Where did this go wrong? A collector's lament for the ages!

There is a reason why I am Psycho!

This afternoon I was faced with emptying my garage for some contractor work that is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Somewhere along the way I have transitioned my collecting from one variation to another. I have collected stamps and coins, bottles, comic books, toy trains, superhero toys, robots and space toys, records and rock memorabilia, vintage home movies, board games and other stuff along the way.

I have found that for the most part, it is never easy to say goodbye, ergo my painful garage full of crap!
I decided about two-thirds of the way of emptying the garage, I would take some pictures and share my pain with you. My you, these pictures represent only a small snapshot of what I moved outside. I haven't touched the rafter storage, nor does this even scratch the surface of the closets and nooks of stuff packed away in the house.

Look, if you dare, into the nightmare of a collector....

Pile of stuff before pictures were taken.

Part two!

Yes, this is a Spiderman Hoppity Hop!

Growing ever so tired and not even close to being finished. Collectors beware, this could happen to you!

It's all gotta go, so if you see anything that you need to have, PM me and maybe we can trade? Boxes and boxes full of stuff! My wife is seriously thinking about calling Dr Phil, so help me out!

Psycho Tiki D (I know I am and it's Psycho for a reason)!

Read it, learn it, live it and then tell me what it says. I'm too lazy to read it myself.

Thanks!

On 2008-07-07 19:50, Bora Boris wrote:
Read it, learn it, live it and then tell me what it says. I'm too lazy to read it myself.

Thanks!

What?? Now you want me to learn to read?? That is not fair! It there a "Books on Tape" version?

PTD

Seriously, you need major intervention. :) You know it is really easy to collect, but getting rid of things is the hardest for me.

there's ebay gold in them thar buckets!!!!

The horrors!!! :lol:

A great quote...."The rarely used objects that clutter our lives are not really objects at all but symbols of our plans and untapped potential."

You have some neat collectibles...if you can live without them...kaching kaching...money for the lounge!!! :D

I feel your pain. I have a ton of horror collectibles all boxed away waiting for the day I can create a separate Horror Hotel bar.
Maybe try and turn a buck on the stuff your not as emotionally attached to. Man, I really do feel your pain.

I'm with Tipsy, that's why God created E-bay. "I'll tell you what's real satisfying...cash!" (Rodney Danderfield - Caddyshack)

On 2008-07-08 07:46, MadDogMike wrote:
I'm with Tipsy, that's why God created E-bay. "I'll tell you what's real satisfying...cash!" (Rodney Danderfield - Caddyshack)

I have sold over 225 items on Ebay and it can be hit and miss with collectibles, especially toys. Selling on Ebay is what has afforded me my tiki collection. I find I do better closer to Christmas and that window of time is pretty short!

I also sell at our local flea market once or twice a year. 28 years of collecting accumulates quickly!

PTD

I don't see a problem with your collection, except perhaps you need more things wrapped in cellophane. 8)

Obsessivcompulsiveaccesivecollectivitus! I fear I am afflicted as well.

You and Mr. Smiley should get together and open up a store or a museum. It took him almost an entire year to move out of the Ugh House here the Bay Area to Las Vegas, and I and others can attest to that fact because we all helped him move! He put a lot of stuff in those moving Pod containers, but his vinyl record collection alone was so big that by itself it exceeded the 5000 lb weight capacity of the Pod container, and he had to get another one just to spread out the weight of the collection. And that was JUST his vinyl record collection!!! You don't want to know the details of moving his tiki collection!!! :D

Hey Mai~

From what I have heard (and I do hear things) you are no slouch yourself!

Rock on with yo bad self~

PTD

Oh, no sir!!! You're not sucking me into this! I've got my own abyss! Let's see, I collect: Tiki, Vintage Speed Catalogs, S&Ps, Diner Stuff, Albums, Slot Cars, Flamingos, Picnic Stuff, Car Magazines, Die-cast Rods & Kustoms, Vintage Christmas, Barware, Rod & Kustom Memorabilia & I'm sure I forgot something. I just sold a very desirable set of Hot Rod headlights on ebay for $1552.00! I paid $40.00 for them! I needed the money to take my kids to DisneyWorld, but all I can think of is I'll never find another set of those headlights. The profit margin is completely lost on me! I'm sick & I know it, but I don't want help. My stuff makes me happy! Good luck with your purge! Mine isn't going so well.

