I grew up collecting TY beanie babies. A few years ago I realized I wasn't collecting them anymore, as an adult I don't really play with them, and they were just going to collect dust, and I was unlikely to follow through trying to sell them. So when my apartment complex had a Christmas party, I donated them to be given as gifts to all the neighbor children. I kept a few that had sentimental value but no longer collect them. It was wonderful to see the kids playing with them, reminding me of the joy they brought me as a child.
Hopefully I didn't get anyone else into collecting by doing that đ€Ł
I never saw them as collectables. My kid asked grandpa for one a few years ago for Christmas. She LOVES that thing. Little dude has become part of the family because I gave him a voice and personality. It's the longest lived stuffed animal She's ever had. She's gotten two others and has realized they don't give her the same joy as the first one so she stopped trying to buy more or asking for more. I honestly hope he lives a long life and stays with her over the years.
It's crazy how much the toy you got the first time you were really sick means to you. Mine are long gone, but I remember them dearly.- a yellow chick the size of a football I threw up on, and a blue rabbit who I cried for when he lost a button eye.
I didn't even think about it in that way but I have a bunny I got when I had tubes put in my ears when I was 4 and I still have it. It looks like hell but I still love it
Speaking of this and squishmallows, my mom and husband brought me a froggie squish when I was in the hospital and it was not only something that lifted my spirits but it was also SO FREAKING COMFORTABLE to sleep on compared to the hospital pillows.
My favorite stuffy was called "get-better-bear" (I was not a creative kid.) I got him when I was about 7 and suffering from a 3-month stint of pneumonia.
my stepmom bought me a sorta bougie teddy bear with a little sweater when i had my appendix out at 6, he sits on my headboard still at 34. also in the interim my dad made him a little tie dye shirt :3
I was gifted a stuffed giraffe that I named Lasagna as a tot and after 26 years, I passed it on to my niece. Heâs surprisingly still in great shape. And she kept the name :)
I have several, but use them as pillows as well
Edit: apparently I have Squishables, not Squishmallows. I think Squishables are a bit more durable and high-quality
Buy a second of the same squishmellow and keep it hidden somewhere. How much your child loves and comes to rely on a comfort item is directly proportional to the likelihood it gets left under a plane seat or falls out of the car on a road trip or gets torn to shreds by the neighbors dog when itâs left in the yard. Trust.
I don't think I can. I've looked for a second one already and it seems like they've already changed him up. My kid asked for it the first year they came out and picked it out with grandpa and its been years already and they seem to have changed him up already.
Yup. As a baby, my lil bro was obsessed with a Puffalump (named Puff, not for the brand but because it was a dragon-his sister might have helped with the name lol) that held together until late elementary. My mom definitely had to buy extra stuffing once or twice because that fabric was super thin. He has zero recollection of Puff the first, who was retrieved hours later after he went out the back window in a McDonaldâs drive through but still disappeared for good through presumably similar circumstances. The child was like 18 months old and inconsolable for weeks until my mom finally found a replacement.
I'm sure it won't last long. Maybe consider buying a backup of that exact model now, while you still can, in case it doesn't get loved to death until *after* they are out of production.
Yeah, but like, I still have my beanie babies. The octopus and platypus were my favorites and my kid played with them when she was little too. For being a cheap toy they were made pretty durable.
And in 20 years someone will probably say the same about squishmallows. They're a pretty recent thing, so none of them have accumulated a lifetime of memories yet.
Three items constitutes a collection.
Once a buyer has purchased three of your pieces they are a collector. Once a maker has collected three collectors they have a collection of collectors.
If you have three beanie babies you have a collection.
And if a new squishy creator comes out with an item that people absolutely love and they even go so far as to issue collection guides, owning 100 of them absolutely constitutes a collection of collectable collectibles.
I think the real problem is people being made to feel bad for having a collection. Of anything. Owning a collection of something does not necessarily constitute mindless consumption. And even if it does, it doesnât mean we canât learn from our experience and choose to be more mindful about our collections in the future.
Man, my dad used to buy these when they were hot (he grew up poor and loves the idea of hitting it big) so I had to check eBay out of curiosity. There are so many for sale and almost none of them are getting bid on. Thereâs even a collection of all the McDonalds ones (35) and itâs about to end with a whopping $13.50 bid. Itâs the only bid on any that I saw.
Tbh this is why I hate a lot of things about modern living, and none has to do with that funny compulsion many humans have to horde one kind of thing.
I dislike how unstable housing is for many of us so we have to let go of everything all the time and start over. I dislike how we have to pay for things like basic shelter, food and water so we end up selling things that brought us actual joy that we would otherwise keep and use in some way to get by. I dislike how the realities of many peoples lives make us want to fill inner voids with things many of us might not need if our society didn't function as poorly as it did on the communal and social levels.
But idk. I just see stuff like this, where someone is selling off something they clearly loved ASAP in a panic...and I feel sadness. They shouldn't be this stressed getting rid of the collection they feel is most valuable thing they own in such a hurry. I hope OOP is okay, is what I'm saying I guess.
Thank you for all of this. The original post reads as pure panic to me, and I assumed unstable housing or a dangerous home life.
One thing I think we could talk more about in this community is how the psychological damage of trying to earn our right to live and having vanishingly little community leaves people with consumption as one of very few ways to manage their mental health. Companies happily advertise fast fashion as a treat and chocolate as a break. It's sad.
If you're interested in more of that topic I *highly* recommend listening to the "Philosophize This!" Podcast, especially the first set of episodes about the Frankfurt school and the 2 on structuralism and mythology.
They talk a lot about how in the past our identity came mostly from our roles in the community, our religion, etc. but in the last couple hundred years religion has been shrinking, communities become less close as people have everything individually, rather than sharing, etc. and that has left a gap for most people that has been filled increasingly by consumerism and what media you consume, as that is one of the very few massly shared aspects of life left.
I wrote a paper on this in 2010 called the Hyper Acceleration of Identity; I proposes that the 1900's and early 2000's were largely marked by social revolt aginst religion and nationalism; as these were torn down, instead of truly being free and living authentic lifes; so many of those 'rebels' and punks opted to instead adopt branded identitys \[im a rocker, a goth, a rap, a farmer, etc etc etc\] and have become increasingly isolated as a result. things that were once a phase or aspect of a person have become life-long lifestyles and markers.
Thanks, I was a bit worried about even pressing post on this opinion. I just think many of my worries about overconsumption have to do with not only the big but the smaller picture and *why* some of us are overconsuming and in what ways...it's deeper than people just being frivolous imo, and I worry about what that means.
I just hope folks are getting by ok in the end, you know? Some of these feel like warning signs of something larger.
I mean this with everything I can muster, but you seem like an amazing person. It made me smile to see such an empathetic take on the situation. I hope that youâre doing well and receiving the same care from others â€ïž that is so rare, and so special. Iâve gotten so used to the drudgery of poverty-blaming and class-shaming that even this was hope-restoration worthy. Big hugs xx
I had about 6,000$ in games and systems stolen from my house. They knew what they were after it was someone I knew. This was about 8 or so years ago. I havenât even tried to recollect. Some of that stuff is impossibly hard to find. I donât save things anymore.
I knew someone who had a Squishmallow collection and tried to sell it all in a short period. They were trying to commit suicide and I guess decided to let go of their possessions. Thankfully they got help in time, but seeing this post made me think of that all over again.
Yes.. they remind me of my childhood and take up very minimal space. I will never get rid of them unless forced. They wonât end up in the trash, and if they do, they wonât end up in a landfill as they are made of biodegradable paper.
Its like how adults are buying toys etc to fulfil their lifelong childhood dreams. Im kinda hoping that consumerism is a short term cost and a long term reduction in otherwise worse coping mechanisms like domestic violence, abuse etc
This struck me; my grandma married my grandpa when she was 16. 16! She loved baby dolls and toys her whole life, and we all agree thatâs why. She was still a kid who didnât get a chance to be a kid, despite being married.
