How do you know when it ’s meter to halt being a completist?For me , the moment come in the mid-1990s , when I catch the above Doctor Who underpants for sale in aLondon shop — marked “ ONLY WORN ONCE , NEVER WASHED . ” But everybodyhits a wall sooner or by and by . Here ’s how to let go of needing to have a completeset .
At its root , the completist impulse is about feel asthough there ’s no power point in collecting something unless you have every singleitem . Whether it ’s records , book , comics , toys , memorabilia or something else , the collection is n’t worth having unless you have every point that belong inthe bent . A set of N-1 is as vile as an empty set .
Which is manifestly false — but also increasingly impossibleto maintain . Even in the 1990s , you could n’t really hope to own every slice of Doctor Who memorabilia , include all ofthe 1960s photoflood of Dalek toy and the massive number of constabulary box . And goodluck keep up with the monumental surge in Whotcotchkes since the show come back in 2005 .
But even if your word form of completism consists of “ owningevery military issue of a special comic , ” or “ owning the complete discharge ofPhilip K. Dick paperback first edition , ” you ’re still bet at majorchallenges of both reposition outer space and expenditure . At some point , you start torun out of places to put everything , and the last stray bits are always themost expensive .
And with anything toy - related , it ’s always the worst — because there are always variant fig , and you have to keep them in the box , and they take up insane amounts of space .
So assuming you want to stop being a completist , how do youpull this off ?
The main thing , it seems to me , is to reply the question : Is it deserving collecting something if you do n’t have the complete set ? And that , in turn , means witness other reasons why you might be collecting somethingbeyond merely achieve some metaphysical sense of culmination because you have all of the form .
There are plenty of reason you would gather up material . You couldcollect plaything because you need to play with them — or because you likedisplaying them in a cool way . Likewise , you could keep the books that you’veread and enjoyed the most , or maintain a stash of the most important comedian .
One approach is to be selective , rather than comprehensive — collect only the matter that are meaningful to you , personally . alternatively ofhaving every X - Men number , collect the figures of your favorite X - character . Have a wall of Kitty Prydes . Pick the five or six action flesh that expressyour personality , and display them on your mantelpiece .
Which reminds me — you may also treat it like interior décor . When I pared my legal action figures down to just a bantam handful , I suddenly gainedthe freedom to place them in cool poses on my desk , or else of let box andboxes . Even if you want to keep them in their original packaging , you candisplay them in awe-inspiring ways if each firearm is individually meaningful orawesome .
And that ’s really the bottom communication channel of not being a completist — it means doing more to treasure each individual bit in your aggregation , insteadof only prizing the collection as a whole . That Gorn figure can be like afriendly totem , a boon companion in your hours of toil .
If anything , turn away the completist momentum might makeyour collection more meaningful , not less . Because if you ’re always waitress forthe far - off day when you last have every single point in a category , youwon’t be expend as much time enjoying the collection you really have . And acollection that ’s flawed ( in the mother wit of not having everything ) opens up morepossibilities for delectation than one you have to keep pristine .
So do n’t fall quarry to the want to own that one pair ofpreviously wear out , never wash Tom Baker trunks . you could cherish your collectioneven more if it ’s uncompleted .
BooksCollectingComicsDoctor WhoToysX - Men
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