My friend Judy over at Crazy Basenji recently mused about why we collect things. She talks about drawers of pocket gophers and field mice from 1941, “polymerase chain reaction (?)” and scientific research at the microscopic level. Not all collections are scientific, don’t need microscopes or, as it turns out, even a purpose.

People addicted to fabric (fabriholics) tend to call their shelves of fabric “collections.” The implication is that our intent is to buy fabric without having to do anything with it later (like sew). People standing in line at quilt fabric shops shouldn’t be surprised when I answer “I don’t know yet” when they ask “What are you going to do with that?” I have matching collections of quilting books and patterns to go with the fabric.

Some collections come and go. Back when I cooked a lot, I owned a substantial number of cookbooks. I’m over that phase; the cooking part, anyway. I gave away most of the cookbooks and am down to a mere 50 or so, mostly of the vegetarian or vegan variety. Some cookbooks I know I will never use but I’m not letting go of them (Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, for example).

These are collections of items that I purposely acquired. But some collections just kind of show up, amassing on their own. For example, wire coat hangers multiply in closets and pens that don’t write congregate next to phones.

A box collection or a collection of boxes?

And boxes. They accumulate when I’m not looking. I’m wondering if these results should be considered a box collection or a collection of boxes. I’m thinking that “a box collection” implies explicit intentions while “a collection of boxes” could be the result of inattention and then someone (me) ending up with multiples of an item. Some of these boxes are currently in use (housing my envelope collection), some will be used in the near future (the USPS flat rate box) and the others are, let’s say, in transition from their original use to being empty and possibly on their way to being repurposed.

Maybe I’ll put my smaller collections inside the boxes. Aha! Instead of a box collection or a collection of boxes, they become a set of boxed collections. Or a boxed set of collections. Something to ponder.