Hi Pat, It may be a sickness, but I suffer from it too. LOL I have organized collections of jewelry, dolls, and dragonware, and then there are the "closet collections" the things I don't really collect. Flower frogs, english percelain flowers, enamel boxes ( really that one goes with the jewelry ) Fiesta, Chintz, cup and saucers, books etc. I have those boxes of precious things too. I started a box just for things of Graysons that I can't let go. I did finally decide I was NOT collecting vintage clothes, and let most of that go except for a couple of things I can really wear. I decided long ago that I will just keep my insanities, and when I die, they can have a jolly fun estate sale, and someone else can take them home to live in their over collected house. I always feel sorry for people who decide to sell their collections so their kids won't have to, and then end up living another 20 years without the "thrill of the hunt" that gave them the collecting bug in the first place.

Kathy M. at peace with her inner packrat. LOL

At 10:30 PM 1/21/02 -0500, you wrote:

My friends & I , for the last couple of days & for at least another week, Have been helping a recently divorced girlfriend , whose children are all grown & on their own, move from a very large , expensive house to a house a third the size not to mention price. This friend collected dolls of all kinds...as a matter of fact , it seems she collects absolutly everything, stuffed animals, Mac Donald things, dishes, Xmas decor. little houses, miniatures...well you name it. She has , easily, over a thousand dolls. She can't throw anything away & likes copies of many of the things...which is why she has so much. We have been able to convince her to give away, throw away , or sell very little...I guess a divorce is a wrong time to do this, you've already lost so much. Her new , smaller house will have to have little else but shelves in it to hold all these collections... but then, I never noticed before how little furniture she had even in that big house...dolls are everywhere, on the floors & stacked & in every cabinet & over the top of kitchen cab. space...this has been a truly Herculean task that seems neverending. But it made me take a look at my own life & how many more dolls do I need when I don't have a place for the ones I have now. So I tried to get rid of some of them, selling or giving them away & you know, I'm as bad as my friend ( tho not to such a large extent) Everything seems precious to me either because I really like the thing or the circumstance that gave it to me makes me want to keep it. I really need to 'dething' my house & simplify. I'm a saver too. Each year it's hard to get rid of my Xmas cards & I do keep a few & those few have grown quite large over the years...taking up all of one drawer really need for clothes or something...so they go to the basement which is full of boxes of 'saved' things too precious to give away, which occasionally I go through & smile at . But to what end, who'll want this when I'm gone & they are not valuable to anyone but me & that's strickly sentimental value not monetary. But I can't let go yet either & it just builds & gets worse...wow! Is this some kind of sickness or what? Pat H.

Kathy Mroczko Frivolities Antiques Ft. Collins, CO mroczko@verinet.com