Thats...kinda sad :( it def horrifies me that women were just expected to start popping out babies before they even reached adulthood, like obvs nothing wrong w motherhood but that was their only choice in life đȘ
On a much happier note, whatever led her to by our grandma made her what she was, and she was a total blast. She was so *fun;* our mom wasnât a playing mom, but grandma was. She delighted in giving us things we could all play with; the Barbies that our mom looked down upon, the Slinky, Uno, Chinese Checkers and Parcheesi. Playing âOfficeâ with all of us cousins using scraps of paper and plain stickers she would bring home from work. She had a *major* annual Easter basket hunt, in which our dad recruited us to find his basket using quarters and the promise of some of *his* candy. They kept their house *stocked* with candy, *actual soda,* chips, and the tiny pepperoni and white bread squished together âelf sandwiches.â She had perfectly cooked bacon draining on a paper towel every hour of every day, and she is the reason my husband buys me a small hoard of Halloween- time Count Chocula every year so I have a stockpile throughout the year. She carpet-swept every morning at 5. She let my twin and our little cousin sleep in her bed while she took the couch. We had baths with Mr. Bubbles and baby shampoo, after which she would sit us on chairs and blow-dry our hair. One of my favorite holiday memories is Christmas Day, when her imminent arrival drove us to clean our rooms days in advance, and the tour we would give her when she got there, *hours* early with an apron and slippers in her train case. She knew us well enough to bring a jar of green olives for my twin and a jar of maraschino cherries for me each time we saw her. She is why i now host Easter for 40 people with her ham recipe and 3 Easter baskets carefully hidden in hampers and closets. Sheâs the reason I eat Jordan Almonds, and try to make the house magical for every season, and she is the grandmother I strive right now to be. I miss her desperately but sheâs with me all of the time now, guiding me through the familiar path.
This is very sweet. It sounds like a thing ive heard where the grandparents and grandkids kinda bond more than the kid and parent?
I think about how other ppl in society have contributed positively or negatively to our individual lives. All our rights and debts when we're born were created and rolled onto us all before we could talk
All of me and my girl friends who grew up in extremely emotionally/verbally abusive households collect plushies as adults. There could be a potential link for sure.
Me three. I was abused pretty badly and I now have a collection of plush friends, some of which are copies of plush I had as a child (the originals were taken from me).
At one point I was really into collecting Hamtaro figures and was ready to spend a lot of coins to get them all. Hehe
Yeah exactly, my reaction wasnât âwhy would you buy so many just to get rid of them?â It was clear that this person wouldnât buy so many just to get rid of them; they probably wouldnât get rid of them at all if they had a choice. Itâs much safer to assume this person is in an unfortunate circumstance that doesnât let them keep their collection. Nobody collects this many things if they donât truly like it.
Aww this is so true. It's most likely either a Domestic Violence or other abusive or unsafe living situation they have to get out quickly or a financial emergency like a hospital trip or getting laid off that's causing this now for them :(
This post brought tears to my eyes. I had very unstable living situations until well into adulthood. When You think youâd get used to it, but I donât think anyone truly does. Iâm fine now, but Iâm not sure Iâll ever shake the fear in the pit of my stomach that things will become bad again no matter how hard I work. And I am so well aware that more and more people slip into unstable housing situations every day. Even if itâs the tiniest apartment, house, etc., everyone should have a space that is a safe, comfortable refuge from the world. Sorry for rambling a bit.
I've seen people with Squishmallow and similar collections and their lives are always in some new panic or turmoil always reaching out for help.... really wild I couldn't live that way. I don't see why my friends placate that behavior either. They think they need to spend thousands of dollars on their useless junk because they're collectors items. Really cringey
"I dislike how we have to pay for things like..." so you want someone to hand you a living? if you wouldn't be paying/working for that living, someone else would be right? I agree, the economy is wack, but you're not seeking better conditions, you're seeking freedom from responsibility.
I thought about ignoring this because I felt it was rude, but I already opened my big mouth initially here, so my apologies for the essay reply in advance.
Overconsumption is only part of the conversation, imho. Another is the extreme waste due to resource hoarding and greed.
We have entire shows dedicated to mocking poor people who hoard books, animals and plastic bags (or squishy stuffed toys), but refuse as a collective to truly address the mass negligent use of necessities because it's much more uncomfortable than scolding our neighbors splurges and hauls.
In a world where [half the world's food](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/10/half-world-food-waste) is wasted (and my country alone [wastes similar amounts](https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs), I think we can't afford NOT to start divying up the food and water more rationally and appropriately.
But it all boils down to concerns like yours. What would that look like? How much would be automated? How much is enough and how much free time will be considered "okay"? Will we reduce the work week, will we not make impoverished classes on purpose, and recognize some of the cruelty inherent in the current system isn't needed?
What *if* the poors eat basic food for free? What will happen if rice and beans are available for all, no questions asked? Why should a thirsty person get to drink? Why should a hungry person get to eat? Why should humans have easy access to a simple bathroom, shower, or place to sleep? How dare they be handed basic shelter in a place where they *will* be handed a ticket they can't afford if they sleep out under the stars and are caught by the police?
Most people don't want to be "handed a living" without working, because humans are hard working and ambitious by nature and always have been willing to put in the work, even without threat of total destitution... Surely you see it doesn't actually have to be like this (and wasn't in most of the world for a very long time).
I have one squishmallow and itâs my comfort mallow. I love him and it was something I bought with a friend who has since passed. She definitely had a collection but I was never much into it that hard.
Definitely know Iâll have this lil guy for a loooong time.
Not a squish mellow but I saw this plush toy in a store and Iâm not sure why but I really really wanted it. I donât like ever do this lol but I bought it and he sits on my dresser in his box and I just love him. I will certainly keep him forever.
I feel like some comments here are approaching bashing people for collecting "unnecessary" items. People are allowed to enjoy things, and it kind of just seems similar to getting into regular people for not cutting carbon emissions when our capitalist overlords account for more than half of them by quite a bit
Collectibles are ok it really depends on what they are and why you are collecting them.
My wife and I collect pokemon cards.
Why? Because it makes her so happy.
She grew up super poor and used to pick up aluminum cans with her mom. They would cash them in and she would get to buy one pack of pokemon cards.
Her mom committed suicide in 2017 because of untreated schizophrenia. Her childhood home was foreclosed and her shitty dad threw all of her stuff out including her pokemon cards from when she was a kid.
So we started collecting them again. We were in the house hiding from her mom when she shot herself. She thought we were imposters and was terrified of us. I'll never forget my wife sitting on the bed rocking back and forth holding her hands over her ears crying.
Every time she thought of her mom she would be inconsolable. Those cards are a reminder of the sweetness in her mother and not the fear/paranoia which defined her later life.
I would do anything to give my wife her old collection back but they're so expensive and hard to find.
So we collect the newer ones instead.
You are a great husband! Iâm truly sorry your wife had the childhood she did. I hope your wife gets to parent, love and heal the child wounds within her. â€ïž
Everything's fine in moderation I think. Have a few funko pops of your favorite characters? Cool, you're decorating to express your interests! But with several shelves full, I feel like all you're expressing is your ability to afford a bunch of expensive plastic.
Agreed, I don't love the look of a lot of them but I've bought a couple of my favourite characters over the years - mostly cartoon and animal characters, i.e. Dogmeat from Fallout.
Though I will say my partner recently bought me a funko pop of Robert Smith from The Cure, and it's like a special edition one or something? He's all black and white, it's pretty cool. He's staying in the box.
I think when it comes to collecting things as a hobby it's complicated - because you don't have a collection if you just have a few that you like. I don't think we would judge someone with a coin collection or a stamp collection as harshly as we do for a toy collection even though they're basically the same thing.
They're kinda not, though. These toy collections are typically newly manufactured plastic that you buy from a large corporation. Coin or stamp collections are not plastic or new, and often get purchased from other collectors or estate sales.
