More on curating a collection

There was a wonderful article on IO9 this week about the Joys of Purging Your Collection by Esther Inglis-Arkell. As the title suggests, it deals with the pleasure that can be found from cleaning out, downsizing, and generally thinning out.  Essentially, this is curating a collection and the flip side of the coin of being a collector.

Getting rid of parts of your collection can be haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!  But it can also be necessary.  Few of us are gifted with unlimited space for our collections, and therefore sooner or later we're going to run out of space.  And running out of space is a bad thing because, as Esther says in her article, "only building a collection too big to enjoy is bad".

Let's dwell on that thought for a minute.  When does a collection become too big to be enjoyed?  That's a question only the collector can truly answer, and there's not one right answer.  I know some people who have Pony collections with 20 or less figures, they think that's enough and they think that's fine.  I know others with 1000s of figures across several fandoms, they're adding to them all the time and they think that's fine too.

But sometimes it all becomes a bit much, doesn't it?  So many things.  So much space.  So much dust!  So many lists.  So much upkeep.  So much stuff!  I think most collectors probably have days when they think "why do I have all this stuff?  It doesn't do anything.  It just sits here taking up space."  Most of us probably also find an answer to that question pretty quickly too, some variation on "because I love it, that's why".  That answers for a whole collection, but what about the individual parts?

My project to catalogue the collection is helping me to (slowly) review each item in my collection and decide whether or not I want to keep it.  I also try to go through (parts of) my collection every so often to do the same thing (for example, reviewing the G2 collection to see if I still want all the ponies that are there, or to see if anyone has developed any damage issues recently).  Even removing a few pieces from a collection can change the makeup of the whole.  Curating like this helps me to keep the joy in my collection and prevent it from becoming a burden.  Because what's the point of owning a collection if you don't enjoy it?

Elf

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Current Customs:
Commissions: 10
Swaps: 0
Gifts: 0
Personal: 1 (rehair)

Current Catalogue:
Ponies Cleaned: 0
Sets Photographed: 3
Photos Posted: 74