What is the psychological reason that people start Collecting things?  Most kids will at some point start a collection of something, and few parents would discourage this.  It is perfectly natural for a child to develop his interest in something by starting to obtain as many things pertaining to that interest as possible.  Or is it?

Is Collecting Just Hoarding on a Smaller Scale?

Isn’t collecting just a way to become a hoarder of things, on a miniature level? Most collections are not actually usable, most of them either find themselves sitting on a shelf, or even worse– tucked away in a box somewhere. The money spent on collections *does* spark the economy, as there is a large sector of businesses and jobs that depends on people’s continued obsessions. However, becoming a collector is expensive, and unless you have the disposable income to support it– it is not conducive to a healthy personal bottom line.

Starting as Children

Childhood collections often take the form of a few traditional items: Old coins, rocks, seashells, comic books, and even stamps make an occasional cameo. Kids today also tend to start collecting whatever peer pressure tells them is the cool trend of the day: Pokemon cards, Bakugan, Silly Bands, or whatever the next trend is that I am sure to hear about in a few months. Depending on the age of the child, of course, the parent has to be a willing participant in this collecting Minamalist @ Home recently posted an interesting article about this.

Somewhere along the line, at perhaps about 4th or 5th grade, the idea of collecting seems to become a little “nerdy” to most kids. At this point they would typically rather be dead than caught using a metal detector, but in reality they have just shifted their collections onto new things, even further fueled by peer pressure. Collections migrate to designer clothes, shoes, video games, sporting equipment, books, MP3s and more.

My Own Collections

I have collected various things in my childhood, all of which I regret at this point. When I was 12-14, I spent every cent that I earned from my allowance, grass cutting, birthday money, etc, on baseball cards. I somehow got the impression that this collection would one day pay for my kids’ college. However, as my collection was building, the market for baseball cards was quickly becoming over-saturated, and when I was in college– it fell off a cliff. Now my collection still sits in my basement, and we just recently found a use for it. Later on, I started collecting music CDs, a collection that also became totally worthless when MP3s became the new standard.

The Internet Makes it Easy

I am not here to lecture you or to tell you that your large collection of Star Wars memorabilia makes you a bad person, as it certainly does not.  If you are taking care of yourself and your family, and have income to spare– then by all means you should spend money on whatever makes you happy. For many people, Collecting Things that they love seems to have that effect. With the advent of the internet and especially with eBay, collecting things has become easier than ever, and building a serious collection really doesn’t require a ton of effort. But in a way, doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of collecting to begin with? Shouldn’t collecting require a little bit of effort and patience?

There was recently a show on television where they showed the “Spelling Manor”, a large mansion where the guy behind 90210 and many other shows in the 90’s and his family have lived for the last 25 years. The wife was selling the place and she had warehouses full of collections, just rows and rows, shelf after shelf, of junk that she was “collecting.” It just seemed so very wasteful. Just because you are organized, lady, doesn’t mean that you are not a hoarder.

Minimalism and Collectiong

As someone who calls himself an emerging minimalist, I think that I am done with collections of any kind.  If I am not going to use it, I am not going to keep it.  The closest thing that I have to a collection of any kind currently is books, and I haven’t bought a new one in over a year. Any books that I have that I could see myself re-reading in the next year, I will keep, but it is probably time to go ahead and sell or donate the rest.

As for my kids, I am not going to discourage them from collecting altogether, but I will discourage them from collecting things that cost money. I welcome them going out and collecting interesting rocks or sifting through the coins that pass through the house (although, there may not be many these days) to see if any of them are worth saving, because those are free hobbies. But if the kids want to collect something that costs money, they are going to have to spend cash that they earned to keep that hobby going. I will gently remind them of my experience with baseball cards, and point out that what is cool today will quickly fade tomorrow, and that they will often be left with a useless pile of junk.

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This article was originally published on 2/19/2012