What do you obsessionally collect?
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Bellatrix (
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February 12th, 2011
I have a secret obsession. Whenever I stay in a hotel (and I do this with reasonable regularity), I have to take the free soap, shampoo, toothbrush and whatever else is there. I don’t steal towels or things of that type, just the consumable things. I now have boxes of the crap. My justification to my long suffering husband who tries to stop me loading up my washbag with these unneeded things, is ‘we or the kids might go camping?” OR “we might have guests and we can put them in their rooms”. We NEVER go camping. I only camp in four or five star hotels. And if we have guests, I never put this shit in their room. I just can’t help myself. I don’t even use the stuff at the hotel because I prefer my own shampoo and body wash etc!
My former mother-in-law had 13 vacuum cleaners. My husband’s ex could not walk past a knicker display without buying a pair. My husband’s grandmother collected lounge suites and wardrobes. So confess, what is your secret obsession that you must buy or collect?
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22 Answers
Just a few years back, I might have said this was fabric. I’m a quilter – and “stash building” is a never-ending activity. I learned back when I started quilting (about a decade ago) that if I saw a fabric I truly liked it was best to buy at least a half-yard or yard and set it aside (color organized) so as not to regret not having gotten it in the future.
Now however..I’m surprised on thinking on this a bit that there is nothing that I collect (free or otherwise) with regularity.
Hmmm. Not sure this counts—but I guess the only thing I can definitely say I collect are pictures from my travels. My hubby and I both travel a great deal for work. I’d guess that a full 90% of the framed stuff on our walls at home are photos we’ve framed from places we’ve been.
Mostly places we were fortunate enough to travel to together. Sometimes they’re of flowers (a shot of hydrangea that hangs in our front entry is meaningless to all who see it—but I know it was the hydrangea bush in front of the building I lived in for 4 years in Japan)..sometimes scenery..but we do grab photos wherever we got that we find suitable for framing.
Hiccups and snow flakes. Everyone knows that no 2 snowflakes are alike and I have ample proof no 2 hiccups are the same either!
Maybe you mean obsessively? I collect pictures of my youngest grandsons, even if the pics turn out bad, like out of focus or too dark. I can’t bear to delete them.
For the stuff you mention, they would be well received by your local homeless shelter. Consider donating them.
Obsessively I collect anything coca-cola , campbells, and budwiser. Secretly would be food.
I collect his specific glassware design from thrift stores, usually goodwill. I have no idea what it’s design is called or who makes it.
I collect the fortunes that come out of fortune cookies. I have a whole box of little slips of paper.
Coffee mugs. I have boxes of them I can’t bear to part with, and I can’t bear to pass up a chance to get a new one that might evenly remotely remind me of anything. At all. Every time I move they get heavier…
Panties. I have to buy at least one pair everytime I go to a mall.
I’m collecting the Camel “city” boxes. Until I get tired of them.
Books by Robert Heinlein. I presently own about a dozen, but I’ve only read half that.
I’m obsessive about 2 authors: Thomas Pynchon and Anne Carson. I will buy any of their books as soon as they come out.
I collect blue and white china, but it isn’t an obsession. I don’t have to have anything. Actually, as far as that goes, I don’t collect anything obsessively.
I have a number of strange collections, and all of them have approached the obsessive level, but not attained it. I managed to stop myself before it got too out of hand. I used to collect full-sized chairs along with miniatures of same. I lived in a large house, and it was fine… for a while. I did stop buying any more full-sized ones several years ago (important, since I now live in a much smaller home). I even stopped buying the minis unless I really love it. I’ve done the same with my baby cup collection, and my letter “N” collection. No more! Unless it’s fabulous.
I’ve even gotten better about my ‘odds and ends’ collection of stuff I think I can use later to make things (art, furniture, decor). Table legs, broken lamps, fabrics, etc. Slightly better, anyway. ;)
I collect Higgs Bosons.
I’m negotiating with Fermilab to sell them some so that they can claim to have found them before CERN does. I’m sure there’ll be a press release in the next couple of months. Remember, you heard it here first!
Salmon pink paint pots. I use them to indulge in my passion of colouring Baboons arse holes. A dangerous task it’s true, but they do love it so. I mean the look on their little faces when I redo those parts that have been eroded due to over-zealous foreplay. So rewarding, heart warming really :¬)
You are not alone. My wife has a fetish for ladies pocketbooks. The are everywhere. In all the closets and even in the trunk of my car. When we married, I stated I would be with her for better or worse. I think the worse is just about to come to an end. We are running out of room.
I am a coffee cup collector. If you are familiar with Krystal hamburgers, I have one of their original coffee cups from 1952. The date is on the bottom of the cup.
We all have a fetish of some kind. Some are worse than others.
Whenever I go to Taco Bell or Del Taco, I always get extra packets of hot sauce. I love that stuff! I’ve got tons of them at home and I do end up eating all of it.
I also collect Christmas cards from the 1950’s and 1960’s and I particularly like one’s (that are a little more modern) that specifically have that sparkly fake snow stuff on them. With the older ones I like cartoony-like illustrations of Santa and carolers and reindeer and elves and snowmen. From the more modern ones, I like anything with the “sugar snow” and I like photographs of deer, Xmas trees with lights in the snow, and cardinals.
And I’m obsessed with re-filling my childhood library. I have found about 5 or 6 books online or at thrift stores that are the same books (too bad they aren’t the exact books that I owned) that I had when I was a kid. I especially like certain books that had really excellent illustrations. This one called Little Campers is one I’m still looking for and this one called The Littlest Snowman I actually found!
Nothing. Hording behaviors freak me out so whenever I see I’ve got too many lipsticks or nailpolishes or what not piling up, I do a sorting out. There are no holey socks or icky undies/t-shirts in my house either. I detest holding on to things worn out, broken or unused.
i collect assuring looks from the ladies….
Thank you for all your answers. Yarnlady, that is a fantastic idea. I will give it to a homeless shelter. Thanks.
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