Wednesday 21 August 2013

80s Child: Badges

I've been sorting through lots of boxes as part of my Less 365 project (trying to clear out / declutter / give away one thing a day for a year) and I found my childhood badge collection!


I've often read (on the sort of blogs that are pro-minimalism & anti-clutter) that you should take photos of sentimental items and then get rid of the objects themselves, because who needs them? And to be honest I thought this was a bit bonkers. What is wrong with keeping something that has sentimental value, and reminds you of special times, places or people?? For myself, at least, looking through photos of special, sentimental items I used to own would just make me sad about giving them away! 

But actually, looking through some of the collections of things I aquired in my childhood (what is it about kids and collecting things?) I can see the usefulness of this recording-the-object-in-a-photo idea. I can take a photo as a record of / celebration of the whole collection, and then clear out all the badges (or erasers or shells or whatever else I accumulated as a kid) that no longer have a strong emotional tug. For example, I am absolutely keeping the badge with a badger, hedge & bridge on it (made by my friend Rosemary for our very nerdy reading & spelling club) but do I need/want badges about not littering? No, I do not.


Did you have a badge collection as a kid? Or did you collect other things?

P.S. if you fancy it, you can also check out this old post about my sticker collection :)

6 comments:

Jambamkin said...

I have a growing collection of over 200 badges. I just like knowing I have a badge for every occasion. As part of my Physics A level we went on a tour of power stations and I and about 5 electricity themed badges to wear.

MySpecialAgent said...

I think you should keep the My Little Pony badge as well.
I still have little animal shaped erasers from when I was in grade school.

Melissa Graham said...

I had a huge collection of badges when I was a kid. I too am an 80's baby. I can remember putting them on my jean jacket. Wow!!! Thanks for sharing.

danielle said...

I have a pin collection, of which a small part are badges. I kept them for nostalgia's sake, but also to show my girls.

And yes, I was an 80's child too.

Unknown said...

i have a badge collection too but a photo for me could never be the same as actually having the badges...
I'm a little older than an 80's child!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Jambamkin - so great to hear you wear the badges from your collection! I think part of the reason I don't want to keep all of these is I've never really worn them, it seems silly to keep something that's not being used.

MySpecialAgent - oh yes, the My Little Pony badge is being kept! I adored My Little Ponies when I was little.

Melissa - aaaah, yes, denim jackets covered in badges! Those were the days!

danielle - lovely idea to keep things to show your kids. With fashions going round in circles too, who knows, maybe they will enjoy wearing some of them!

Trixi - I could definitely never replace the whole collection with a photo, but I am happy keeping a few special ones and the photo makes me feel a lot less sad/guilty about throwing away some old things.