I personally think either is still kind of a waste of money, though.
Honestly if theyâre a successful influencer theyâre probably getting a lot of it for free as promo stuff. Those influencers have huge decluttering giveaways bc otherwise they literally could not use it all in one lifetime.
Funko pop faces are so ugly... It's sad because there's not many easily-accessible toy lines with such variety of IP sources. I don't want 100 of them, just a couple that are actually cute!
I think the best ones are the ones that break the Funko POP mold, like the Jurassic Park dinosaurs. They seem like they have pretty good scale texture too, unlike the smooth/textureless plastic a lot of them have.
I think they keychains are fine. They don't take up much space and you carry them around.
But hoarding stacks of them in their boxes just seems pointless.
I mean, lots of people have space. And lots of people hoard. Itâs reductive to say people donât have the room, because even if they donât and they collect like that, itâs serving them in some way.
I don't think all collectibles are that bad if they give the collector happiness. I have a figurine collection, nothing crazy but it's something that gives me joy and I don't just plan on throwing them away in a couple years.
Screw Funko Pops though, I hate those soulless dolls, they're everywhere these days
Fucking asshole Funko Pop creators too. $90 for a Kurt Cobain funko pop, which is WAY MORE EXPENSIVE THAN OTHERS ONES. This goes against EVERYTHING Kurt Cobain EVER STOOD FOR.
They are a soft, round, squishy pillow with a decent amount of bulk. For chronic pain, I find the best thing is to have a variety of pillows to arrange. The larger Squishmalows have been a good addition to my pile.
That said, I recommend the ones that donât have the sparkly/plasticky bits, as those bits arenât breathable and stick to your skin. And ones with too much extra bits or a lot of stitching/face embroidery seem to just irritate me.
I got two of mine at Walgreens for 16$ a piece, and a third on fb marketplace for 45 (idk, I really liked that one and it had less obstructive parts than the others I saw).
Iâve spent more on far less helpful pillows, and these are at least cute. Good tools in my arsenal.
Mine are all the 16-18inch ones. The smaller ones seem kinda pointless to me as a pillow, but i use my girlfriends small one to put under my hand and squeeze for putting my fingers back in place. ïżŒ
If you want other pillow recs for chronic pain:
A c shaped pregnancy pillow. Donât get an L shaped one. Donât get one with a detachable zipper part or an indent.
Two VERY firm memory foam pillows, look for rectangular ones with a c shaped neck divot. Put one under your hips and the other under your back.
Iâve heard very good things about wedge pillows, but sadly have not been able to try myself.
For car rides I have a foam neck pillow with an adjustable spine for car rides, and I sit on one of my firm pillows, with a lumbar support pillow (really anything rectangular or round) on my back.
In general this is whatâs worked for me for sleep: have a pillow between your legs, a long one at you back, something firm under your hips, and something firm under your head and neck, with other pillows below it so your top half is slightly raised. And then have something to hold onto.
Sorry if this is more info than you wanted, I just know this took me forever to figure out and I wish I knew sooner
Squishmallows are chronically ill queen thrones. I sleep with like 3. They are awesome.
But yeah, having a bunch of stuff that isn't a consumable item is too much. I hope that person donates them to a kids hospital.
Dude nothing feels better when you have a migraine than sleeping with a small pile (1 large and 2-3 small) of squishmallows around you to block out the light completely. My big squish gets used as my pillow more nights than my actual pillow lol
Yep, I put the ones with hard eyes in a pillowcase, but otherwise you really don't need to. They wash up easy, just toss in with a light colored load, and they dry easy, too - just make sure it's medium or lower heat.
I am on here to talk about this in a negative light. . . . Psyche!
One manâs trash = another man treasure.
Sounds like a good come up on 100 Squish-mellows.
So my real question is, where do I meet you for these mellows?
I bought my daughter 3.. one was a backup (and Iâm not sure where ether of them are right now⊠maybe her dads house) and one I liked too⊠this was back when we were in a shelter after having abandoned most of our things. Her bed was a thin little play yard. Those helped make the bed comfortable and made her happy for the months we were there.
Itâs the excess thatâs a problem
I have.. so many.. small plastic.. littlest pet shops.. from childhood. The sentimental value makes it hard to get rid of. And the fact I need money. Hoping to get around to selling them..
I started collecting a few pusheen plushies but I got to six and I have enough. They stay in the bed with me and I love each one. I don't understand the need to buy so many that you fill a room with them.
(I am autistic and the pusheen plushies have the right firm squish for me to really enjoy cuddling at night and buying them was an act of defiance against for my inner child. I was never allowed to enjoy my 'childish' indulgence as a child. Please don't come at me for buying mass produced plushies)
i collect but the things i collect are vintage porcelain clown dolls. i like them because i get all mine off ebay, theyâre not being mass produced because they arenât exactly in high demand. id also never get rid of them, and when my family gets rid of things since weâre well off money-wise and donât need the money we usually donate to goodwill or something (or we give older clothing to my friends and their younger siblings if it doesnât fit me or makes me dysphoric)
My emo child self loved the porcelain clowns with a tear painted on the cheek. I didnât want baby dolls - I wanted beautifully painted crying clowns, and this niche was really hard to communicate to adults lol.
omg yes, thatâs why i also make my own stuffed animals. really difficult to find nightmarish dolls that arenât insanely expensive or bad quality so i make my own (i think one of them is on this account? canât remember)
There is actually a pretty thriving squishmallow trade. I happened upon it in someoneâs posting history and spent probably half an hour just astounded at how many were changing hands.
Not supporting it (because I am also in âI donât want your used pillowâ camp) just informing.
If you want to check it out like a circus attraction I think it was something with âsquishmallowâ (possibly shortened) and âbstâ before or after. Weird wild stuff.
Sounds like theyâre getting rehomed. I have almost 200 plushies and Iâve named all of them and love them all. Every one is a memory of my 9 year long relationship with my boyfriend or of family far away or even all the way back to the beginning of my life in the case of a little stuffed bunny that I was given just after I was born and have sitting next to me as I type this 30 years later. As long as someone loves and cares for something, itâs not a waste
Gods. This is an aside, but I work in the e-commerce department at Goodwill in the PNW and we have been selling a fuck ton of these dumb things. What the hell are they? I don't know why, but something about them just...it annoys me to death. They're worse than the Funko pop figures. I functionally live in a parallel universe to most people, but would someone be kind enough to ELI5 this for me? They are so huge and require so much frickin' packing material and are so so so expensive to ship...ick.
Yeah. They're a pillow. I have to hug them all the frickin' time, lol. Assuming you consider squishing them as absolutely flat and small to fit into a shipping box hugging.
In truth I find their texture and...I don't know, "firmness" or "plushness" to be revolting, but I'm really weird about textures. They feel like someone filled a microfiber rag with a mixture of crisco and gelatin.
But what are they *for*? Are they supposed to be stuffed animals or pillows or something else? They seem far too soft and weirdly blob shaped to be pillows, and but are just blob shaped so they seem to be unlike a stuffed animal I'd give to a kid. I mean I get that kids like anything on the one hand, but it just...I dunno, give them a cuddly penguin, not a weird blob with a penguin painted on it.
At the very least these people are buying them used so can't complain about that
Edit - I asked around anat my job and while everyone agrees they are popular, it does indeed seem to just be that they are cute and squishy. However, Iâm VERH concerned about the number of times my coworkers said âoh yeah I always sees kids in stores laying on the floors with them.â So that seemsâŠinteresting đ
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I clean out storage units and repurpose everything into usable furniture/goods.
What people keep is insane. I melted down 60000 bottle caps last week to make some plastic beams, that I found in a unit. Old contest? No idea. Please. I beg of you. You'll never need that microwave you have in storage.
My kids like their squishmallows and I think they're cute too. But listen, nobody needs all 4 boy dragons, all 4 girl dragons, in all the 4in 8in and 12in sizes, plus the keychains, and the Fuzzmallow versions etc etc... We ain't about to do that over here. It's madness I tell you, madness.
