Lets Get Organized
A while back, John Pannell provided a link to a Reuters story about a man whose collection overtook his home.
A German man was such an avid collector of weapons and other paraphernalia that he ran out of space at home and had to sleep in a hotel, neighbors said following the 71-year-old’s death.
Hopefully none of our collections have taken over our lives in this manner, but what can we do to prevent this from happening to us. While the New Year is already a few weeks old, it is not to late to make another resolution.
Getting Organized:
To me the first steps to getting organized, are to answer two questions.
- What do I have?
- What do I need?
The easiest way to answer this is to know what exists in your area of collecting. If your area of collecting is widely followed, your in luck because for you there are hard copy references:
- Collector Guides
- OA Blue Book
Or there are
- On-Line Resources
You can also create your own checklists, the three most common would be:
- Collection – What do I have, what did it cost?
- Needs – What exists, what is a good value to acquire one?
- Duplicates -what excess do I have to trade for my needs.
Protection – You also need to think of the Unthinkable. What should you do to protect your collection from;
- Fire
- Theft
- Deterioration
Things to consider would include:
- Insurance
- Archival Storage
Have you thought about what would happen to your collection if you should die or become incapacitated? Does your spouse, significant other, estate know what to do with your collection. What its approximate value is? How to dispose of it in a way which would consider your wishes/needs?
What should you do?
Set Goals
What is SMART?
It is an acronym for a method of writing or defining goals that make them both measurable and attainable.
S- Specific: Make the goal specific. Focus on one thing, not many things. You can set multiple goals, but make each one specific.
M- Measurable: Know where you are on the subject, and measure the change.
A- Attainable: Make you goal something that you can actually attain. A goal can be a stretch goal; but it should be something that you can reasonably accomplish.
R- Relevant or Realistic: I’ve seen this written both ways, Make your goal relevant to what you want out of your life, job or collection. Make it Realistic, something you can obtain, accomplish, complete.
T- Timely. Make your goal timely. Allow enough time to be successful, but set yourself a deadline. The longer you drag out anything, the less interested you will be in it.
Please feel free to share how you have organized or protected your collection in the comments.
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“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” – Benjamin Franklin
