Collection management

I am still on a fairly marvellous high after a wonderful weekend of hiking along a section of the Great Ocean Walk with the lovely company of good friends. We walked along the coast and partly through the Otway Ranges National Park. I don't have a stamp showing the Otways, but delving through my Australian stamps collection I did find this suave little set of stamps featuring Port Campbell National Park - better known as the Twelve Apostles - which is at least in the neighbourhood and can represent my long weekend here.

On our leisurely drive back from the coast we decided to make a little stop off at the Geelong Mill Markets, a treasure-trove of vintage and retro wares that I had only ever heard of, but had never experienced for myself. A couple of hundred dollars and a couple of hours later, I departed the Mill Markets with a spring in my step and some great additions to my collection (and to my wardrobe).

I found stamps (of course) but I also found a couple of lovely old tins. The tins have provided me with a storage solution for my collection, which is getting a little out of hand lately.

Opening of Parliament Tin

Tally-Ho Tin. 

The thing I love about tins is that they are mini treasure chests, waiting to be opened; and inside the contents are asking to be leafed through, contemplated, shuffled, touched and sorted. It is a delight to poke through a tin of stamps.

I have stamps tucked away everywhere, in little envelopes in my bedside drawers; tucked into books; stored in my craft chest. They are all over the shop. Until now. Now, all my little bits and bobs, odds and ends, stamps and envelopes, can all be stored in my new tins. (This is the theory, anyway. The chaos of my bedroom probably indicates that the tins will become part of the chaos, rather than a solution to the chaos.)

My stamp albums still house most of my collection, but tins are useful for storing unsorted 'stuff'. See, at the moment I am having a slight dilemna - a quandary, if you will - over how to sort out my expanding collection. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I have recently received first day covers from Pa Bert, two albums containing Grandma Nellie's collection, and a lovely collection of maps on stamps from a friend's Dad. What I am trying to work out, is do I keep all these collections separate and distinct, or do I absorb them into my own?

I do not know the answer, but I intend to spend time this Easter weekend joyfully sorting through my collection, rearranging pages in my stamp albums, and filing duplicate stamps into little tracing paper envelopes that can live in my new tins. What fun I will have!

A home for my collection

**Happy Easter everyone!**