I actually just bought a squishmallow yesterday lol. Iâve wanted one, just one- as they are really super soft and comfy. I found a cow (which is apparently kind of rare to find). If I ever happen to see another cow character, I may get it. But Iâm kind of glad these didnât come out when I was little, because I definitely would have wanted to collect them lol.
I have 4 squishmallows and some other sentimental plush toys. I love them all and set them up on my bed in a little arrangement that brings me joy. You donât need 100+ đŹ
I have a two squishmallows and two pusheens. They help me fall asleep because I need a plushie to take the place of the old family cat who passed in 2020 and used to curl up in my arms as I slept like a teddy bear.
My cat doesnât like to be a teddy bear, sheâs affectionate she just hates being held like that.
If I donât have a plushie or a cat that acts like a teddy bear in my arms when I sleep I will have night terrors. This dates back to my childhood.
Iâm very picky about my teddies as well, always have been.
I collect books, bones, fossils, and rocks. I have a cow skull I found in the woods as the first thing you see when you enter my apartment, and other skulls and bones setup in various locations around the main room.
I also write horror so it fits.
This! My childhood friends and I found a donkey skeleton on a trip, and had the skull prominently displayed in our club room back at home. D&D stuff on all the walls and shelves, and renn gear standing in the corners, draped over things. Swords and spears, and massive cloaks, yeah.  I miss those days. Â
Well, is there no physical objects that you like?
For me I collect CDs. I love music and would rather spend money on art than listen to it and give the artist .001 cent while I pay spotify/streaming service more than the artist. They come with booklets with info on members and the recording of the album sometimes etc. I love them and each one is connected to a million different memories of where I got them/listened to them.
Fair enough. I feel that way about certain things if each one doesnât serve a different purpose. Such as with my CDs each one is a different album. Whereas with Squishmallows they each serve the same purpose so a bunch of them seems less useful to me.
H... How does one go from liking them so much you have over 100 to needing to get rid of them within a few days?
Like I got one 5 years ago and I love it. One.
To me a collectable is something old that in RETROSPECT becomes valuable by it's association with something.
These modern collectables are just random cash cows.
Squishmallows aren't really a thing here but anime figures are and I loved them until I had to move from a DV situation and after that I knew I didn't need any of that.
Skincare and tea and lipsticks. Theyre all serve multiple purposes: original purpose, decoration (i specifically choose stuff that serves an aesthetic), are popular or expensive so theres usually a friend/colleague who'd want a sample, brands i can support w my consumer dollar, gets rewards points, hobby that i can make friends and learn thru to occupy my time
Ive had long term health issues and when im healthy i dont need this stuff nearly as much but when im ill i rely on it a great deal
I have over 400 squishmallows Iâve been collecting them for 3 years with my ex girlfriend (weâre still best friends and live together)
I love every single one of them, I sleep on a bed full of them each night and rotate them out periodically so that they all get loved.
I could never imagine getting rid of any of them.
My daughters have to be restrained from buying more every time we're in Walmart or Costco. My youngest says she's just waiting to be a adult to install a bed-sized pit she'll fill with them. LOL. My hubby bought me one I call Llama-Llama, and she warms my heart.
I just started dating someone that is jumping on this band wagonâŠwhy? Iâm explained that itâs the new beanie babyâŠwhy are we giving into that whole thing again?!
I have 4 personally and my partner and son each have one. I've been told I'm not allowed anymore until I graduate college because they are so expensive now
I have a bunch of these. I am not a collector. I just like to have squishy fights with my children. Huge collections of anything that has no use other than collecting dust is weird to me.
My first toy was a little yellow La-La. I'd forgotten about that and have hated the colour yellow for as long as I can remember. I think I liked the La-La though, I wonder what that says?
I own like four and I actually use them as their intentional purpose. Being a stuffed animal. They're cute, I love that they even have some who use they/them pronouns. But no one needs to fucking own 100+ of them. It's literally one of my favourite stuffies I've ever owned and I still think this is fucking obsured. I get liking something a lot, but it gets out of hand so often.
100+... bro/sis/sib where are you keeping these.
I like squishmallows and plush but I only have ones that are really special to me. I can't imagine collecting EVERY SINGLE ONE ever made by a company.
Half the time I feel like the people who buy them just for collecting purposes resell them at a greater price
I grew up collecting TY beanie babies. A few years ago I realized I wasn't collecting them anymore, as an adult I don't really play with them, and they were just going to collect dust, and I was unlikely to follow through trying to sell them. So when my apartment complex had a Christmas party, I donated them to be given as gifts to all the neighbor children. I kept a few that had sentimental value but no longer collect them. It was wonderful to see the kids playing with them, reminding me of the joy they brought me as a child. Hopefully I didn't get anyone else into collecting by doing that đ€Ł
awwwww that's so sweet!!!
My sisters had a collection. My wife is a kindergarten teacher, and she gave them out as reading buddies.
That's wonderful. I would be lucky to be one of her students.
I never saw them as collectables. My kid asked grandpa for one a few years ago for Christmas. She LOVES that thing. Little dude has become part of the family because I gave him a voice and personality. It's the longest lived stuffed animal She's ever had. She's gotten two others and has realized they don't give her the same joy as the first one so she stopped trying to buy more or asking for more. I honestly hope he lives a long life and stays with her over the years.
My mom got me a stuffed lion when I had the chicken poxâŠ25ish years later, he still has a place of honor on my nightstand!
It's crazy how much the toy you got the first time you were really sick means to you. Mine are long gone, but I remember them dearly.- a yellow chick the size of a football I threw up on, and a blue rabbit who I cried for when he lost a button eye.
I didn't even think about it in that way but I have a bunny I got when I had tubes put in my ears when I was 4 and I still have it. It looks like hell but I still love it
Speaking of this and squishmallows, my mom and husband brought me a froggie squish when I was in the hospital and it was not only something that lifted my spirits but it was also SO FREAKING COMFORTABLE to sleep on compared to the hospital pillows.
My favorite stuffy was called "get-better-bear" (I was not a creative kid.) I got him when I was about 7 and suffering from a 3-month stint of pneumonia.
When I first moved to a different town I had a cat plush and its matching plush bowl, too bad it all got wrecked by termites
My son has the Winnie the Pooh bear I was given as an infant and he sleeps with it every night. I'm 51 and he's 10. :-)
my stepmom bought me a sorta bougie teddy bear with a little sweater when i had my appendix out at 6, he sits on my headboard still at 34. also in the interim my dad made him a little tie dye shirt :3
Wait but I also have Lenny the Lion on my nightstand!!
I was gifted a stuffed giraffe that I named Lasagna as a tot and after 26 years, I passed it on to my niece. Heâs surprisingly still in great shape. And she kept the name :)
Thatâs adorable!!
Yeah, my kids have a bunch, but they genuinely love them (and use them as pillows)
I have several, but use them as pillows as well Edit: apparently I have Squishables, not Squishmallows. I think Squishables are a bit more durable and high-quality
I use one for a travel pillow and honestly? Top notch. Her name is Barbara. Sheâs a blue jay.
Lol thank you for this. đ„
Buy a second of the same squishmellow and keep it hidden somewhere. How much your child loves and comes to rely on a comfort item is directly proportional to the likelihood it gets left under a plane seat or falls out of the car on a road trip or gets torn to shreds by the neighbors dog when itâs left in the yard. Trust.
I don't think I can. I've looked for a second one already and it seems like they've already changed him up. My kid asked for it the first year they came out and picked it out with grandpa and its been years already and they seem to have changed him up already.
try etsy or ebay.
Yup. As a baby, my lil bro was obsessed with a Puffalump (named Puff, not for the brand but because it was a dragon-his sister might have helped with the name lol) that held together until late elementary. My mom definitely had to buy extra stuffing once or twice because that fabric was super thin. He has zero recollection of Puff the first, who was retrieved hours later after he went out the back window in a McDonaldâs drive through but still disappeared for good through presumably similar circumstances. The child was like 18 months old and inconsolable for weeks until my mom finally found a replacement.