Oh, I guess I forgot about the vintage Christmas and Halloween stuff until I ventured up to the attic this afternoon...

Who knew there was this much crap?

Did I mention I collect stuff?

I am delirious from the heat, it is hotter than hell in CA.

Psycho Tiki D (I know I am and insert Psycho ________ D anything)!

We used to joke that we collect collections. We too have piles and piles and boxes and boxes of our old favorites. Just to name a few: Amy has collections of vintage snow domes , vintage nodders, cool shot glasses, dresser caddies, mid-century dinnerware, chalk wall plaques (food with faces), bar-b-que platters & aprons as well as loads of old Berrie statues (I love you this much) . I have extensive collections of vintage smiley face stuff, girly, pin-up, and vintage erotica, psycho ceramics, big-eye/ sad-eye stuff, paint by numbers and black velvet paintings, old 8mm, super8 and 16mm films, Zippo lighters and don't get me started about books and records. This all does not include the art, mid-century furniture & design, aloha attire and of course the Tiki collection!

More than one person who has seen our home, our basement, and our storage has STRONGLY suggested we need serious help. Help? Yeah, we need help– finding more cool stuff!

I say don't sweat it unless it becomes a burden, then let it go and live with someone else who it will give joy to.
-Duke

On 2008-07-08 13:48, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
From what I have heard (and I do hear things) you are no slouch yourself!

Well, I like to scatter my collection evenly all across the floor. That way everything is evenly distributed throughout the house. God help me. Has anyone started organizing my intervention yet?

Mantra: "I gotta get ridda some stuff..."

I collect mostly just vinyl LP's & 7"s, but if'n it's neat lookin', it's mine.
I got cases and cases of 'neat lookin''.
First words out of a visitor's mouth - "Wow, look at all this stuff!".
Sadly, all I could think of when seeing those pictures on the first page was, "How do I clean the drool off the keyboard?"
I'd trade some of my own stuff for it, but, y'know... then I'd have to part with it...
Haven't they invented an anti-collecting pill yet? A patch? You see an "Antique show this Saturday" sign and just peel off a patch and slap it on your forehead? I need a pack right about now...

I highly recommend opening a space in an antique mall. It really helps! That way everytime you go buying you can write it off on your taxes and as you sell off your stuff you always have room for more! Well... a 20x20 Tuff Shed in the backyard helps too :wink:.

Thanks for this topic. I now have something to show my wife when she starts bitching about clutter. :lol: :lol:

Once I started to realize how much the boxes of crap in my garage were worth, I really started to put eBay to work. Actually used it to get ourselves out of a big credit card debt a few years back. I don't keep anything anymore unless I have room to actually display it.

It is possible to stop.

I was a collector of collections for most of my life, until just a few years ago. Then I began to wonder "what is all of this FOR", and what missing part of myself am I trying to replace with all of these intrinsically worthless things.

I also started to wonder: when does one person have ENOUGH?

I have more comic books, accumulated over 30 years, than I will ever have time to re-read in my lifetime. If I begin now, I can re-enjoy all of the ones I bought in the 1980s and completely forgot about. I don't ever have to buy any more. I will likely be dead of old age before I finish re-reading the ones I have.

I have more Tiki mugs than I can reasonably display in Aku Hall. Half of my collection is boxed up in a closet.

In 2001, I decided to play all of my CDs once, each , alphabetically, with no repeats, just to see how long it took. Two years, almost to the day. Now with MP3s that I have gathered, I have three years worth of rotation. That is plenty.

The vast majority of my prints and posters are in a big cardboard tray under my bed. My walls are covered with art, but there is a whole lot more that lays unseen.

I do not NEED any more.
I have reached my fill.
I have more stuff than I possibly have time to enjoy.

It is a little bit of a breakthrough from an Eastern philosophy standpoint: free from the desire for ownership, I am happier.
Easing myself into a true state of "not wanting" has freed me of the sadness and frustration of desiring things I can't have, the burden of paying for the things I can have, and the constant maintenance of keping your things intact (be it from moving, from household disasters, or just from time).

It really is liberating to put yourself into a place where 'wanting' stops.

