How to Hide an Embarrassing Collection in Plain Sight

Here's some handy advice for those of you with collections that make your friends and loved ones look at you with both eyebrows raised. You know the look I'm talking about, it either makes you argumentative (this collection HAS merit) or change the subject quickly when you can't justify your treasures.

You need to incorporate them onto/into an ordinary object, so no one really looks at them twice, if you're lucky:

See how I hid my hideous flower pin collection on this poor innocent lamp? Pure genius, if I say so myself. ;-) I'll talk about this collection in another post, after I figure out why it exists!

Another really easy way to hide a strange collection is to combine it with an innocuous collection as follows:

See how all my weird little animals that sneak into my house are hidden in my perfectly innocent plant collection? Same with rocks I pick up all over the place, into the plants they go! Then there are all the little broken elves that jump into my pockets from free boxes at garage sales. Guess their original owners didn't have the heart to toss them either.

Of course there is another, more honest, more empowering way to display your odd collections. Come to the Dark Side and be an unrepentant pack rat like Kathy. She never explains her collections; there is always an assumption that they are all fabulous, maybe a little eccentric, but never weird!