With spring comes spring cleaning. Normally this involves culling my wardrobe or movie collection and heading to Savers with a box of donations. This year, at week three of an indeterminate stay at home order, it’s what I’m calling The Great Reorganization. My daughter and I have rearranged bedrooms and the living room floor is barely visible beneath boxes and piles of possessions. It looks a mess but I find it therapeutic to pick through and to reorder my personal living space.
My collection built up for years.
I’m a wanderer by nature and I lived with a crowd for years. I didn’t put much thought or energy into creating a home versus having a place to sleep and keep all my stuff. For example, I built up a pretty reasonable collection of Star Wars bits and baubles over the years but I didn’t set up a display space for any of it until a year or two ago. One day I lined up my collection of Padmé dolls to instagram and decided not to put them away. Instead I slowly added other related collectibles to the shelf. Now I have four shelves of Star Wars trinkets on display. And like that my house became more like my home than a building I happened to live in.
With the pandemic home is also my office and workshop and my daughter’s school and art studio. My desk and bulletin board at work are covered with pop culture curios, images, and printouts. Thinking back on it it seems crazy that I made sure to display my fandom favorites at work but kept them in boxes at home. That I didn’t take the time to make a home I’d want to spend time in the way I did my six by six cubicle. Well, now I am.
Displaying my collection has become a priority.
Now, in addition to my fours shelves and framed photo ops on display, I’ve hung up all the posters and fanart I collected, my jewelry and my Death Star purse. And it’s not just Star Wars that’s been let out of the closet, all my fandom collections are part of The Great Reorganization. I have so much clutter I will probably end up giving away at least a third of it. But what I keep will spark joy, and keep me sane during the completely impossible situation we all find ourselves in.
This project also highlights what’s missing in my collection. I don’t have any of the Forces of Destiny dolls. There’s a blank space in my boy-type-hero shelf wall just waiting to be filled by a Ben Solo postcard. And the whole lower wall is empty in the above picture. This gives me something to look for, a goal. That sparks joy, too.
Spring cleaning isn’t for everyone. And to be sure there are hours and days when I can’t focus on any of it. But overall The Great Reorganization helps me get through this extremely strange Spring.
What do you collect? I’d love to see pictures!
Fanart in header by my brother, John deBoer.