So I'm (nearly) a week down in my quest to stop buying things. I'll be honest it's not been that hard, I've been crazily busy with year 11 exams, parents morning, arranging for the sixth form to go see the Archbishop of York and helping out and also watching the school production of Les Mis. These things have allowed very little time for shopping either physically or online, though the temptation is nearly always there on my phone. I've become more aware of how often the companies I regularly purchase from feel the need to email me, and I can't deny a 30% off voucher that appeared in my inbox for one of my favourite vintage dress websites wasn't a serious temptation...
Today I thought I'd provide visual evidence of my vast quantity of things. Many people have commented since I put my first blog entry on Facebook that they too feel they have too much stuff, so it would be interesting to compare if my 'too much' registers as 'too much' for others. Of course it doesn't actually matter, if it's too much for me then it's time to do something, but it is apparent that I am not alone in my hoarding tendencies.
Let's start with books, my first "collection". A tendency I have most definitely inherited from my mother, and who most certainly has significantly more books from me. She's also a much bigger reader than I am, which is a shame as I love to read. Since retirement she devours books at a terrifying rate, whereas I, post pregnancy, struggle to make it through a book a month. Working full time and having a 1 year old is not conducive to getting a lot read, but that is one think I'm hoping my lack of purchases will help with. Hopefully ridding myself of that activity will allow more time for others. The above photo shows my collection of Sunday school prize books, you know the sort, mostly from between 1880-1920 with noble Christian stories of heroic individuals or heartwarming tales of school friends at fictional but character building English public schools. I've collected them for years, mostly for aesthetic reasons, they look great and have beautiful bindings.
Next my collection of Folio Society books, beautiful, expensive, and arranged in rainbow colour order. I went through a phase around 6 years ago of being a member of the society and buying loads of them, both new and second hand. Like many of my 'collections' my husband Chris started the obsession by buying me my first one. I have to admit I haven't bought any for some time, partly because I realised they were costing me a fortune, but also because I reached a stage were I owned most of the ones that interested me.
Next the non-fiction selection, too big to fit in one photo. These books are located in my study, a room I rarely get to go in at the moment, and which is mostly full of baby clothes and toys that Arthur has outgrown and which need to be taken to the charity shop.
The non-fiction books are mostly made up of medieval history books, throw backs from my masters degree, now simply a hobby. I love medieval history and have vague hopes of being able to study it again properly in the future, but mostly I just buy medieval history books and look wistfully at them hoping for an opportunity to read them again. There are also a fair few books about religion, mythology, local history and feminism in here, other vague interests. I used to pride myself on having all my books catalogued online and organised in alphabetised sections. We had major building work done on the house in the months before I had Arthur, literally only finishing a couple of weeks before he was born. My books lived in boxes for months, and had to be shoved back on the shelves in the big clean up. I've yet to get around to rearranging the books into their proper sections.
This is the cookbook collection, with some biographies at the bottom. Stacked on top are mostly book club books that need to go to the charity shop. The cookbooks also signify an area of my life I don't have much time for any more. Most of the cooking that goes on in this house is glorified heating, and baking is something I rarely get around to.
Next comes the fiction collection, stored in the bedroom. This is at least alphabetised, though as you can see it needs some attention and new additions have just been stacked on top.
There are so many books that need to be read here. So many books that need more attention!
Next jewellery, and believe it or not there is an ornate necklace holder somewhere buried underneath this mountain of stuff. They are very tangled and disorganised and I can't really find any other way of storing them, the sheer volume mean I often can't find what I'm looking for. But that's not the full collection.
Here are the earrings, with more necklaces adorning them.
There's also a box full of bracelets and other bits, and if that wasn't enough....
...an additional small chest full of stuff. It's an insane amount of jewellery, collected up over the last 20 odd years. Some are sentimental, some are tat from China, there is a vast variety of styles and sources. Oh and I'm forgetting...
... the brooch collection! Perhaps the best displayed but ultimately more brooches than one human being really needs.
Marmite earrings? I got them, along with owls, octopi (octopuses?) foxes, castles, the Hindu Om symbol..
.. frogs, santas, the star of David, scrabble tiles, jigsaw pieces, Totoro, fish in plastic bags... you get the idea!
Finally my newest and principle vice, dresses! At some point over the last 3 years I became obsessed with dresses, owning more and more and more mostly in a vintage style and mostly from Lindy Bop. I found I could wear them while I was pregnant as full the full skirts allowed for my belly. I don't really know why or exactly when I felt that needed to own so many dresses. I wear them most days to teach, but at times I have owned close to 100. I have thinned the heard recently because a fair few of them were too big for me after I recently lost some weight. The current tally is probably in the 70's, but I've not counted. There are is also a pretty vast selection of skirts in the next wardrobe, and a pretty massive range of tops, jumpers, cardigans, camis, etc. etc. I have a dress for every occasion, so in theory no one new dresses will enter this wardrobe for 12 months. The only real issue I can see here is potential for further weight loss, or gain. If I gain weight I have the dresses that I outgrew are in storage in the loft, if I loose more, well I may have to wear some baggy dresses!
So there it all is, all my shame. In theory this is the most stuff I should ever own, but we'll see how successful I am...
