Why be Normal?

Have you ever waited in line for hours, just to buy the newest beanie baby?  Me neither, but I know intelligent people who have because they believed that some day that beanie baby would be worth money.  Yes, some collections may be worth something, someday to someone, but even if you have that “rare, valuable beanie baby” you still need to find a buyer.

Recently I’ve been working with elders in a guardianship capacity and one home in particular is that of an extremely successful hoarder.  In this home I have found some of the oddest collections and I can’t for the life of me figure out why she would save some of the things she did (well, yes, I do know, it’s dementia, but at some point I believe she was relatively sane and these collections have been going on for years.)

I found the piece de resistance when I found the collection of old dentures.  We’re not talking an old pair or two, we’re talking 30 pairs of random dentures, some so old that even the dentures were yellowed.

She also had rock collections, but not your typical pretty and rare rocks.  She has container after container of driveway rocks - hundreds of pounds worth.  I found bird feathers all labeled (many were the rare pidgeon feather) and a collection of 100 pairs or more of eyeglasses.

What leads us to gather, to hoard, to collect?

What starts out as a mild hobby can quickly become out of control if we don’t watch out as in the case of this woman.  Many collectors believe that what they are collecting will have a significant value some day in the future and really, this woman also had some books and antiques that have netted her close to $25,000 in an auction, but the teeth and bird feathers were not part of this.

Here are a few collections for your enjoyment.  Are you a collector of rare, odd, weird things?  Or are you a hoarder that will need your home cleaned out by a back hoe?

A wasp nest collection.   Really now, why would you collect wasp nests and then display them in your home?

Bazooka Gum wrappers.  At least you have the benefit of chewing the gum first, it’s cheap and the collection is easy to stash in a drawer.

A beanie baby collection.  One of the biggest crazes of the 90’s when middle aged women would run to their local beanie baby store and stand in line for the newest one.  Has anyone made money off of these?  If you have, proove me wrong.

Another gum wrapper collection, but really what is the point of 1/2 wrappers of old wrigley’s and dentyne gum?  Another good collection because it is 1.  free 2.  doesn’t take up a lot of room 3.  Easy to throw away.

Hubcap collections are interesting because they too are free, but rely on the fact that cars lose hubcaps all of the time and the collector finds them on random roadways.  Really, what do you do with a bunch of hubcaps besides decorate your garage?

A rusty old license plate collection.  Can you spell tetanus?

A Pez dispenser collection can be great, if it doesn’t get too out of hand.  The problem with this is once you open it, the dispenser becomes “less valuable” therefore you can’t get the benefit of eating the candy.

A collection in old lady homes everywhere, the spoon collection.  I say, why not?  It doesn’t take up much room and gives you membership to the AARP.

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