Almost overnight, I decided to stop buying objects, and to start spending my disposable income on experiences. So, in the past four years (in addition to my usual road trips and concert tours), I have been to Spain, France, Japan, Easter Island/Chile, Hawaii, a bunch of Tiki events, etc. These trips were all paid for with the cash that I used to spend on Tiki mugs that I don't drink out of, DVDs that I watched once, and action figures that are now in boxes (most of which I could not sell for even as much as I paid for them).

Wanting things is something that is ingrained upon us, in the Western world, since birth. Some people are hooked on pop collectibles, some need nice jewelry and fast cars, some need a fancily decorated house, and most of the girls I know need 100 pairs of shoes. Letting go of this need to own and consume is hard - it took me three decades-plus - but once you do it, it is a huge monkey off of your back!

...but I still can't stop buying art books and nice rums..........!

and about that 20x20 Tuff Shed....can you tell we just did an inventory purge??

Tikibars ~ read your post, and nodded as your philosophy makes lots of sense and would probably bring lots of inner peace. and then Sputnik had to post her tuffshed stuff ~ and my brain said "WANT".

I did the same thing that James did - decided to give a good listen to all the cassette tapes I had recorded from the years 1978 through 1993 or so. For a long time, I would buy LPs, tape them, and trade the LPs back to the store to get more credit, and then buy more records, and the cycle would repeat over and over. I had over 400 cassettes to listen too - it was fun to listen to those songs again, and sometimes wonder 'Why did I ever record that?' ... and it took several months for me to complete the task (I listened to the tapes only when driving)

I have accumulated several collections since then - started with LPs around 1992, and since then has continued with various items, but mainly tiki stuff and books - lots of books. Will I ever have time to read all of my unread books - probably not. But I like having them around, as I feel they kind of define who I am, and provides some level of anticipation.

I moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a 3-level townhouse, and for the next 15 years I had the space and freedom to do lots of thrifting, and since my tastes were not too expensive, pretty much buy whatever I wanted. About 2-3 years ago I reached a limit though, and for most everything I now buy, I have to get rid of something .... it really does cut down on purchases.

All those unlistened to records and unread books I have? They are part of what I consider my retirement plan - so I will have something new to listen to and read when I no longer have to work.

Earlier today I found a good review for a book called 'It's All Too Much - How to Declutter Your Life' - the review has lots of good excerpts, that kind of match what James said above. Having too much stuff really chains you down a bit.

Here is an excerpt from that book ...
I have been in more cluttered homes than I can count, and the one factor I see in every single situation is people whose lives hinge on what they own instead of who they are. These people have lost their way. They no longer own their stuff--their stuff owns them. I am convinced that this is more the norm than the exception in this country. At some point, we started to believe that the more we own, the better off we are. In times past an in other cultures, people believe that one of the worst things that can happen is for someone to be possessed., to have a demon exercise power over you. Isn't that what being inundated with possession is-- being possessed?

Are we being possessed by our tikis?

more excerpts, and the book review, can be found here
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/002926.php

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2008-07-22 05:24 ]

That book is written by Peter Walsh, who is a professional organizer - he helps companies, organizations, and individuals declutter and streamline their lives. If you have ever watched the tv show Clean Sweep on TLC, he is one of the main professional organizers that they use.

The gist of Clean Sweep is that a team goes into a house of people in dire need of help, because clutter and crap has taken over their lives, and the folks there can't even really function on a day to day basis - they can't find things, feel that they can never invite people over to their house because it's too cluttered, etc. The team consists of the host, a professional organizer, an interior designer, a carpenter, and a bunch of people to help carry things, paint, and help build stuff like cabinets. The entire team empties out two full rooms of stuff, hauls it all out onto the front lawn, and then totally re-organize all the stuff and remodel the two rooms, all in two days. Usually re-organizing all of the stuff means getting rid of most of it, with much tear-shedding by the owners in the process. But Peter Walsh usually gets them to realize at that point that they no longer own the stuff, the stuff owns them, and it's robbing them of an easier more pleasureable life, and spending time with friends and family that otherwise wouldn't be able to come over and visit.

