Collecting

Some collections are useful, and some are mostly decorative. My collection of cast iron, flower basket doorstops dating from around 1900 serves no useful purpose anymore. But I really enjoy seeing them all lined up on these three shelves. This is on a stair landing heading down to our exercise room. Many people, when they first see the doorstops are very puzzled. "What are those?", they ask me. 

My theory about collections is that you should determine where you want to put them and ONLY buy enough for that space. Do not be tempted to expand. It just looks obsessive. So if I buy any more doorstops they will have to fit neatly in this space. I will not be adding more shelves. Most full blown collections - which I could define quantitatively as more than three, and subjectively as more than you need - look best when grouped together. Doorstops also look good marched up a stairway, say one or two on each tread. 
When I moved into this house a couple years ago I took all my 1930s quilts and piled them on this yellow arrow back Windsor bench. In a sunny window, where they will surely fade. I really need to get that 3-M film that reduces sun fading applied to my windows. I used to have my quilts hung on walls, draped across sofas, hung behind a bed, etc. I'm sort of over that now. I just like this stack on a bench.
This table holds my collection of vintage silver trumpet vases. There are at least twenty of them, and I use them all the time. It's a lot of polishing, but so worth it. If someone sends me flowers I take them out of the dopey glass florist vase and rearrange them in my silver vases. 

I once knew someone who collected vintage glass reamers. You know the dish-shaped tool with the cone thingy in the center used to juice lemons and citrus? I am sure these objects are useful, and they may have a certain - limited - aesthetic value. But would you really want HUNDREDS of these? This person had them stored in boxes by the hundreds.

 Just say no.