Before I meet my husband, moving was kind of a yearly to bi-yearly thing for me. I would literally only buy necessities and would do my best to never buy anything I could not move by my self due to past experiences of moving everything alone. At one point my apartment was so bare my friend joked that rooms is a 3rd world country had more stuff than I did because they at least had dirt and maybe a chicken or two running around. LOL
Well my bare apartment quickly changed when I meet my husband. He likes having furniture and places to display his stuff. I don’t mind the furniture, but the size of his collection was so massive that when he moved in to my little 600 square foot apartment we literally had small pathways from front door, to kitchen, to bathroom, to bed. It was the first time that my OCD kicked in full strength. It wasn't fun. Luckily he agreed to put all his stuff in a storage unit until we could finish the lease and get a bigger place. I’m sure this is a very common story for many collectors.
What are the Options
If you think about it ,as a collector there aren’t really many options when it comes to preserving a collection.
- Get a bigger place.
- Get a storage unit
- Spreading your collections at several different locations.
- Downsizing
Get a bigger place.
In a perfect world this make perfect sense, however it only works out if you have the income to support this. Here in Tampa Florida, finding a place to live has become abnormally expensive in both the rental and the real estate market. Unless you can qualify for income restricted areas you are looking at around $1 -$2 per square foot for an apartment and around $100 per sq foot for a house. Sure you can find cheap apartments but when you have a fortune in toys do you really want to be in the ghetto and in high theft area… I don’t think so. That’s not me being a snob... that’s just common sense in my book. And Yes, we are looking into moving away out of state in the future.If you decide to get decent size living space chances are the cost is so high that you simply will have to quit collecting. Now I have encountered many spouses that would be thrilled to stop their collectors from collecting but to me is not worth it if they are now miserable and everybody in that home is “apartment poor” or “house poor”.
This situation leaves most collectors either downsizing, spreading their collections in several locations, or simply getting a storage unit which is another added cost.
Storage Units
In theory, storage units do help clear up a lot of clutter and help keep the other members in your home happy, but they also have a downfall. Mainly cost. Let’s face it if you don’t place your collection in a climate control unit you might as well don’t expect to retain the value of your stuff. Here in Florida it’s very very hot and is very very humid. A horrible combination for a collection, especially for vintage pieces.My main issue with storage units is the cost. With so many people losing their homes, storage units have become high in demand. My husband and I currently have a 10’ X 30’ storage unit costing us a whopping $190 per month (after insurance and taxes). That is around $2300 for the year just to keep his collection stored away safely on top of the collection that we have at home. That’s a lot of money. I can even imagine some of our friends who have 2 to 3 units for their collections. The cost adds up really quick and let’s face it many collectors are not wealthy to begin with. One missed payment and you are 30 days away from seeing your entire collection in an episode of “Storage Wars”. Trust me they don’t mess around with late payments.
Another problem that we encountered with Tom’s collection is how to simply store it in the unit. Most collectors have either things in boxes that are crushed or torn, or have a lot of loose figures. These are hard to stack. Not to mentioned that even when you have found a way to stacked the stuff in the unit with out causing a toy avalanche, most people don’t noticed that climate control units have a water sprinkler system hovering over their stuff. So imagine having an entire collection mint in box or carded figures wiped away by one person acting stupid in the facility. No insurance in the world can cover you for that much damage. So here comes another added cost. Totes and resealable bags can make your life easy but at $5 a pop per 18 gallon tote adds up.
It has taken us 2 years, but we finally have around 80% of his collection protected. The larger pieces that are in the box are sealed inside larger trash bags and are watertight. We could get larger totes but sadly the bigger the tote the more expensive they are.
Spreading your collection in several locations
We have encountered many friends that have very large and vast collections but they have it spread in several locations. This could be in their own home, several storage units, friends, and family houses. Yes you've read that right…. spread through several friends and family houses. This might work for some but for me I simply couldn't sleep easy knowing that my stuff is in someone's house other than mine. You might trust that one person but you can’t control who comes in and out of that person home, nor are you guaranteed that the person that you trusted will watch your stuff or will take care of it like you would. Is just very risky in my opinion and just plain crazy.Downsizing
Here’s what I call the final frontier. Meaning you have peaked because of lack of space, finances, or other reasons and must cut back. Downsizing means different things to different people. The two main translation of I've seen is a) the person is sorting and getting rid of stuff they no longer want or b) they are really cutting back to purchasing only very few lines they still enjoy.For what I have observed many collectors have a hard time downsizing. Many collectors collect because there’s an emotional attachment to a specific item or series they simply just adore. So I can only imagine that after so many years going to comic conventions, shops, flea markets, storing and maintaining these items that all of the sudden they must let go due to an urgent matter. It can be a horrible experience for them. We've meet many collectors that have dissolved their collections due to spouses or partners and the relationship has taken a horrible down turn. No one really wins if there's no compromise between the parties. That is fair.
Conclusion
There is not right or wrong way to move a collector, however it is good to take a moment and really think about your situation in regards of needs, resources, and ability to continue such a unique habit. If you take the time to really plan things out, even a big move can become and easy move.As for Tom and I, we will be moving to a larger place this weekend, killing the storage unit but he will be downsizing some of his collection. I even volunteered the master bedroom for him to enjoy his happy little kingdom. I never asked him to downsize, he simply figures that it is time to downsize because he was becoming sick of towing around extra stuff he doesn't care for any more. I can honestly say that it makes me very happy to have a new place to live in, but it also giving him the chance to enjoy and display his collection properly. I get my computer space and he gets his Man Toy cave. I can't complain.
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