I don’t hoard! I just collect a lot. #MFRWauthor #trashtotreasure #organizedchaos


Join us for MFRW 52-week Blog Challenge Week 10:  The differences between Collecting and Hoarding. This topic is right up my alley. I collect everything. I am a creative mind and I don’t see trash I see treasure. My husband is the same way so we have two of us hoarding–oops–collecting here. It is a good thing my house is big, his shop is bigger and the kids are all out. We have rooms for our trash…I mean collections. We will address the trash to treasure issue first then move on to the collections.

As I mentioned I am creative. I love crafting. I don’t see empty jars. I see snowmen, owls,containers for more collections, candle holders, vases. I don’t see empty lids on detergent bottles, I see pin cushions that look like little cupcakes or flowers, I see pine or needle holders, little pots for flowers and a friend said she starts seedlings in hers. The little bell shape lids on spray cheese (yuck, but my husband loves it) lamp shades for doll furniture. Those funny shaped plugs on in cartridges…perfect gas nozzles for dolls. Even my cats have gotten into the fetish. Their favorite toys are toilet paper tubes. I could go on and here but you get the picture. I even have several bins of beautiful shaped and colored rocks for painting or making jewelry.

At one time all of this went into garbage bags or boxes in my craft room and it truly resembled a garbage dump. Now I came up with a new rule ( and a use for those cat litter buckets I save) I label each one such as wine bottles, frappuccino bottles, glass jars, creamer containers etc (someday I am covering with wallpaper or decoupage to make pretty). I fill the container and can’t save any more of that item unless there is room in the box. So, use it or trash them LOL. These containers stack nicely behind my exercise equipment out of the way.

Now for the collections. I collect dolls. Not the expensive ones in the box or any with the hope they will get expensive if they stay in the box but ordinary dolls that catch my eye. I like redhead or dark-haired barbies. I like Bratz, Monster High and Ever after High.

Even Koozas.

American girl dolls and knock-offs.

Chatty Cathys ( wish I had one that talked)

Dolls of all kinds

My husband collects, Tonkas, planes, trains, and matchbox. so as you can see we are big kids. We both have tons of books.

Hoarders or Collectors? I guess that is in the eye of the beholder. Since our stuff is not in boxes or trash bags and somewhat organized at least where we can find it…I say collector!

Are you a hoarder or collector? Lets go see what the other authors are!

Simplify, Simplify, and Meet Author Julie Howard2.Groups of things – #HollyBargo
3.I don’t hoard! I just collect a lot.4.Collector Checking In. . . .
5.Collecting or Hoarding6.To Save or Not to Save #MFRWauthor

Click here to view the entire list…


10 responses to “I don’t hoard! I just collect a lot. #MFRWauthor #trashtotreasure #organizedchaos”

  1. You remind me of my mother-in-law who also sees treasure in what I’d consider trash: empty margarine containers, pieces of driftwood, wine bottles, etc. She’s also very much into crafting things.

    • That’s so awesome I would love to see her crafts. I have a crafting group for mine though I haven’t shown much lol You should have seen me at my Dad’s in Hannibal tying to get driftwood from the river, he had fits lol

  2. You have Molly! My maiden name is Mcintire, so I have both a large and small Molly, plus a few of the books, cookbook, and a snowglobe that unfortunately broke. Any time I find someone who likes American Girl, I point out that ‘I’ am one, ha ha!

    My daughter got Bitty Baby when she was two, as well as Bitty Bear. Since she quit playing with dolls in favor of squirt guns a year later, Bitty Baby is safely tucked away.

    Molly Mcintire Daniels

    • Yes I have a Molly and a Samantha, and Abigail through the Samantha and Abigail do not have their clothes and none have boxes. We got them all on ebay. I have bitty twins too. A horse. Ol I have the chatty Cathy’s since I am one lol. It is fun having our namesake dolls.

  3. I’d call you an organized collector, Cathy. I had a Chatty Cathy doll that talked. I have what’s left of a doll with a bisque head that belonged to my grandmother. The doll is over one-hundred years old. The cloth and sawdust body fell apart years ago, but I still have hopes of having her remade. I do have two NASCAR Barbie Dolls still in boxes.

    • These are not the actual dols I had as a girl but dols to replace them and finding and affordable chatty was out of my price range. There was a rare barbie we didn’t find as it was recalled not long after I got it. I would love to have the camper and airplane but heck why? It just takes up space. I am going to go through some of my dolls we got in the lots we collected and either sell or donate the duplicates or ones I don’t feel fit in my collections. I love to get them down and do their hair and sew them new clothes. It is relaxing I guess going back to my past and calming. ( the doctor seems to think medication is better and more healthy I don’t agree. playing with dolls at age 57 is not crazy)

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