Souvenirs and Collections

"Are you a collector? Maybe a bit of a hoarder? Tell us about something you like to collect.

Or if you favour minimalism, perhaps tell us why?"

I never liked the idea of labeling my shopoholic preferences as being a "collector" of that certain thing. When I was younger, it was Beanie Babies...yes, I had a lot of them, but did I really collect them? Not really, I thought, because I never aspired to have all the Beanie Babies, just the cute ones!

Then when I got a little older, I did some travelling with my family. We visited a lot of places in California and on the Eastern seaboard, going up and down the coast from New York to Orlando twice or three times. And I started noticing that I had accumulated a lot of snowglobes that were really similar in style, so I made a conscious effort to buy snow globes of that type.

Unfortunately, they all evaporated sometime during college when I wasn't living at home, and my parents packed them away or threw them out :/. 

In college, I unconsciously continued my tendency to buy cheesy souvenirs from the places I visited, but with a more...older "practical" function: 

souvenir shot glasses.

And I had them from a lot of places! The Philippines, Boston, Canada, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Australia (My friends and I started gifting these to each other.). And this started before drinking in college was a thing for me. But eventually, I had "so many" that I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bring them back home after college. (In reality, I only had 12-20, but as many know, moving out time is very stressful and you make dumb decisions.) So one humid May evening as I was packing away my dorm, I gave them away. All of them. Every single one. 

What a SILLY thing to do! I thought to myself later. And I still think that sometimes...but in a weird way, since I gave them all away, I just stopped accumulating them. (I did find one San Francisco shot glass back at home.) Even though I lived in Japan and visited Korea and the Philippines since giving them all away, I didn't even think to buy shot glasses again to restart my collection. It's kind of weird (because shot glasses are kind of useful lol), but less clutter is a nice thing. 

But of course, when one thing goes out the window, another comes in the front door. And since moving away from shot glasses, I've taken up postcards! At first, I thought postcards were kind of useless because I take so many pictures (that I think are just as good as postcards!) anyway, but the summer before moving to Japan, my boyfriend went on an epic road trip across the U.S., and asked me what I would like as a souvenir. Since he's not an obsessive photo-taker like me (this was before he got an iphone), I asked him to pick up a postcard at each of his stops. When he gave me a giant wad of beautiful postcards, I was hooked. 

(These are just some of the postcards I've gotten over the past 2 years!)

I really need to find a better way to store them though! Perhaps a binder with those clear plastic sleeves? 

My mom is also a collector of travelling goodies, but she collects magnets :) I always made sure to get her a magnet when I travelled. Some of her magnets are older than I am!

The last thing I collected, but don't really collect anymore, were goshuin, or temple seals that were done at Japanese temples and shrines. Each goshuin was 300yen (about $4), and it just made going to the temples and shrines extra extra special. I filled up my first book in February (first getting it in October), and I still wanted to get more, so I bought another book. On the second to last day in Japan, I filled up my second book, which I found to be a really fitting way to end my time in Japan.  

Travel is truly one of my favorite things (even if it didn't quite show in my travel musings post), and in addition to lots and lots of pictures, I'm really glad that I've picked up these trinkets along the way. They all come with a good story! 

What are your favorite collectors items? Why do you think some people really like their stuff and other people are super anti-stuff? 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and mom figures out there!