Self storage: Weird and Wonderful Collections

Many long-term customers of self storage use the space to store things they collect. Some of these collections are ordinary, others less so.

Plenty of bibliophiles use a unit for their own personal library. Some women fill theirs with boxes of antique clothing they’ve spent decades building up, whilst many men own hundreds of LPs.

This is the type of collecting society deems respectable. A fine line is usually drawn between it and collections that people look less kindly on: collections of things that are deemed to be worthless or disgusting – old newspapers, or toenail clippings, for example – are usually frowned upon, and may even be the product of mental illness.

However, virtually everything collectible is kept by someone, somewhere in the world, even if no one else can fathom why they do it. Not all collectors use self storage to house their pride and joy, but for those who do the following weird and wonderful collections should reassure them that plenty of other people take the urge to collect much further than they do.

Weird Collections: Candidates for self storage?

Not everyone can collect stamps. Indeed, if everyone did then the world of collecting would be a stale place, and very few people would have enough to need self storage. Fortunately, a certain number of collectors devote their lives to objects that seem downright bizarre things for adults to invest time and money in – and many are driven by lack of space at home, domestic conflict – or even just pure shame – to house them in self storage.

In honor of such people, here are five of the world’s weirdest collections:

1. The world’s largest collection of navel fluff – This genuinely belongs to an Australian, Graham Barker, who has been collecting his own output every day since 1984. He now has so much it requires three large glass jars for storage. His unusual collection has made him a minor celebrity in Australia, and has even led to appearances on some of America’s biggest talk shows.

2. Toothpaste – Dr Val Kolpakov, a dentist (fittingly) of Russian origin now living in America, owns what he considers to be the world’s largest collection of toothpastes and historic toothpowders. Since 2001, he’s spent over $18,000 acquiring 1800 different types, all stored in display cases at his Michigan dental practice.

3. Rubber Ducks – Californian Charlotte Lee owns the world’s largest collection of rubber ducks – 5,239 unique designs– which she’s amassed since 1996. The entire basement of her small home has been given over to their storage, and it apparently took her husband months to install enough cupboards and shelves for them all.

4. Napkins – American Marilyn Boyle, 70, is the world leader in the highly competitive field of global napkin collecting. She has 6,652 different ones, obtained from all over the world and marking every type of place and event, including 68 different designs from McDonald’s. She preserves them using ring binder files for storage.

5. Airplane Sick Bags – Strange as it may seem, unique airsickness bags printed by different airlines have become highly sought-after collectors’ items in the age of the internet and eBay. Holland’s Niek Vermeulen holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection, consisting of 5,468 different ones representing over a thousand different airlines. He uses photograph albums for storage.

Wonderful Collections: Beyond self storage

Where to draw the line between what makes one collection weird and another wonderful will always be a vexed issue. It could be argued that it is simply the urge to collect in the first place which is unusual; after that, whatever it fixates upon is purely a matter of chance.

However, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s considered better to collect some items than others. Some make for grand displays of wealth, whilst others are simply thought of as pleasant and wholesome things for people to take an interest in. These are five of the world’s best:

1. Royal Family Memorabilia – Many collectors prefer squirreling away their passion in distant self storage units on the edge of town. Not so Australia’s Janet and Philip Williams, whose collection of British Royal Family memorabilia has literally taken over their house. Now containing over 12,000 items, their collection is so large they had to build a new one to store it in, which they’ve opened up to the public as a free museum. Visitors are greeted by life-sized model beefeaters standing guard around the outside, followed by similar ones of Charles, Camilla and the Queen drinking tea together at the dining table – and the toilet is even decorated to look like a throne!

2. Star Wars Memorabilia – LucasFilm executive Steve Sansweet is the man thought to have the galaxy’s biggest collection of Star Wars memorabilia, something collected by fans of the film series all over the world. It includes everything from pieces of the original sets to knitted pencil-cases and toys, and the company has published several books just cataloging the collection for the benefit of other fans. Much too large to go in self storage, his collection is stored in a climate-controlled barn on Sansweet’s California ranch.

3. Musical Records – Many self storage customers keep boxes of old Vinyls and CDs in their lock-ups, but none can compete with America’s Paul Mawhinny for the size and scale of their collection. He has over 3 million records, more than anyone else in the world, which he accumulated during 50 years of running a record store when he would always keep the last copy of everything he stocked for himself. It represents every musical genre and has been valued at $50 million. Unsurprisingly, given its worth, he uses a climate-controlled warehouse for their storage.

4. Cars – US waste-disposal millionaire Harold LeMay has long been credited with owning the world’s largest private car collection, having had over 3,000 different models. These include virtually every American car that was mass-produced during the 20^th century, fascinating prototypes which were never developed further, and tailor-made creations from films such as The Flintstones. Obviously much too large for self storage, the collection was kept in a warehouse, which, since LeMay’s death in 2000, his family has run as a public museum.

5. Chocolate Wrappers – One for chocoholics everywhere: the Czech Republic’s Martin Mihál owns the world’s largest collection of chocolate bar wrappers – 97,571 – which he stores in 70 full photograph albums. Having been built up mainly through his friends in other countries sending them to him the collection has an international flavour, with chocolate from 113 different nations represented.

Do you collect something unusual? Would you keep it in self storage? Or maybe you run a self storage centre and you know someone keeps a large collection there. Tell us about in the comments box below!

2 Responses to “Self storage: Weird and Wonderful Collections”

1. Angus Hanton says:

   July 8, 2010 at 1:13 pm

   I’ve got a fairly large collection of old comics – mainly Beanos and Toppers from the 1960s and early 1970s. What amazes me about the Beanos is how similar the stories are nowadays to how they were 40 years ago, in fact almost identical sometimes! I’ve got my collection along with other things from my childhood that I would never throw out, stored in self-storage locally.

2. ipsohfacto says:

   July 12, 2010 at 7:09 pm

   I’m always drawn to the rather oddball, ultra-specialist museums, focusing on something we normally take for granted and don’t think of as “collectable”. Three of my favourites are: the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick, England; the Museum of the Hammer (Museo dei Martelli) in Sarnano, the Marche, Italy; and Lumina Domestica, the Domestic Lamp Museum in Bruges, Belgium (6000 examples!) Any other suggestions?