Hello, my name is Kirsty and I am a self-confessed hoarder. I am a great collector of stuff. I am many things, but one thing that I definitely am not is a minimalist. This is why I have absolutely no issue in picking up souvenirs when I’m travelling.

I have lots of souvenirs from my travels – and my family’s travels – when I was growing up, but I think that what I collect has changed over the years. One reason for this is that I just don’t have the same space to display souvenirs that I used to. Another reason is that I often travel hand luggage only so I have to be very careful about what I pick up.

Hoarder tip: Take the smallest luggage possible and it will limit the amount of stuff you can collect!

So what do I collect when I’m away? I have found that I tend to gravitate towards the same things – making it more of a collection than just stuff – although sometimes I will pick up something a little bit different if it’s particularly poignant to that adventure. The things I gravitate towards are magnets, pins, patches and pens. (what a shame there’s no way to make fridge magnets start with the letter p, that would’ve been some cracking alliteration…but then again I wouldn’t have been able to write this on my F day, hmmmm…)

Fridge Magnets

This collection started totally accidentally. I didn’t initially set out to collect fridge magnets wherever I went…until I realised that I had bought myself fridge magnets on each of my travels to date, and it just became my mission to continue to do so. This is quite a common collection amongst travellers, I learnt recently, and it’s probably because they’re small, light, easy to pack and easy to come by. Everywhere sells fridge magnets.

Pin Badges

More specifically, Hard Rock Cafe pin badges. This was a habit kickstarted by my Dad. I have garnered quite an impressive collection of pins over the past couple of years, and I really need to work out how I want to display them!

Patches

I would call these sew on badges, but most places refer to them as patches. While I do collect the Hard Rock patches (it is not an insignificant amount of my money that seems to end up in Hard Rock!) my collection is not exclusively HRC. I look for any patches that I can find from the places where I visit – patches are generally much harder to come by than the other souvenirs I collect. I display my patches on my camp blankets, a habit which will be familiar to many with a Guiding or Scouting background.

Pens

Pens are one of my favourite souvenirs not only for myself, but also to bring home for other people. Like fridge magnets they’re generally cheap, small, lightweight and easy to find but they have an added bonus which fridge magnets don’t (really) have – they’re super practical too.