A lot of times the stuff has been kept because it reminds the owners of their parents, grandparents, favorite uncle, etc. But the stuff is always shoved into a box, or abandoned in a heap in the garage, basement, or tuff shed, where it gathers dust or withers and wears away. One episode had a family who wouldn't give up an old mantle clock, because it reminded them of their grandfather or some other relative. But the clock was broken, covered in dust and grime, it's finish was wearing off, and there were actually mouse turds inside of it where mice had been nesting! In instances like that, Peter Walsh has no problem raking the hoarders over the coals - "If this clock means so much to you, and it reminds you of your favorite grandfather who you loved so dearly, then how in the world can you treat it with such absolute disrespect? You are doing the memory of your grandfather, and yourself, a disservice by keeping this clock in such a state of disrepair if it is supposed to reflect who they were and the importance that they had in your lives!" Lines like that usually get the water works flowing, and it's at points like that when the people either decide to fix up a few of the items that mean the most to them, or get rid of it all. Peter Walsh tells them that the things that meant the most to them about their relatives/loved ones are already with them inside their hearts. It's okay to keep a few key things that really mean something about what they meant to you, but you don't have to immobilize and ruin your own life to keep that memory going.

A few years ago, Coco Loco and I were in a situation where we had to pick up the pieces of some close family members. The responsibility to do that fell squarely upon us, and we basically had no one else to help out. We had to figure out what to do with over thirty years of accumulation and clutter - it filled up one very large storage unit and two medium sized one, floor to ceiling. It wasn't easy, and at the time we were only living in a small cottage farm house in silicon valley. I knew who Peter Walsh was at the time, and actually contacted him to see if he could help us organize all of this stuff. He was very amicalble, and sent me an estimate, around $2,000 bucks for him to come up with a crew, and spend a week helping us go through all the stuff. We actually could afford his rate at the time, but after some serious consideration, decided to handle everything on our own.

As I look back, maybe it was the right decision to do it without his help, but it took us about 6 - 8 months, including every single weekend, to finish the project on our own. If you're a believer that time is money, then it would have been worth it to use Peter Walsh's help. Oh, and the fact that Limptiki and other TC'ers pointed out to me that Peter Walsh would probably make me cry on TV, which was pretty much the pinnacle of uncool.

After going through that whole fiasco, we've been more careful about what we bring into the house around here. We are still collectors to some extent, me more so than her, but we realize that we only have so much space, and simply cannot afford to bring in another sofa into the house.

Getting involved in the tiki scene around this time hasn't helped, though. It was like, a whole new world was opened and available, a world that that involves an appreciation of how things used to be, a culture that I definitely "got" right off the bat and appreciated and enjoyed. And guess what, there are collectibles to go along with this newly rediscovered culture! Both new and vintage! Let the spending spree begin!

I wonder if others upon joining TC, whether newbies now or seasoned veterans 8 years ago or longer, felt the need at first to "catch up" on all this new found wonderfulness? I know I sure did. At first. Now I've had to implement some guidelines. If it isn't some type of mug/carving/painting/various art piece that I absolutely can't live without, and would later deeply regret not buying, then I'll most likely get it. But believe it or not, this guideline has helped tremendously. It has cut way down deeply on the amount of mugs, and various other things, that I have picked up over the last couple of years.

And then the Trader Vics warehouse sale happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers ;

"On March 21, 1947, an anonymous tipster phoned the 122nd police precinct and insisted there was a dead body in the house. A patrol officer was dispatched, but had a very difficult time getting into the house at first. There was no doorbell or telephone and the doors were locked; and while the basement windows were broken, they were protected by iron grillwork. Eventually an emergency squad of seven men had no choice but to begin pulling out all the junk that was blocking their way and throw it out onto the street below. The brownstone's foyer was packed solid by a wall of old newspapers, folding beds and chairs, half a sewing machine, boxes, parts of a wine press and numerous other pieces of junk. A patrolman, William Baker, finally broke in through a window into a second-story bedroom. Behind this window lay, among other things, more packages and newspaper bundles, empty cardboard boxes lashed together with rope, the frame of a baby carriage, a rake, and old umbrellas tied together. After a two-hour crawl he found Homer Collyer dead, wearing just a tattered blue and white bathrobe."

[ Edited by: twitch 2008-07-22 21:58 ]

*In total, police and workmen took 103 tons of garbage out of the house. What was salvageable from it fetched less than $2,000 at auction; the cumulative estate of the Collyer brothers was valued at $91,000, of which $20,000 worth was in the form of personal property (jewelry, cash, securities and the like).

