Collecting vs Hoarding

I consider myself a collector. I own enough pairs of shoes that I could get through many months without wearing the same pair twice.

 Just a small part of my shoe collection

 I have countless make-up items of varying value many purchased just from a desire to own the packaging (I have an inner magpie that cant see anything shiny, metallic or glittery with out picking it up). I find bookshops very hard to walk past and books are the one thing that I love buying second hand, the older the better.

 A snap of my lipstick drawer

Where the hoarder comes into play is the fact that I have 6 large fish bins full of old school materials that I just can't seem to throw away, when am I going to need a text book published in the late 1980's about the french involvement in the Vietnam war? If these bins just contained textbooks and projects this would be a little more normal but they have almost every sheet of paper, every note, every test and exam I ever had from 1998-2004. They are not limited to school things also among them are sheets of music from years playing in various bands and orchestras, certificates and awards, notes from friends, scripts and scores from plays and productions and every single programme from every single production I have ever had a hand in (I lost count at show number 36!). I remember moving into one of the first houses that my husband and I lived in by ourselves and the look of delight on my Dads face as the bins were removed from his garage and my childhood bedroom, and they became another persons problem to store. I recently had to delve into the bins to find every piece of music that I own to sort and archive or display in my newly set up music room and was lost for hours. each sheet of paper had a story, that is only interesting to me, but that I couldn't bear to part with.

The end product of 6 hours sifting through stuff

I think I need to rope in someone less sentimental than myself to clean it all up and only keep the important stuff. Maybe one day while I am out at work someone will magically sort through it and with a discerning eye will keep only what I need to remind myself of things I have done. If that same person even thinks about touching the shoes or makeup there will be hell to pay!

Here is to collecting the things I love and keeping the hoarding tendencies in check.

Michaela x