like to watch the percolator pots, especially those with the clear knob on top so you can see the coffee get thrown up to the top of the pot each time.
I also have an espresso percolating pot. I had a second one but it got broken up for parts when my Mother needed the rubber ring for one of her espresso pots. It seems to always be that rubber ring inside of them that wears out first. Actually, unless something pretty dire happens I doubt much could cause the failure of those metal espresso coffee makers.
I don't have a ceramic drip cone filter and pot. That would be a nice addition. But, it wouldn't be simple for taking on the road. You would have to have filters and worry about it getting chipped or cracked. I do have my old Melitta cone filter and drip pot. I even still have the lid for the pot. They are made in a different plastic from that which is around now. They feel really solid and it takes a lot of effort to find any bend in them. I prefer not to bend them. I hope the set will last until I'm a very old lady and beyond.
This is my Mother's teddy bear. I'm not sure how old it really is. But, she wasn't the first owner of this bear. My brother used to keep it in his bedroom when he was a boy. Currently, it's in his house, in the spare bedroom. I saw the bear there when I visited over the Christmas holidays. It doesn't look any different from the first time I saw it as a kid.
The bear's arms and legs are held with a thin rope which has become loose through the body so the arms and legs both dangle around. The head is a bit loose at the neck, but it doesn't dangle. The fabric/ textile over the body is a little thread bare looking, like an old, worn in carpet. Overall, I think the bear is in pretty good shape. The embroider on the face is still tight and hasn't got any damage from wear and tear at all. As an experienced embroiderer, that is pretty remarkable. The bear is stuffed with something pretty dense. It has no leaks so I can't be sure what is actually in there.
We never played with this bear. It was given the respect due it's age (and the fact that it was Mom's bear) and we rarely touched it. She had a few other toys leftover from her time as a child but the bear is the one my brother liked best. He had his own bear, bought for him. Also, a dog Mom made him. So he had stuffed animals to play with. That bear was always special. It didn't get to play with the other toys but it did get to watch from it's perch on top of the clothes dresser.
Cymruted Collectible Bears: Teddy Bear Identification by Build
The Teddy Bear Museum: Teddy Bear History
Flickr Teddy Bear Photo Groups:
You never know what you will find when you browse around at the thrift store. Do you remember the Love Is... couple?
This glass had a stem and base. I wondered if it came with flowers originally. It would suit flowers for the bride. I'm only guessing, but it would have been a very nice way to send flowers to the bride-to-be, or to propose with flowers in a glass vase like this.
I remember this Love Is.. couple. At one point I even wrote my own list of Love is... sayings in my diary for them. I ended up with a pretty good list but not all of them were winners. I didn't have the courage to send them in then, I was just a kid, what did I know about love, romance or relationships. Of course now I'd disagree. I think kids can know a lot about love and relationships (not every relationship is about physical love). To me it seems this is one of the things we can see in the Love Is... couple. They have love with affection and real thought for each other's wants and needs.
The Love Is... drawings were created by New Zealand artist, Kim Grove, as a series of love notes in the late 1960's for Roberto Casali. They later married but Roberto became ill with terminal cancer and Kim stopped working on the cartoons in 1975. Roberto died in 1976.
Since 1975 the cartoons have been drawn by Bill Asprey.
The Official website. The site kept by Bill Asprey also has the comic strip.
A collection of Love Is... from a fan.
Another Love Is... collection.