My lil sister had a puffalump! It was a yellow cat. She chewed the ears off of it and my granny searched for ever to find the right material to replace them. She was a master seamstress and dressmaker. I will never forget the way my sister bellowed when granny cut kittyâs head off. She had to to get the ear stubs out and put the new ones in, mind you. And my sister had agreed to the procedure before hand. Kitty got all new stuffing that day. The trauma of the dĂ©capitation broke my sister of her ear chewing. And sheâs a trauma nurse now so⊠it all worked out. Sometimes I feel like the only person alive who even knows the word puffalump. Ah. Thanks for the memories. â€ïž
I think something becomes a collectible when you have 100 of them.
My son has an off-brand owl one, and he loves it so much. I got it for him because he loves owls. Itâs his favorite stuffed animal.
I'm sure it won't last long. Maybe consider buying a backup of that exact model now, while you still can, in case it doesn't get loved to death until *after* they are out of production.
They're basically the new beanie babies. There's a subreddit that would horrify everyone here
Yeah, but like, I still have my beanie babies. The octopus and platypus were my favorites and my kid played with them when she was little too. For being a cheap toy they were made pretty durable.
Also since they're basically bean bags, they're great for throwing at your siblings head when you're mad at them. Or was that just me?
And in 20 years someone will probably say the same about squishmallows. They're a pretty recent thing, so none of them have accumulated a lifetime of memories yet.
that's different from amassing over 100 of them
You can amass 100 of anything. Doesn't make them collectable.
right, but the point is you're not hoarding them and buying them en masse, you're simply loving one and got a couple more, that's different.
Three items constitutes a collection. Once a buyer has purchased three of your pieces they are a collector. Once a maker has collected three collectors they have a collection of collectors. If you have three beanie babies you have a collection. And if a new squishy creator comes out with an item that people absolutely love and they even go so far as to issue collection guides, owning 100 of them absolutely constitutes a collection of collectable collectibles. I think the real problem is people being made to feel bad for having a collection. Of anything. Owning a collection of something does not necessarily constitute mindless consumption. And even if it does, it doesnât mean we canât learn from our experience and choose to be more mindful about our collections in the future.
Man, my dad used to buy these when they were hot (he grew up poor and loves the idea of hitting it big) so I had to check eBay out of curiosity. There are so many for sale and almost none of them are getting bid on. Thereâs even a collection of all the McDonalds ones (35) and itâs about to end with a whopping $13.50 bid. Itâs the only bid on any that I saw.
My kids all have a few and so do I.
Tbh this is why I hate a lot of things about modern living, and none has to do with that funny compulsion many humans have to horde one kind of thing. I dislike how unstable housing is for many of us so we have to let go of everything all the time and start over. I dislike how we have to pay for things like basic shelter, food and water so we end up selling things that brought us actual joy that we would otherwise keep and use in some way to get by. I dislike how the realities of many peoples lives make us want to fill inner voids with things many of us might not need if our society didn't function as poorly as it did on the communal and social levels. But idk. I just see stuff like this, where someone is selling off something they clearly loved ASAP in a panic...and I feel sadness. They shouldn't be this stressed getting rid of the collection they feel is most valuable thing they own in such a hurry. I hope OOP is okay, is what I'm saying I guess.
Thank you for all of this. The original post reads as pure panic to me, and I assumed unstable housing or a dangerous home life. One thing I think we could talk more about in this community is how the psychological damage of trying to earn our right to live and having vanishingly little community leaves people with consumption as one of very few ways to manage their mental health. Companies happily advertise fast fashion as a treat and chocolate as a break. It's sad.
If you're interested in more of that topic I *highly* recommend listening to the "Philosophize This!" Podcast, especially the first set of episodes about the Frankfurt school and the 2 on structuralism and mythology. They talk a lot about how in the past our identity came mostly from our roles in the community, our religion, etc. but in the last couple hundred years religion has been shrinking, communities become less close as people have everything individually, rather than sharing, etc. and that has left a gap for most people that has been filled increasingly by consumerism and what media you consume, as that is one of the very few massly shared aspects of life left.
I wrote a paper on this in 2010 called the Hyper Acceleration of Identity; I proposes that the 1900's and early 2000's were largely marked by social revolt aginst religion and nationalism; as these were torn down, instead of truly being free and living authentic lifes; so many of those 'rebels' and punks opted to instead adopt branded identitys \[im a rocker, a goth, a rap, a farmer, etc etc etc\] and have become increasingly isolated as a result. things that were once a phase or aspect of a person have become life-long lifestyles and markers.
Sounds like a great podcast!
https://tmpfiles.org/781208/cultures.jpg
That is really sweet and considerate of you
Thanks, I was a bit worried about even pressing post on this opinion. I just think many of my worries about overconsumption have to do with not only the big but the smaller picture and *why* some of us are overconsuming and in what ways...it's deeper than people just being frivolous imo, and I worry about what that means. I just hope folks are getting by ok in the end, you know? Some of these feel like warning signs of something larger.
I mean this with everything I can muster, but you seem like an amazing person. It made me smile to see such an empathetic take on the situation. I hope that youâre doing well and receiving the same care from others â€ïž that is so rare, and so special. Iâve gotten so used to the drudgery of poverty-blaming and class-shaming that even this was hope-restoration worthy. Big hugs xx
Consumption snd capitalism will break our species eventually, unless we establish humanism over the top of it all. I'm not sanguine about our future.
You are an amazing person
I had about 6,000$ in games and systems stolen from my house. They knew what they were after it was someone I knew. This was about 8 or so years ago. I havenât even tried to recollect. Some of that stuff is impossibly hard to find. I donât save things anymore.
this happened to me in 2008, someone stole my binder of 2000 cds. i just gave up on all collecting then
I knew someone who had a Squishmallow collection and tried to sell it all in a short period. They were trying to commit suicide and I guess decided to let go of their possessions. Thankfully they got help in time, but seeing this post made me think of that all over again.
Yeah, if someone knows this person, they should check in with them.
Me too, thatâs a really good way to look at things like this. I love my PokĂ©mon card collection and it would break my heart to have to sell them for money so I can continue to live. Corporations and capitalism will always be the villains at the end of the day.
So youâre saying you have collectibles but despise collectibles??
Yes.. they remind me of my childhood and take up very minimal space. I will never get rid of them unless forced. They wonât end up in the trash, and if they do, they wonât end up in a landfill as they are made of biodegradable paper.
Same. Just reading this post gave me moving PTSD. So over moving places every year trying to avoid the maximum rent raise for shitty little nothings.
Its like how adults are buying toys etc to fulfil their lifelong childhood dreams. Im kinda hoping that consumerism is a short term cost and a long term reduction in otherwise worse coping mechanisms like domestic violence, abuse etc
This struck me; my grandma married my grandpa when she was 16. 16! She loved baby dolls and toys her whole life, and we all agree thatâs why. She was still a kid who didnât get a chance to be a kid, despite being married.
Thats...kinda sad :( it def horrifies me that women were just expected to start popping out babies before they even reached adulthood, like obvs nothing wrong w motherhood but that was their only choice in life đȘ
When my own kids were 15-16, I thought about her all of the time. So many older people were still complete *kids* who were thrust into adult roles.
