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26. Display Your Child's Collections

THE PROBLEM

Quite simply put, children like to collect things; things they find outside, like rocks, leaves, and cicada shells; things they make, like clay creatures, cat's eyes, and model airplanes; and things they acquire, like medals, trophies, and postcards. They are like mini factories churning out knickknacks faster than we can throw away the toys from the fast-food restaurants! And just when you think you've gotten one collection under control, they start a new one.

THE STORY

My friend's son was an avid card collector. He started with Pokémon cards when he was very young, then moved onto sports cards as he got older. Even though there are many options for organizing these cards, such as boxes and binders, he decided to come up with one on his own. He wanted to carry out his plan on his own, and he did not allow his mother in his bedroom for about three days. She knew he was busy doing some redecorating and agreed not to look until he was ready to reveal what he had done. When he finally opened the door, she found that he had taped every one of his baseball cards side by side on a wall and had created his own “wallpaper.” This was a great way for him to admire his collection every day. Friends and neighbors who have seen his handiwork always admire his unique decorating. Sometimes if you give children some room to express themselves, instead of trying to control them, they come up with clever solutions.

THE SOLUTION

I don't believe collections are inherently a problem, rather they are a great way for a child to express interest in a subject and learn something new. For instance, a child who collects dinosaurs may learn more about paleontology than he would in school. And a child who collects objects from outside is developing an appreciation for nature. Collections are also helpful when you are looking for gift ideas for your child. If the child has a collection you can add to each year, then you've got a steady source of gift ideas.

Using my CPR process (see Chapters 20 and 25) will help establish categories of collections that your child may have. Then you'll want to purge pieces in the collection that are no longer important to your child or pieces of the collection that are damaged. You can rearrange the collection once you know how big it can possibly get, and once you know if your child wants the collection to be accessible or just visible. Then you can find a room in the house that is appropriate and a container that will hold or display the collection.

Identify Your Collections

If you or a family member helped your child start a collection, then identifying it will be easy. But children also have a way of acquiring collections on their own. What starts as a casual interest may grow into a collection. The best time to identify your children's unannounced collections is when you are working with them to organize their bedrooms (see Chapter 37) or toy room. Most likely, their collections are hidden in there somewhere. They might be lining a bookshelf or windowsill or they might be buried in a drawer or storage box. They might also be shoved in the bottom of the closet or in a clothes drawer. As you organize the child's bedroom and begin to categorize items, you'll discover a collection by noticing a large amount of the same item. You might also notice that your son asks for the same type of thing every year for his birthday and has been collecting something over many years. He might also tend to make the same type of craft every time he is feeling creative, or buy the same type of souvenir when your family takes a vacation. These all are types of collections. Here are some collections I have discovered with both my own children and with my clients' children:

Quantify Your Collections

Once you identify your child's collection, you have to determine if the child is going to continue adding to it. If so, what will be the maximum size of the total collection? In the case of state quarters or college football helmets, there are only so many to collect. But often collections can be endless, and unfortunately the room we have in our homes, and particularly your child's bedroom, is not. So make an estimate based on how much your child adds to the collection each year. Is it one item a year or more like ten? And how much longer do you think he will collect these items? You should have a good feel for whether this is a two-year or ten-year commitment, or somewhere in between. These are all things to consider when you want to quantify how big the collection will become.

If your child has a collection that is taking over the room and causing a lot of clutter (or smell or bugs), you have the right to limit that collection. Ask him to pare it down to a reasonable amount that you can either store or display.


Absolute of Organizing Your Family: To prioritize, use the “fire” rule. Ask your child, “If there were a fire, what five things would you want to save?”


Store Your Collections

There is a storage container or display case on the market for almost every type of collection. You can find them with a simple Internet search. But before you buy that shelf or container, consider if your child's collection is practical (like T-shirts or hats) or playful (like stuffed animals and Matchbox cars) or decorative (like figurines or seashells). How you choose to store or display these items will depend on whether your child wants to take them down and use them or if he just wants to look at the collection.

If your five-year-old collects acorns and pinecones, you can control how much stays in the house with the size of the container you give him. But if your teenager has a collection of trophies and medals from a sport he plays, you have to plan for a bigger display case or shelf that is going to leave some room for more. Many children collect stuffed animals and baseball cards but will eventually outgrow these, so I don't recommend investing in specific storage boxes for these things. Instead, use something versatile like a plastic storage bin or tub for the stuffed animals and a shoe box for the baseball cards. That way the containers can be repurposed when the collection disappears.

For collections that your child likes to play with or use every day, choose containers that organize the items yet leave them accessible. For instance, a collection of Matchbox cars or Legos can be organized in a tackle box that you can find in a hardware store. Trading cards can be kept in a binder with plastic sheets designed to hold baseball cards. With these containers, your child can take the collection with him, and still easily find what he is looking for.

Display Your Collections

If your child's collection is decorative or something he likes to look at on a daily basis, then find a way to display it. In some cases, like the boy in the baseball card story, the child can come up with his own unique way to display what he loves. Sometimes you just have to ask the question, “How would you like to display your collection?” Listen to what he says and don't be shocked if he says, “I want them all over my bedroom wall.” If you need ideas to get your creative juices flowing, here are a few simple ones:

When to Retire Collections

OK, so you've contained a collection that your child loves. Now how long do you have to keep it? Here are some telltale signs that your child is no longer interested in his collection:

  1. He is not adding to the collection.
  2. He no longer takes the collection items down and plays with them.
  3. He has tucked the collection away in a closet or bin and basically forgets that he has it.
  4. He has started collecting something else.

So once your child is finished collecting something, what do you do? Here are some simple options:

  1. Hand it down to a younger sibling, friend, or cousin.
  2. If the items are valuable, sell the collection on e-Bay or to a collector.
  3. Donate it to charity.
  4. If it's something you think your child would like to have later on in life (like those record albums his dad saved from his childhood), package the items and tuck them away in an attic or storage closet. Clearly label the box and give it to your child when he moves out.

If extended family members regularly contributed to the collection with birthday and Christmas presents, let the family members know your child has stopped the collection so they do not continue to buy for it.

The best way to stay on top of these collections is to keep like things together, to ask your child about what he is collecting so you know if he is passionate or passive about it, and to consider the collections when you help your child with a thorough clean up or clean out of his bedroom or playroom.

THREE STEPS TO ORGANIZING YOUR CHILD'S COLLECTIONS

  1. Gather the collection together and pare it down to the most significant pieces.
  2. Find an appropriate way to display or contain the collection so it can be appreciated.
  3. Retire the collection once your child has lost interest in it.