I was in my kitchen last night, pondering what to cook for some guests tomorrow night, and perusing my cookery book collection, when it occurred to me ‘my god, I have a cookery book COLLECTION. When did that happen?’
So I counted them… 75 cookery books on my kitchen shelves, and a further 30 or more scattered around my dining room and living room.
Clearly, I have a problem.
So what are your collections, and how did they happen? Did they creep up on you, or was it a conscious decision?
I collect spores, molds and fungus. I didn’t really start out as a collector but it grew on me.
Regrets.
Egrets.
Wine corks. Not sure how, but we have thousands of them.
Really?.. 
“Regerts” would have been funnier.
Too late to edit. Just add one more to the collection…
Unintentionally collector of cardboard boxes. Used to do selling on eBay, not as much anymore, and always seemed not to have the right sized box to ship the item. If I saw a potentially “right sized “ box at work I would grab it. Now I have dozens and dozens of boxes in my garage attic. I still can’t resist grabbing a perfectly good box (especially a double wall/thickness one) just in case I need it to ship something out of fear of not having the perfect sized box.
Heh. I haven’t added to my tattoo collection in a few years, but for decades I was worried I’d run out of space.
I have a large number of automatic knives (switchblades). It’s not a “collection,” and I’m not otherwise a knife collector, but I currently have about 140 of them in widely varying styles.
This started when one of my colleagues was doing undercover work at flea markets. He needed to get in with some of the people selling counterfeit products, so he bought a lot of imported knives, including automatic ones. I picked up a couple dozen from him and then when on to pick up one here and there as I came across them.
Of course, it’s illegal for me to carry any of them and I have no intention of ever doing so. But they are interesting mechanical gadgets and I enjoy it when I have an opportunity to show off a few of them to visitors at my house.
Fig trees (well over 40 varieties so far).
The collecting urge was slow to take root but it has grown on me.
Seashells, coral bits, rocks and stones, fossils. (Pretty much whatever you find at the beach! ) Buddhist statuary. Oh, and feathers, (but not a true collection as I rotate new finds in and toss the degraded ones!)
Books? I just have a lot, but not actively collecting, I think. Unintentional collecting, I suppose.
I’ve amassed a fairly large collection of travel-related ephemera on my road trips over the last 20 years. New and vintage postcards, magnets, pins, brochures, things with cool/interesting graphics, that kind of stuff. I also have a collection of decorative gourds; my best friend is a gourd artist and when she asks me what I want for my birthday or Christmas I ask her to make something for me.
Well, you could save tons of space by unfolding them and storing them flat. Keep a roll of packing tape nearby, and ::poof:: instant box whenever you start eBay’ing again.
Oh, if you’re not going to be selling large quantities of stuff in the next year or so, boxes do recycle nicely…
GET RID OF 'EM!
(That’s my advice for myself. I’ve been de-hoarding and have given away enough books and CDs and Pez dispensers that I’m not really collecting anyth… oh, wait, I do have a dozen or so boxes of comic books. Sigh, guess that’s next…)
Apparently, I’m a collector of 1/2" drills. Not bits, drills. I have two Makita cordless and an old monster Rockwell corded.
Sort of a long story. Thought the Makita was broken, so I bought another one. Then basically by accident, I fixed it. I’m going to give one to a friend.
There’s many types of fruit trees, have you considered branching out?
Or adopt a couple of cats. They always need boxes to sit in.
I collect plush. My family approves as it makes for cheap, lightweight souvenirs.
I collect baby name books and have a collection of cookbooks as well.
Souvenir magnets.
Travel books. Every time I’m planning to visit somewhere, I read up on the place in several books. Sometimes I never get to the place, but nevertheless still have the books.
And music media. I still have almost 2200 CDs, about as many LPs, and even some of my father’s 78s.
Oh, and cat hair. I’m now down to only one cat, but she produces enough loose hair to start a sweater factory.
Bendies. I don’t actively collect them anymore but I still have them all in a box under my bed. It started with the original “Mr Bendy” from Archie McPhee, then they came out with other variations (Mrs Bendy, two-headed Bendy, Devil Bendy, etc) and pretty soon any time I saw any kind of poseable rubber-on-wire toy figure, I got one for my collection.
T-shirts. I don’t collect them so much as accumulate them, and when I start running out of room in my t-shirt drawer I will get rid of a few. But I have enough that I can wear a different t-shirt every day for a month or more.