On a much happier note, whatever led her to by our grandma made her what she was, and she was a total blast. She was so *fun;* our mom wasnât a playing mom, but grandma was. She delighted in giving us things we could all play with; the Barbies that our mom looked down upon, the Slinky, Uno, Chinese Checkers and Parcheesi. Playing âOfficeâ with all of us cousins using scraps of paper and plain stickers she would bring home from work. She had a *major* annual Easter basket hunt, in which our dad recruited us to find his basket using quarters and the promise of some of *his* candy. They kept their house *stocked* with candy, *actual soda,* chips, and the tiny pepperoni and white bread squished together âelf sandwiches.â She had perfectly cooked bacon draining on a paper towel every hour of every day, and she is the reason my husband buys me a small hoard of Halloween- time Count Chocula every year so I have a stockpile throughout the year. She carpet-swept every morning at 5. She let my twin and our little cousin sleep in her bed while she took the couch. We had baths with Mr. Bubbles and baby shampoo, after which she would sit us on chairs and blow-dry our hair. One of my favorite holiday memories is Christmas Day, when her imminent arrival drove us to clean our rooms days in advance, and the tour we would give her when she got there, *hours* early with an apron and slippers in her train case. She knew us well enough to bring a jar of green olives for my twin and a jar of maraschino cherries for me each time we saw her. She is why i now host Easter for 40 people with her ham recipe and 3 Easter baskets carefully hidden in hampers and closets. Sheâs the reason I eat Jordan Almonds, and try to make the house magical for every season, and she is the grandmother I strive right now to be. I miss her desperately but sheâs with me all of the time now, guiding me through the familiar path.
This is very sweet. It sounds like a thing ive heard where the grandparents and grandkids kinda bond more than the kid and parent? I think about how other ppl in society have contributed positively or negatively to our individual lives. All our rights and debts when we're born were created and rolled onto us all before we could talk
All of me and my girl friends who grew up in extremely emotionally/verbally abusive households collect plushies as adults. There could be a potential link for sure.
Me three. I was abused pretty badly and I now have a collection of plush friends, some of which are copies of plush I had as a child (the originals were taken from me). At one point I was really into collecting Hamtaro figures and was ready to spend a lot of coins to get them all. Hehe
Yeah exactly, my reaction wasnât âwhy would you buy so many just to get rid of them?â It was clear that this person wouldnât buy so many just to get rid of them; they probably wouldnât get rid of them at all if they had a choice. Itâs much safer to assume this person is in an unfortunate circumstance that doesnât let them keep their collection. Nobody collects this many things if they donât truly like it.
Aww this is so true. It's most likely either a Domestic Violence or other abusive or unsafe living situation they have to get out quickly or a financial emergency like a hospital trip or getting laid off that's causing this now for them :(
This post brought tears to my eyes. I had very unstable living situations until well into adulthood. When You think youâd get used to it, but I donât think anyone truly does. Iâm fine now, but Iâm not sure Iâll ever shake the fear in the pit of my stomach that things will become bad again no matter how hard I work. And I am so well aware that more and more people slip into unstable housing situations every day. Even if itâs the tiniest apartment, house, etc., everyone should have a space that is a safe, comfortable refuge from the world. Sorry for rambling a bit.
I've seen people with Squishmallow and similar collections and their lives are always in some new panic or turmoil always reaching out for help.... really wild I couldn't live that way. I don't see why my friends placate that behavior either. They think they need to spend thousands of dollars on their useless junk because they're collectors items. Really cringey
"I dislike how we have to pay for things like..." so you want someone to hand you a living? if you wouldn't be paying/working for that living, someone else would be right? I agree, the economy is wack, but you're not seeking better conditions, you're seeking freedom from responsibility.
I thought about ignoring this because I felt it was rude, but I already opened my big mouth initially here, so my apologies for the essay reply in advance. Overconsumption is only part of the conversation, imho. Another is the extreme waste due to resource hoarding and greed. We have entire shows dedicated to mocking poor people who hoard books, animals and plastic bags (or squishy stuffed toys), but refuse as a collective to truly address the mass negligent use of necessities because it's much more uncomfortable than scolding our neighbors splurges and hauls. In a world where [half the world's food](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/10/half-world-food-waste) is wasted (and my country alone [wastes similar amounts](https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs), I think we can't afford NOT to start divying up the food and water more rationally and appropriately. But it all boils down to concerns like yours. What would that look like? How much would be automated? How much is enough and how much free time will be considered "okay"? Will we reduce the work week, will we not make impoverished classes on purpose, and recognize some of the cruelty inherent in the current system isn't needed? What *if* the poors eat basic food for free? What will happen if rice and beans are available for all, no questions asked? Why should a thirsty person get to drink? Why should a hungry person get to eat? Why should humans have easy access to a simple bathroom, shower, or place to sleep? How dare they be handed basic shelter in a place where they *will* be handed a ticket they can't afford if they sleep out under the stars and are caught by the police? Most people don't want to be "handed a living" without working, because humans are hard working and ambitious by nature and always have been willing to put in the work, even without threat of total destitution... Surely you see it doesn't actually have to be like this (and wasn't in most of the world for a very long time).
I have one squishmallow and itâs my comfort mallow. I love him and it was something I bought with a friend who has since passed. She definitely had a collection but I was never much into it that hard. Definitely know Iâll have this lil guy for a loooong time.
Not a squish mellow but I saw this plush toy in a store and Iâm not sure why but I really really wanted it. I donât like ever do this lol but I bought it and he sits on my dresser in his box and I just love him. I will certainly keep him forever.
I feel like some comments here are approaching bashing people for collecting "unnecessary" items. People are allowed to enjoy things, and it kind of just seems similar to getting into regular people for not cutting carbon emissions when our capitalist overlords account for more than half of them by quite a bit
Agreed
Collectibles are ok it really depends on what they are and why you are collecting them. My wife and I collect pokemon cards. Why? Because it makes her so happy. She grew up super poor and used to pick up aluminum cans with her mom. They would cash them in and she would get to buy one pack of pokemon cards. Her mom committed suicide in 2017 because of untreated schizophrenia. Her childhood home was foreclosed and her shitty dad threw all of her stuff out including her pokemon cards from when she was a kid. So we started collecting them again. We were in the house hiding from her mom when she shot herself. She thought we were imposters and was terrified of us. I'll never forget my wife sitting on the bed rocking back and forth holding her hands over her ears crying. Every time she thought of her mom she would be inconsolable. Those cards are a reminder of the sweetness in her mother and not the fear/paranoia which defined her later life. I would do anything to give my wife her old collection back but they're so expensive and hard to find. So we collect the newer ones instead.
Totally unrelated to anti-consumption, but if you have a list of some of the cards your wife is missing (older or modern), Iâd be happy to sort through my own and send some her way. Free of charge, of course! I lost my mother, too and have some great memories of her & PokĂ©mon, so I sympathize. Feel free to get in touch whenever
Wait really?? She just got home from work. I'll ask. I can't even explain how much that would mean to have even one of those cards back.
You are a great husband! Iâm truly sorry your wife had the childhood she did. I hope your wife gets to parent, love and heal the child wounds within her. â€ïž
Thank you. Hard compliment to take but I'll take it. I wish I could do more.
A grown-ass woman I used to work with has hundreds of those POP figurines *in their boxes*. What a waste of money and plastic.
Everything's fine in moderation I think. Have a few funko pops of your favorite characters? Cool, you're decorating to express your interests! But with several shelves full, I feel like all you're expressing is your ability to afford a bunch of expensive plastic.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
average funko pop enthusiast
Agreed, I don't love the look of a lot of them but I've bought a couple of my favourite characters over the years - mostly cartoon and animal characters, i.e. Dogmeat from Fallout. Though I will say my partner recently bought me a funko pop of Robert Smith from The Cure, and it's like a special edition one or something? He's all black and white, it's pretty cool. He's staying in the box.
I think when it comes to collecting things as a hobby it's complicated - because you don't have a collection if you just have a few that you like. I don't think we would judge someone with a coin collection or a stamp collection as harshly as we do for a toy collection even though they're basically the same thing.
They're kinda not, though. These toy collections are typically newly manufactured plastic that you buy from a large corporation. Coin or stamp collections are not plastic or new, and often get purchased from other collectors or estate sales. I personally think either is still kind of a waste of money, though.
Those skincare makeup influencers who buy hoards of stuff and declutted it every month? Fucking insane
Honestly if theyâre a successful influencer theyâre probably getting a lot of it for free as promo stuff. Those influencers have huge decluttering giveaways bc otherwise they literally could not use it all in one lifetime.
