Collecting Magazine Articles and Other Weird Collections

I have been collecting articles from Glamour and Cosmopolitan Magazines since 1982, not keeping them all, of course, but passing some of them on to friends and filing some away.

At the end of the 20th Century I decided that would be a good time to start fresh and throw them all out.

Then I started over.

I know why I started. I was living in a juvenile home at 16 and it was a way of my connecting with the outside world, a way of feeling like I was a “normal” teenager.

Unfortunately, it never ended.

Do you want to know how to ace a job interview? Just look in my files.

Need a new makeup routine? Rifle through my extensive collection.

Looking for a new hairdo? I’ve got one for you I’m sure.

At one point I tried filing them in categories but that didn’t stay organized for long.

So now, every time I get a new Glamour or Cosmo I rip through them first, pulling out any interesting articles from job hunting tips to recipes. I don’t pull all the articles out, just the ones that might be helpful to me or someone else. Then I commence to read the rest of the magazines.

Danny, who collects Muppet memorabilia, tried to weed through his collection once to get rid of some of it and wound up discovering he had a sub-collection within it which was hard to part with.

I can relate to that.

“Some toys are just too ugly to throw away,” he says. “One soda can is trash. Twenty is a collection.”

My step dad used to drive my mom crazy with all the things he kept, things he would never use.

On infoplease.com’s website you can peruse weird collections from eccentric museums like medical devices people used to “invent” to try to cure themselves of diseases a long time ago.

“Nothing is wrong with trying to hold on to things you just can’t let go of,” said Nikki Rae. “I collect things. I got it from my mom.”

Tommy collects model cars and pens.

My ex-boyfriend Jon has an apartment full of computer stuff and always has.

Sid Sackson, a traditionalist at heart, has the most extensive private collection of board games in the world from Monopoly to Parcheesi.

Barbara Crews, guide for a collectibles website, says sometimes starting a collection is as simple as looking around and saving the item that has always fascinated you.

“Whether you collect by collection or avocation – collections bring passion, fun, and interest to our lives,” she says. “Woe to the family that has a mixture of avid collectors and just as avid non-collectors – it can make life very interesting.”