Items removed from the house included rope, baby carriages, a doll carriage, rakes, umbrellas, rusted bicycles, old food, potato peelers, a collection of guns, glass chandeliers, bowling balls, camera equipment, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage, a sawhorse, three dressmaking dummies, painted portraits, pinup girl photos, plaster busts, Mrs. Collyer's hope chests, rusty bed springs, the kerosene stove, a checkerboard, a child's chair (the brothers were lifelong bachelors and childless), more than 25,000 books (including thousands of books about medicine and engineering and more than 2,500 on law), human organs pickled in jars, eight live cats, a beaded lampshade, the chassis of the old Model T Langley had been tinkering with, one British and six American flags, tapestries, hundreds of yards of unused silks and fabric, clocks, fourteen pianos (both grand and upright), a clavichord, two organs, banjos, violins, bugles, accordions, a gramophone and records, and, of course, countless bundles of newspapers and magazines, some of them decades old. Near the spot where Homer died, police also found 34 bank account passbooks with a total of $3,007.18.*

Don't deny that you shamefully looked through the list of items, folks! :D To increase your shame spiral, consider this, there was a manhunt for the missing brother, who was rumored to have fled the scene. Instead, two and half weeks later, they found this amongst the clutter:

On April 8, 1947, workman Artie Matthews found the dead body of Langley Collyer just ten feet from where Homer died. His partially decomposed body was being eaten by rats. A suitcase and three huge bundles of newspapers had covered his body. Langley had been crawling through their newspaper tunnel to bring food to his paralyzed brother when one of his own booby traps fell down and crushed him. Homer, blind and paralyzed, starved to death several days later. The stench detected on the street had been emanating from Langley, the younger brother.

The thing with these books about getting rid of clutter is that that from my perspective, 'clutter' is all of the worthless crap that accumulates in your life by accident, just through living.

But collections are things we pursue, seek out, and buy on purpose. Our collections may take up a lot of space, as does 'clutter', but they have a different meaning in our lives, and are not as easy to get rid of - our collections are made of things we want and love, not random detritus.

I think the techniques for slimming beloved collections might be radically different from the techniques of tossing the clutter.

Well...decided tiki is more important than my earlier passions. I have started the process of moving and selling my toy collection on eBay and through private sales to make more room. I have made some significant progress, but still have a way to go. All of the robots and space toys are going now, then on to the train collection...no worries though...for everything sold is replaced by tiki or hawaiiana in some form or fashion.

It was a difficult day today though, packing up some old friends...kept thinking about Toy Story 3, but quickly got over it when I looked at my sales on Fleabay at nearly $700.00 in the past couple of weeks.

I just hope tiki stuff brings some cash if I ever grow tired of it!

Later,

PTD

I feel your pain, D! I've moved some of my other stuff to make way for Tiki. I really enjoy many things, but Tiki has moved to the top of the list. Do you suppose on of 'em cursed us?

I had a similiar problem. Too much time in thrift stores, and too many hobbies. When I moved, it cost me 200$ to get the stuff I had accumulated that wasn't worth moving with me thrown away.
I try to follow the "if I'm not using it, it's not worth having around" rule. But that is of course a gray area. I don't let other people (other than the wife of course) drink out of my tiki mugs (unless it is winter and we are in on the carpet) so I have more of those than I could use all at the same time.
And, like the comics mentioned above, I have more videogames than I will ever have time to beat, unless I actually get to retire some day 30 years in the shady future.
It's a trick, balancing collecting against hoarding. But at the end of the day, looking through my LPs or NES games while drinking out of a favorite mug is pretty nice.

[ Edited by: TIKI DAVID 2011-05-08 03:33 ]

Wasn't there a show on t.v. this past week or so, that showcased collectors and the crazy collections that they collect? I can't seem to find it mentioned anywhere online, but definitely want to watch it.

When I combined my storage units into one warehouse here in Las Vegas, I was shocked at how much stuff i have! I never have seen it in one place before!! It was always in separate units. Even when I moved from Oakland, it took 3 pods and a few 26 foot U-haul loads-again, never in one spot at the same time. That being said, how much for the 8mm movies?!?! :)