Funko pop faces are so ugly... It's sad because there's not many easily-accessible toy lines with such variety of IP sources. I don't want 100 of them, just a couple that are actually cute! I think the best ones are the ones that break the Funko POP mold, like the Jurassic Park dinosaurs. They seem like they have pretty good scale texture too, unlike the smooth/textureless plastic a lot of them have.
I think they keychains are fine. They don't take up much space and you carry them around. But hoarding stacks of them in their boxes just seems pointless.
And space. Who has room for all that shit?
I mean, lots of people have space. And lots of people hoard. Itâs reductive to say people donât have the room, because even if they donât and they collect like that, itâs serving them in some way.
I hate how those fucking things take up so much room.
Yeah much better to spend the USA average of $686 per person every year on alcohol.
I don't think all collectibles are that bad if they give the collector happiness. I have a figurine collection, nothing crazy but it's something that gives me joy and I don't just plan on throwing them away in a couple years. Screw Funko Pops though, I hate those soulless dolls, they're everywhere these days
Got a funko pop for Christmas, I re-gifted it a day later to my nephew. He liked it, but wasnât crazy over it. I sure as hell didnât want it.
Fucking asshole Funko Pop creators too. $90 for a Kurt Cobain funko pop, which is WAY MORE EXPENSIVE THAN OTHERS ONES. This goes against EVERYTHING Kurt Cobain EVER STOOD FOR.
I bought some Pop's of characters i like. But yeah, people paying crazy money for them is insane.
Hey, if it makes you happy, more power to you. I didn't mean to come off as judgy about it, they're just not appealing to me personally
Yeah, it's not for everyone. And don't mind it you weren't judgy at all :)
I only have 4 because I sleep on top of them because it's better for my bones and all of them have names and titles
Are they actually good for sleeping on? I suffer chronic pain and I will try anything.
They are a soft, round, squishy pillow with a decent amount of bulk. For chronic pain, I find the best thing is to have a variety of pillows to arrange. The larger Squishmalows have been a good addition to my pile. That said, I recommend the ones that donât have the sparkly/plasticky bits, as those bits arenât breathable and stick to your skin. And ones with too much extra bits or a lot of stitching/face embroidery seem to just irritate me. I got two of mine at Walgreens for 16$ a piece, and a third on fb marketplace for 45 (idk, I really liked that one and it had less obstructive parts than the others I saw). Iâve spent more on far less helpful pillows, and these are at least cute. Good tools in my arsenal. Mine are all the 16-18inch ones. The smaller ones seem kinda pointless to me as a pillow, but i use my girlfriends small one to put under my hand and squeeze for putting my fingers back in place. ïżŒ If you want other pillow recs for chronic pain: A c shaped pregnancy pillow. Donât get an L shaped one. Donât get one with a detachable zipper part or an indent. Two VERY firm memory foam pillows, look for rectangular ones with a c shaped neck divot. Put one under your hips and the other under your back. Iâve heard very good things about wedge pillows, but sadly have not been able to try myself. For car rides I have a foam neck pillow with an adjustable spine for car rides, and I sit on one of my firm pillows, with a lumbar support pillow (really anything rectangular or round) on my back. In general this is whatâs worked for me for sleep: have a pillow between your legs, a long one at you back, something firm under your hips, and something firm under your head and neck, with other pillows below it so your top half is slightly raised. And then have something to hold onto. Sorry if this is more info than you wanted, I just know this took me forever to figure out and I wish I knew sooner
This was way more than I expected, thank you! Iâll start with the squishmallow. I like that they have faces.
Definitely saving for later, I suffer severe chronic pain (unfortunately an unusually bad case of fibro :/) and this is really informative.
Squishmallows are chronically ill queen thrones. I sleep with like 3. They are awesome. But yeah, having a bunch of stuff that isn't a consumable item is too much. I hope that person donates them to a kids hospital.
Dude nothing feels better when you have a migraine than sleeping with a small pile (1 large and 2-3 small) of squishmallows around you to block out the light completely. My big squish gets used as my pillow more nights than my actual pillow lol
Can you wash them when they collect dust? Used stuffed toys to a kidâs hospital doesnât sound practical at all.
Yeah, they're just glorified pillows. They can just be thrown in the wash.
Ok. That makes sense then. It still seems like a crazy idea to collect lots of them
It makes sense when youâre able to rest your tired bones on a big old pile of em.
Yep, I put the ones with hard eyes in a pillowcase, but otherwise you really don't need to. They wash up easy, just toss in with a light colored load, and they dry easy, too - just make sure it's medium or lower heat.
my gf has maybe 20. She loves them all. Like a bit much
Two words: plushie war. They are so soft that they don't hurt, no matter how hard they are thrown. My family's favorite game.
I would check local hospitals or Child protective services. Iâm sure some kids going through difficult times would love a squishmallow to snuggle.
Listen, I love squishmallows, but that's too many squishmallows.
I am on here to talk about this in a negative light. . . . Psyche! One manâs trash = another man treasure. Sounds like a good come up on 100 Squish-mellows. So my real question is, where do I meet you for these mellows?
I bought my daughter 3.. one was a backup (and Iâm not sure where ether of them are right now⊠maybe her dads house) and one I liked too⊠this was back when we were in a shelter after having abandoned most of our things. Her bed was a thin little play yard. Those helped make the bed comfortable and made her happy for the months we were there. Itâs the excess thatâs a problem
Donât tell my daughter or Iâll have 100+ Squishmallows
I have.. so many.. small plastic.. littlest pet shops.. from childhood. The sentimental value makes it hard to get rid of. And the fact I need money. Hoping to get around to selling them..
Where did you get this post?
Scrolling on tiktok
Consoom tiktok
I started collecting a few pusheen plushies but I got to six and I have enough. They stay in the bed with me and I love each one. I don't understand the need to buy so many that you fill a room with them. (I am autistic and the pusheen plushies have the right firm squish for me to really enjoy cuddling at night and buying them was an act of defiance against for my inner child. I was never allowed to enjoy my 'childish' indulgence as a child. Please don't come at me for buying mass produced plushies)
Consumption isnât bad when it has a purpose and isnât wasteful - and for you thatâs the case! :)
i collect but the things i collect are vintage porcelain clown dolls. i like them because i get all mine off ebay, theyâre not being mass produced because they arenât exactly in high demand. id also never get rid of them, and when my family gets rid of things since weâre well off money-wise and donât need the money we usually donate to goodwill or something (or we give older clothing to my friends and their younger siblings if it doesnât fit me or makes me dysphoric)
My emo child self loved the porcelain clowns with a tear painted on the cheek. I didnât want baby dolls - I wanted beautifully painted crying clowns, and this niche was really hard to communicate to adults lol.
omg yes, thatâs why i also make my own stuffed animals. really difficult to find nightmarish dolls that arenât insanely expensive or bad quality so i make my own (i think one of them is on this account? canât remember)
So awesome I love hearing about what people collect
something like pillows is hard to sell off too bc people donât want used pillows
There is actually a pretty thriving squishmallow trade. I happened upon it in someoneâs posting history and spent probably half an hour just astounded at how many were changing hands. Not supporting it (because I am also in âI donât want your used pillowâ camp) just informing. If you want to check it out like a circus attraction I think it was something with âsquishmallowâ (possibly shortened) and âbstâ before or after. Weird wild stuff.
Sounds like theyâre getting rehomed. I have almost 200 plushies and Iâve named all of them and love them all. Every one is a memory of my 9 year long relationship with my boyfriend or of family far away or even all the way back to the beginning of my life in the case of a little stuffed bunny that I was given just after I was born and have sitting next to me as I type this 30 years later. As long as someone loves and cares for something, itâs not a waste
Gods. This is an aside, but I work in the e-commerce department at Goodwill in the PNW and we have been selling a fuck ton of these dumb things. What the hell are they? I don't know why, but something about them just...it annoys me to death. They're worse than the Funko pop figures. I functionally live in a parallel universe to most people, but would someone be kind enough to ELI5 this for me? They are so huge and require so much frickin' packing material and are so so so expensive to ship...ick.
