Do you find yourself inadvertantly collecting certain things without realizing it? What have you been collecting?

Hmmm, I seem to gravitate towards glass items at yard sales which I can make into container candles. I’ve always been a bit of a pack rat, so collecting things with no immediate use is normal for me. Whooweee, You should see my attic.

Podcasts. I listen to them and like them so I don’t delete them because I intend to listen to them again sometime but then I don’t and they wind up just taking up a ton of space on my hard drive.

Screwdrivers. I can never find any because my kids never put them back, so then I buy more and hide them, but then the kids find them and don’t put them back.

Someday, when I move into the old age home, someone will discover hundreds of screwdrivers in my house and yard.

I deliberately collect other things, such as books and Wedgwood pottery, but the screwdriver thing is inadvertent.

I collect buttons and tea. I have a jar in my room that suddenly appeared to be filled to the brim with all different buttons, and a shelf to the right with three tea pots, six boxes of flavored teas, and two packages of these sweetener spoons. No idea I was doing it until I read this question.

@Darwin—That happens with tweezers in my house.

There may be a number of tweezers in my house, but now that the kids are old enough not to get splinters I don’t keep track of them. But I do use screwdrivers all the time.

Misspellings, malapropisms, neologisms, bombast, fustian and the artistic comma.

Candy.
I ted to pick up a candy bar, or packs of candy when they’re on sale. And then I put them places, like my desk drawer, ect-
And then of course I forget where I’ve put them and thinking I’m out, I buy more.
I run across little hoards of candy everytime I clean my house in strange strange places. I feel like a squirrel or something=/

i am a collector at heart. things i have collections of but are not currently on display: patches – police, fire depts, etc. i have some cool ones: FBI, Drug Enforcement, Homeland Security (by the way if there are any burglars reading this my neighbor is a NYC detective and i’m sure he’s trigger happy). Salt and pepper shakers: mostly figurine types, but will accept or buy anything if it’s unusual or pretty. piggyback onto that: tableware: sugar and creamer, unusual butter dishes. Turtles, dogs and cats: ceramic or whatever. Glass figurines. my latest is buttons. i always kept the extra buttons that come with sweaters. a few weeks ago i was in a fabric and craft store, and they had a sale. i started looking at the buttons. Pewter, ceramic, plastic, from Italy, Germany, Austria, of dogs, cats, ducks, pretty, unusual. i ended up buying $40 worth of buttons for $20. i figure one day i can use them for crafts or to decorate jackets or something. right now they’re in a tin on the dresser.

@SirBailey LOL, I have something of a flashlight fetish myself. I have tons of them too, big ones, small ones, round, square, even flat ones. Battery operated, rechargeable, hand-crank rechargeable ones. I just love flashlights for some reason I don’t fully understand.

Books, I find (and dont find ) books I have bought all over the place, under the TV, in the cuppboards…

haha, I have a collection of these little WWF wrestler finger puppets from Rallys kids meals. I got one and thought they were hilarious so I kept going back for more.. I have so many of the little guys it’s almost silly

There’s no such place in NY. Will Google them.

I seem to be collecting lurve points.

I have many collections, but I’m not sure they’re inadvertent. For example, I have a European toilet paper collection. I noticed that there were so many different kinds (back in 1972) and I decided to collect different examples from different places. Is that inadvertent?

@daloon – Not really inadvertent, because you made a conscious decision to collect it. However, it is…unusual.

when i stay at a hotel i will usually take the shampoos, conditioners etc. if they’re a good brand, and when i stay at a great hotel and the little bottles are unusual, i display them in my medicine cabinet.

i also have a collection of party napkins (usually i get them from Christmas Tree Shop) and one day when my daughter is a little bigger, we’re ready to have a party.

I also have to add, my DVD’s. I can’t understand why I don’t rent or use “Pay-Per-View”.