What I did collect for a long time on travels were keychains. I have a ridiculous number of keychains. I had no rules for obtaining them – I had friends and family buy them for me, I bought them, I got all the free ones… Right now, they’re stored at my parents’ place because my mom decided to make a display case for about half of the keychains. Last time I visited, I looked at the keychains and was tempted to get rid of a lot of them. I didn’t (was stopped by my mom) but I’ll be making the argument to get rid of the cheaper ones again next time I go back.

What I do collect now is Christmas ornaments. In an attempt to keep them from becoming overwhelming, I’ve instituted a few rules of my own.
- If I buy one while traveling, it has to have the name of the place I visited on the ornament. No random Santas or reindeer.
- Only one ornament per location. Multiple ornaments for a single location can only be bought if it’s been at least five years between trips.
- Ornaments can only be bought from places I actually spend at least one day/two nights at. No ornaments from layovers or drive-thru states! And no ornaments from friends on their travels!
- Non-travel ornaments are limited to Hallmark quality or higher DC Comics ornaments.

Ornaments work great for me. I limit my accrual and I find that every holiday season, I enjoy the unpacking of the ornaments, remembering how I got each particular ornament, finding the right place on the tree, and looking at them for the season.

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I do have a small collection of small animal figurines in a shadow box on my wall. The box and some of the animals hung on a wall in a grandmother’s cabin. We have added animals. It brings back fond memories that I share with my children and there is definitely limited space.

I do have a rather extensive fabric stash (I make my own clothes, quilt, and do various needle arts.) I have a few rules, but they are somewhat flexible. I do not buy trendy fabrics unless I have a specific project that will be made up within two weeks, less it becomes obsolete. Basics, like suitings and whites (I make christening/baptismal gowns) are purchased in bulk quantities only on sale. Accepting fabric gifts/donations is sometimes tricky. I have ended up with entire stashes from people’s deceased grandmothers/ aunts from which I have only kept one or two items and the rest went to the local charities. I have also been given the most beautiful fabrics (recently, a full bolt of English wool plaid from the 1950′s that is in excellent condition.) I do limit myself on patterns. Instead of purchasing new and expensive patterns, I cut out photos from magazines of ideas that inspire me, paste them in a well organized binder, and tweak patterns I already own. Quilts as gifts can be made from new and coordinating fabrics. Quilts for home are made from scraps- two bins full and I must make them up, doesn’t matter if the fabrics match well or clash. The quilts usually end up pretty exciting, and we are not afraid to take them outside for fear they will be ruined as they are made to be used.

I love your rules on collections. It may seem like a lot, but we collect Coca-Cola memorabilia, elephants, rubber ducks, pig stuff, and coin banks. Sounds like a mess I know! But actually it’s quite contained. The Coke stuff is strictly for the kitchen (hanging signs, containers,etc.), the ducks are on shelves in the bathroom, pigs on a bookcase, and the banks on a bookcase as well. We only have a certain amount of designated space and if we get a new item, we donate another one.

I used to collect like a magpie. Oh my, anything shiny. Carnival glass candlesticks, beads, rhinestone jewelry, little cat figurines, decorative boxes. But I was always kind of cheap about it so I didn’t end up with a large collection of anything, which meant that when I got over all that, it was pretty easy to cull out the things that were just acquired for the sake of the collection, and not because of their intrinsic beauty or value.

I still collect small stones when we travel, and beads. My rules for both are I must be a) able to use them in my art or b) willing to display them. This really helps, because I don’t actually like having cluttered shelves anymore and the “display” threshold is consequently very high.

DH and I both still tend to pick up small art objects – little pieces of pottery or art glass, usually – on our travels, and this is something we’ll need to be careful about, because there’s only so much space available. I’m getting better about taking photos of the pretty things instead of buying them!

I cannot agree more with your setting up guidelines for your collection. I tell my organizing clients that they will be much happier once they have established some rules around their collecting. It allows them to keep the best representatives of their collections and get rid of the junk. It’s especially liberating for people who get gifts from well-meaning friends and relatives who want to add to the collection.

However, I guess I do collect books — I have thousands of them — and fabric.

I think that both books and fabric represent possibilities to me. I read and reread the books. (And at least plan to read the as yet unread ones.) And as for the fabric, well, I’m a quilter! A good stash of fabrics is the palette from which I work.

However, as part of my effort to become less cluttered I have slowed down in acquiring both of these. I think I’ve had to admit that I now have more books in my library than I could possibly read in the rest of my life. And I’m try to make quilts most from my “stash” — only buying fabric that I particularly need to finish a project.