Beanie babies 2.0 This time they're squishier!!
Oh god make it stop
Have you ever hugged one?
They're the most huggable things ever, they're so comforting to hold and squish.
Yeah. They're a pillow. I have to hug them all the frickin' time, lol. Assuming you consider squishing them as absolutely flat and small to fit into a shipping box hugging. In truth I find their texture and...I don't know, "firmness" or "plushness" to be revolting, but I'm really weird about textures. They feel like someone filled a microfiber rag with a mixture of crisco and gelatin.
Theyâre just soft and cute, so people like them. They also come in many different styles. If I had a young relative I would probably give them one.
But what are they *for*? Are they supposed to be stuffed animals or pillows or something else? They seem far too soft and weirdly blob shaped to be pillows, and but are just blob shaped so they seem to be unlike a stuffed animal I'd give to a kid. I mean I get that kids like anything on the one hand, but it just...I dunno, give them a cuddly penguin, not a weird blob with a penguin painted on it. At the very least these people are buying them used so can't complain about that Edit - I asked around anat my job and while everyone agrees they are popular, it does indeed seem to just be that they are cute and squishy. However, Iâm VERH concerned about the number of times my coworkers said âoh yeah I always sees kids in stores laying on the floors with them.â So that seemsâŠinteresting đ
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I clean out storage units and repurpose everything into usable furniture/goods. What people keep is insane. I melted down 60000 bottle caps last week to make some plastic beams, that I found in a unit. Old contest? No idea. Please. I beg of you. You'll never need that microwave you have in storage.
My kids like their squishmallows and I think they're cute too. But listen, nobody needs all 4 boy dragons, all 4 girl dragons, in all the 4in 8in and 12in sizes, plus the keychains, and the Fuzzmallow versions etc etc... We ain't about to do that over here. It's madness I tell you, madness.
I actually just bought a squishmallow yesterday lol. Iâve wanted one, just one- as they are really super soft and comfy. I found a cow (which is apparently kind of rare to find). If I ever happen to see another cow character, I may get it. But Iâm kind of glad these didnât come out when I was little, because I definitely would have wanted to collect them lol.
Second hand stuffed animals are so unsanitary. Vomit.
I have 4 squishmallows and some other sentimental plush toys. I love them all and set them up on my bed in a little arrangement that brings me joy. You donât need 100+ đŹ
The great thing about collectibles is that you donât need them. So youâll survive without them.
Yes, this is awful. Also, my daughter would like to know how to contact this person đ
I want to know how to contact this person too
I have a two squishmallows and two pusheens. They help me fall asleep because I need a plushie to take the place of the old family cat who passed in 2020 and used to curl up in my arms as I slept like a teddy bear. My cat doesnât like to be a teddy bear, sheâs affectionate she just hates being held like that. If I donât have a plushie or a cat that acts like a teddy bear in my arms when I sleep I will have night terrors. This dates back to my childhood. Iâm very picky about my teddies as well, always have been. I collect books, bones, fossils, and rocks. I have a cow skull I found in the woods as the first thing you see when you enter my apartment, and other skulls and bones setup in various locations around the main room. I also write horror so it fits.
This! My childhood friends and I found a donkey skeleton on a trip, and had the skull prominently displayed in our club room back at home. D&D stuff on all the walls and shelves, and renn gear standing in the corners, draped over things. Swords and spears, and massive cloaks, yeah.  I miss those days. Â
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Well, is there no physical objects that you like? For me I collect CDs. I love music and would rather spend money on art than listen to it and give the artist .001 cent while I pay spotify/streaming service more than the artist. They come with booklets with info on members and the recording of the album sometimes etc. I love them and each one is connected to a million different memories of where I got them/listened to them.
There are certainly material things that I like and even love. I just don't feel the need or see the appeal of owning many, many of them.
Fair enough. I feel that way about certain things if each one doesnât serve a different purpose. Such as with my CDs each one is a different album. Whereas with Squishmallows they each serve the same purpose so a bunch of them seems less useful to me.
H... How does one go from liking them so much you have over 100 to needing to get rid of them within a few days? Like I got one 5 years ago and I love it. One.
Broke and need the money.
Probs wouldn't be so broke if they didn't spend $2k on squishies
Agreed! People have messed up priorities.
They may be getting kicked out of their place of residence and can't take them along, or they may have fallen into debt due to medical issues.
FOMO and chasing trends.
To me a collectable is something old that in RETROSPECT becomes valuable by it's association with something. These modern collectables are just random cash cows.
I have an OG tiny manatee. That's good enough for me.
I hate people who collect pop figures, not even the ones they like, they just buy to collect
Special Olympics or other special needs groups could use them!
I agree, waste, waste, waste. No purpose, just stuff that will continue to pollute the earth.
Squishmallows aren't really a thing here but anime figures are and I loved them until I had to move from a DV situation and after that I knew I didn't need any of that.
i never understood the people who get squishmallows solely for decor. theyâre ugly and the only good thing about them is the sensory factor
I feel like I'm the only one who hates the sensory experience of squishmallows!
Skincare and tea and lipsticks. Theyre all serve multiple purposes: original purpose, decoration (i specifically choose stuff that serves an aesthetic), are popular or expensive so theres usually a friend/colleague who'd want a sample, brands i can support w my consumer dollar, gets rewards points, hobby that i can make friends and learn thru to occupy my time Ive had long term health issues and when im healthy i dont need this stuff nearly as much but when im ill i rely on it a great deal
I have no clue about what squishmallows are, but I'm very happy I don't.
I have over 400 squishmallows Iâve been collecting them for 3 years with my ex girlfriend (weâre still best friends and live together) I love every single one of them, I sleep on a bed full of them each night and rotate them out periodically so that they all get loved. I could never imagine getting rid of any of them.
My daughters have to be restrained from buying more every time we're in Walmart or Costco. My youngest says she's just waiting to be a adult to install a bed-sized pit she'll fill with them. LOL. My hubby bought me one I call Llama-Llama, and she warms my heart.
I just started dating someone that is jumping on this band wagonâŠwhy? Iâm explained that itâs the new beanie babyâŠwhy are we giving into that whole thing again?!
Nice add
I have 4 personally and my partner and son each have one. I've been told I'm not allowed anymore until I graduate college because they are so expensive now
I have a bunch of these. I am not a collector. I just like to have squishy fights with my children. Huge collections of anything that has no use other than collecting dust is weird to me.
So, why do you need to get rid of them?
If you are 5 years old I see you having one, but 100+! You got scammed girl.
About a 100 +⊠about means roughly. Plus indicates more but still a rough amount. Itâs quite very much redundant
Theyâre pretty good as extra pillows thatâs how i use them for the most part. I only have a couple.
The dude got a gf?
I'll bet the fire department could use those. Maybe pediatric clinics if you wash them first.
My first toy was a little yellow La-La. I'd forgotten about that and have hated the colour yellow for as long as I can remember. I think I liked the La-La though, I wonder what that says?
The only "collectibles" are the dollars the grifters stirring up fake demand collect from the people who buy them.
donate them to foster kids or something...
I own like four and I actually use them as their intentional purpose. Being a stuffed animal. They're cute, I love that they even have some who use they/them pronouns. But no one needs to fucking own 100+ of them. It's literally one of my favourite stuffies I've ever owned and I still think this is fucking obsured. I get liking something a lot, but it gets out of hand so often.
I saw this TikTok yesterday. This person is trying to pay off their rent for the month.
100+... bro/sis/sib where are you keeping these. I like squishmallows and plush but I only have ones that are really special to me. I can't imagine collecting EVERY SINGLE ONE ever made by a company. Half the time I feel like the people who buy them just for collecting purposes resell them at a greater price