No matter what you get, or how much you like it, there's always more. And there is only so much room in your house. What do you do? Practice restraint? Buy and sell in cycles? That matching set of diamonds are cool, but wouldn't a pair of Knoll armless club chairs look nice there? A bIrd where your 670 is?
I can not wait until
I have received my needed items. Sometimes I wonder the same, however, I am still not on that scale yet whitespike.
For me it is the discovery of items and lately I have found myself giving advice to craigslisters who do not know what they have. I ask myself three questions: Do I need another, do I want to make any extra cash, and should I leave it for another to discover. Sorry local market for helping those who do not realize that they have a css unit and are selling it for 100 dollars. Okay seriously, this only happened once and the gentlemen was a post graduate student who needed the money. Lets just say he made a little more than he expected.
I will not make any promises but I will slow down on the former.
YES
I have a serious collector sickness and have been self-medicating for some time now. As much as I love the things I collect, I can honestly say that I'm content. I think that is what you mean rather than "happy". I'm very satisfied with my life. Beyond the fact that I have a great family and am blessed in a number of ways, I'm surrounded with things that I love, that bring me much joy and enrich my (and my family's) life.
If something super cool comes along, I have to decide how much I like it and what would have to be displaced to accommodate it. But I have a number of favorite things that I can't imagine tiring of or wanting to replace or change. It can be very satisfying to find that "perfect" piece for a space or a need, but it's also fun to see how seemingly minor changes can make a space look completely different.
While I see my home environment as a work of art which I'm always refining, tweaking and improving it's also true that if tomorrow I was not able to acquire anything new, I'd still be very happy with what we have.
Tempered
I understand where Whitespike is coming from...its tough, especially given both the number of truly amazing pieces in the world, and the number of amazing deals to be had.
My own 'collecting' has been tempered by a move from 1 tiny bedroom in a shared furnished apartment into a 2 bedroom aparment for me and the 'hubs'. As we realized that we need more things: a dining table, for example. And bookshelves. And bedroom storage - I became increasingly aware of the sheer mass of the items. Whereas the move into this apartment consisted of some very basic pieces: couch, bed, Eames lounge the move OUT is going to require a multi-man crew.
And attitudes towards furniture change. I once thought the Eames RAR was impossible to find. Then the LCW was the pinnacle chair to have... then it was the Eames lounge. Then it was The Chair. Now it's somewhere between a leather Egg chair and a Papa Bear. Or perhaps an Ox.
Somewhere along the line though, I think you start to realized that some furniture, just like your hubs, is there for good, for better or for worse.
I'm often happy, but ...
I'm never finished with my collections. I have several collections, and I always am collecting. It's part of who I am.
I try to practice restraint. If that fails, I sell something. Or I hang another shelf! The answer in my house is always, "Let's hang some shelves here."
My question is, why do collectors always marry non-collectors?
Koen,
I met a potter or two at RISD. One of them, Bob Lucas, ended up rooming with another of my friends, after school. Bob had collected quite a few ceramic pieces by friends, over time. His new roommate hung the shelves that his collection now rested on. The shelves came down (don't trust a landscape architect to do the carpentry ?) and many favorite treasures were lost. End of sad story. (Wish I knew where either of these guys is today. . .)
Generally speaking
I'm happy about half of the time....not too bad.
For example, I received the 40th Anniversary 2-CD set of the second David Bowie album, "Space Oddity" with tons of first-time stereo on the bonus CD. The only problem is that the plastic CD trays both have broken hubs, and the package is the type where the trays are glued onto paper.
So, I'm happy with the CDs and package, but not happy with the broken trays.
As I said, usually about 50% happy!
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