A casual collector has a dedicated space to show off their prized possessions, but a hardcore collector doesn't know when to stop adding to their reserves.
I'm not ashamed to say I collect Starbucks mugs from cities I've traveled to around the world.
While one mug is sufficient for daily sipping, I like having several mugs to contribute to my shelf display commemorating my travels from locations far and wide.
Note that I left out the number of mugs in the collection to avoid shaming.
On that note, I'll save the discussion about my sneaker collection for another day.
Redditor FlintTheDad wanted to go further with their curiosity about the things strangers collect and asked:
"What do you own a ridiculous amount of?"
Can't Keep It Together
"Nuts and bolts. Every time I get a new thing that needs assembled, I keep the leftovers 'just in case.' Now I have a ton of random, particular nuts and bolts with severely limited applications and I just can't seem to throw them away."
How Plush
"Stuffed animals. Childhood me had a problem."
"Childhood me loved stuffed animals so much. Then I became an adult and realized how much better actual animals are. Grew up and started working my real job, which enabled me to buy said animals, add in my shitty impulse control, and now I have too many animals."
GIF by Refinery 29 GIFsGiphyA Matter Of Taste
"Salt and pepper shakers. I guess 7 pairs isn't ridiculous for some niche collector but I am not. but where the hell did they all come from? I have cows, sugar skulls, goats, I don't need to shake that much salt and pepper."
Spinning Out Of Control
"Records."
"About 2000 of them. Back in the 1980's all my friends gave me their records when they bought CD's"
"Many people would kill for a good vinyl collection these days!"
It Holds
"Paperclips. I have a whole drawer full of them."
"Papers coming inbound are all clipped, papers outbound don't need to be clips. Give a few years of this and you end up with literally thousands of paperclips..."
For The Sake Of The Craft
"Crafting supplies."
"I'm a serial crafter in that I like to get really into a crafting hobby for a period of time (could be months, years, or sometimes just weeks), and then I move onto the next craft. I usually buy supplies for that hobby as though it will be a lifelong passion."
"I'm also an aspirational crafter: I'll see the potential in raw materials which 'forces' me to buy said raw materials, but then I get lazy and the project never comes to fruition."
"In short, I have two separate hobbies: collecting crafting supplies and crafting."
– marGEEKa
Storing Storage
"Empty boxes from ordering stuff. Im taking them to recycling as soon as I decide Im not gonna use them."
– Skuhlens
"I was so bad with boxes, and with three people in one house we were getting alot of boxes built up. I finally got rid of them all, broke them down and recycled them. Then I had no boxes to wrap anything in for christmas and had TO BUY BOXES. The box cycle is a savage and heartless one."
Once More With Feeling
"Socks. Socks. Socks. I got socks for my socks' socks"
"Are you the sock monster in my dryer?"
Clean Ears Forever
"Q tips."
"My wife signed us for an Amazon household essentials subscription and overestimated how often we bought Q tips. A box came every month until I pointed out that using our stock of 20,000 Q tips would take a while."
Growers
"Houseplants. It's hard to stop buying/trading or just propagating and making more."
"Second, I wanted to respond to all the trade plant comments with r/takeaplantleaveaplant I've also seen trades on the Nextdoor app and community groups. My local plant store also hosts plant swaps. So take a trimming of your plant and propagate it, show up and see who wants to swap."
steve martin GIF by Coolidge Corner TheatreGiphyWrap Your Mind Around This
"Cables. There is an unwritten law of the universe. If you throw away a cable, you will need it within a month."
"Holy f'k this. Last time I moved I tossed a box I had been holding on to for years full of various PC components and PC component accessories: cables, fans, various riser cards/adapters I no longer can identify... the works. Tossed it because hey, I haven't touched this in years, no point moving it."
"Literally the next goddamn day a friend of mine called and asked if I had an old DVI cable he could bum."
Herbalicious
"Tea."
"I worked in a tea shop and was able to get an insane amount of loose leaf tea for free. I literally have a cupboard of nothing but different flavors of loose leaf teas. Hundreds of dollars worth of tea for my own drinking pleasure. I probably have close to 40 different flavors, all in their own happy little tins waiting for the day I think 'Yes, a pure green tea sounds perfect today.'"