Collector or Hoarder?

I do not believe I am a hoarder, but I do like to collect various items.  My collections are not for monetary value or fame...just for my own pleasure.  Something catches my eye and I begin to buy more of the same thing.  When I get tired of my collection, I move on until another item appeals to me.

Remembering places I had visited, places where I had a good dinner, where I had danced or hung out with friends began my collection of matchbook covers.  Some of the covers are from the late 1960's and the majority of the places are no longer around.  When smoking was outlawed and free matches were no longer available, I gave up the match book collection.

Collecting troll dolls became my next hobby.  The funny faced, hard rubber dolls, with their bulging eyes and different colored spiked hair appealed to me. Their costumes represented sport teams, soldiers, skateboarders, brides, grooms, renaissance era, jeweled royalty, holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, etc.), photographers, dancers, skaters and naked trolls with a gem in their belly button! I displayed them in a bookshelf and when my grandchildren visited, I would bring them down so they could look at my many different trolls. One day, I decided they could play with them and I found my trolls undressed or the clothing mismatched. My fifty some trolls now rest in a large box in a closet.

When I traveled, the least expensive souvenir was a key chair and I began collecting key chains from different places. I have many key chains and as many memories of twenty states in the United States as well as Canada., Mexico, Central America, South America and Europe.  I draped the connected key chains on  my bedroom walls and enjoyed lying in bed and recalling the many places I had visited.  When it was time to paint my bedroom, the key chains came down, placed in a couple of boxes and stored in my basement.

Once, when I visited a friend, I noticed she had a wall of many beautiful and ornate crosses. This began my fascination of unusual crosses made of wood, glass or beads.For my birthday I was given a beaded cross made in Mexico. I have fifteen crosses on my living room wall and the newest cross is one that my artist daughter sent me for Christmas this year.  It is made of gourd material with a Joshua tree painted across it.

Years ago I began collecting Nativity scenes.  I love the story of the birth of Christ and it gives me great pleasure setting up the little figures as I picture the scene so many years ago. My sets are bears, American Indian, traditional sets, music box sets, and made from a variety of materials like gourds, metal, wood, or ceramic.  Even though I had made up my mind to stop buying Nativity sets, I purchased one more this year. A beautiful three piece set made in Ecuador.  One year I put them all out and enjoyed setting each one up.  After Christmas, it was so much work wrapping each individual figure, boxing them so they wouldn't break, and putting them away that I now put out three or four mangers at a time.

My collections, once I tire of them or they go out of season, end up getting stored in a box so I may be a collector, but I am sure I am also a hoarder!