Are you obsessed with random objects?

[BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]

Okay, I'm totally obsessed with rocks and stones. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of types of rock, it's just the fact that they exist and I want to collect them.

I have a lot of rocks in my garden. I'm trying to limit my collecting, but I can't. I build things with them. I make rockeries. I paint on them. I have them all around the sides of the house. I love them and they make me feel safe, but I don't know why.

I also have a collection of fossils, minerals and stone age tools.

I used to live on the Jurassic coast and have lots of fossils from there because they are amazing (my favourite is a Jurassic coprolite, aka fossil poo, where you can still see fish scales - I have no scatological interest in it, but it certainly gets children's' interest if you are working on a dinosaur project!)

I was fairly obsessed as a child about dinosaurs but have forgotten an awful lot as new obsessions took hold.

I have collected fossils and attractive rocks I think most of my life and even trained as a stone-carver, sadly had a breakdown just after I finished so that went kerplunk. I still collect fossils and pebbles - you find a lot of pretty agates on the beach here, but fossils are quite rare as the main geology is volcanic.

I also collect hand blown glass things - but only certain ones - I have to 'like' them, does that make sense? Other wise they are just things... I also collect glass beads.

@LilyRed

A stone carver? Wow, that's great 😃

I love glass as well. Sometimes we go collecting sea glass of which there's quite a bit in the are. I haven't found out what to do with the little pieces though. I usually display them in small glass containers which I fill with water as it shows off the colours.

My window sills and shelves are full of rocks, fossils, pebbles and a few shells and bits of see glass collected from all over. I keep trying to evict them outside but somehow it they get replaced 🤷

Rocks, Pebbles, Shells, Fossils, Gems and Sea Glass here too. Both me and DD

I'm not the only one who collects these things 😃😃😃

Sea glass is like finding treasure 😄

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

I'm not the only one who collects these things 😃😃😃

Sea glass is like finding treasure 😄

It is like treasure isn't it? The colours are just so beautiful. It's why I collect hand blown glass beads as there is just so much detail and layering of colour.

Beachcomber here too!

I used to be obsessed with cutlery, I could not settle if some was missing. Not so much anymore, I went from like 30 forks to the other week not being able to find a single one I mean wtf, where does it all go.

I mean wtf, where does it all go.

Same place as the single socks 😄

@Featuredcreature - it'll be in my MIL's room because she's forgotten she only has 20 mugs, all the teaspoons etc... I do count it into the tray when I empty the dishwasher as I like to know it's in the right place, DP calls me a control freak

I like pebbles from a specific beach. They have to be smooth, a particular size and weigh 305g-320g. They then qualify as one of my calming pebbles.

(I don’t take scales to the beach but I do weigh them when I get home)

I know some may read this and think that’s fucking weird but I don’t care. Its a comfort thing and they help in dark times.

@Scautish you sound perfectly alright to me!

I don't mind which beach as we live on the Clyde coast and have a wealth of lovely ones to chose from, but they have to be the RIGHT pebble! DP keeps giving me random ones he finds, but they are totally wrong.

My best finds are actually not pebbles, but sea urchin shells, really rare as the sea otters usually scrunch them all to pieces.

Buttons and beads. I have no use for them, but look at buttons and think, I wish I could use you somehow. So many nice buttons in old fashioned haberdashery type shops. I collect the spare ones off new clothes and save them in a tub. Quite satisfying. I know that sounds weird.
At least rocks are natural and look nice in the garden

I like tiny things. Tiny replicas of everyday things. I don't collect them but they are immensely pleasing to me. When Marks and Spencer were doing their collection of tiny packets of food and milk bottles and sandwiches I was in absolute heaven.

I'd like to collect thing. I used to as a kid but as an adult I feel too stressed to have lots of things or things that are precious to me because I have to live with kids and a husband. Our house isn't big and it would be an extra stress because the kids especially would touch them and leave them around. I wouldn't be able to put them away safe because I have huge object permanence issues.
I also have issues with not wanting other adults to ask me about my things or what I'm doing. I hide my special interests in my head. I literally only research them these days, whereas as a kid I would write things down, make things, record things. My issues around this stem from my Dad who would ridicule anything that I was interested in.

I really need to try and takle this I think. I've just had a revelation that this is something that's really making me feel stuck in life.

My childhood collections were the typical ones, hence flying under the radar.
Fairies
Barbies
My Little Pony

@Namechangeagain84

Buttons and beads. I have no use for them, but look at buttons and think, I wish I could use you somehow. So many nice buttons in old fashioned haberdashery type shops. I collect the spare ones off new clothes and save them in a tub. Quite satisfying. I know that sounds weird. At least rocks are natural and look nice in the garden

I love haberdashery shops! I'm also fond of old-style hardware shops, the sort where you can buy screws/nails/washers etc from drawers.

I like the level of detail and order.

@AffIt yes! I was talking to my husband the other day about the old style hardware store we had in the village we grew up in. Everything was so organised in the drawers. I would love it if shops were this organised. Hence the buttons in the drawers, with the button on the front to show you what's in there.
Am not very good at finding things on hanging racks!

@ofwarren, that's sad. You should feel free to collect and research / write down whatever makes you happy, without risk of people making fun of you. I hope you find a way to get through that.

@ofwarren could you keep them by your bed so you know they're there?

[quote BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]@ofwarren could you keep them by your bed so you know they're there?[/quote]
My children are currently still sleeping in my room due to one who has seizures are the other just hasn't moved out yet 🙈
I will try to work out what to do though.

[quote Namechangeagain84]@AffIt yes! I was talking to my husband the other day about the old style hardware store we had in the village we grew up in. Everything was so organised in the drawers. I would love it if shops were this organised. Hence the buttons in the drawers, with the button on the front to show you what's in there.
Am not very good at finding things on hanging racks![/quote]
I like the smell of them, too.

@ofwarren it gets easier the older they get : when mine were at home I read or sewed or did housework if I had spare time.

I couldn't collect anything nice or it would get broken - well, except pebbles. Now they are older and no longer at home, I have time, sometimes, to have nice things I always wanted

eek - when I say older I just realised that my eldest is nearly 40! I had to enforce from a young age that mummy's bed was for mummy only (unless you were really poorly) or I would have never got any sleep. As I was a single parent it was very necessary