Idiosyncratic things you keep

That's an awesome idea! I will keep that in mind.

 

I don't have 30 years of credentials but I had accumulated quite a few several years ago and had them stacked next to my desk. One day Huggy Jr., then four or five, pulled them on the floor and began looking at them and moving them around. Gave me the idea of making a collage out of them and framing them so that's what we did one day. I probably have enough to do a second one....

 

Ha. I do that, too, and do the same whenever I get an Indian-head nickel.

Once had several $2 bills collected, but needed a few groceries one day and had to pull them out.

 

Twist ties

 

Glad I'm not the only one using those plastic film containers for storage. I've got a bunch of them filled with old and/or foreign coins.

They're also great for holding pills ...

 

I've gotten in the habit of collecting souvenir golf balls... I've got one from a 9-hole course I played in Hawaii; a Space Needle ball; Masters logo ball, etc. Haven't gotten around to buying a display case yet. And I'll never fill it with hole-in-one balls, sadly.

 

I do this, too. I try to only get golf balls from courses that I actually play, but I have an Augusta National one. Plus my one hole-in-one ball and other logo balls from companies I like or have worked for.

Finally got a display case for them, and it's about half full now... I need to hit the links again!

 

Collected hotel keys years ago. No idea what happened to them. Never collected key cards, though.

 

Wait, collecting stuff is different.
Collecting souvenir golf balls is a lot different than putting every twist tie from every loaf of bread in a drawer because you might need it some day.

I collect playing cards, but my thing with the twist ties is a little weird.

 

Touche.

 

I'll see your twist ties and raise you those plastic fasteners on some bread loaves. You know, the flat squarish ones that tear the bag unless jiggled off just so? Got a buttload of those. Just in case society falls apart.

 

This is going to sound really weird, even for me, but I can't get rid of stuff that reminds me of my Mom's final few months. Every Christmas she would get me several boxes of my favorite granola bar (it was only available back home, could never find it anywhere else). After I went thru the last box two years ago, I saved it and stashed it away. She got me a Dunkin Donuts gift card (another annual gift that she put in my stocking) that I can't bear to take out from its protected place in our wall unit. Wife keeps telling me to use it, that Mom would want me to use it and that I can always add more $$$ to it once I spend the initial $25, but I don't want to. I like that it's preserved there, in the envelope with her neat handwriting. I saved newspapers from the week we spent in Boston when she was being "treated" (not a knock on Dana Farber, there was just nothing that could be done).

Very weird. I can explain wanting to save remnants of her last Christmas gifts, to some degree, but I have no idea why I want newspapers that remind me of the worst week of my life.