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My LEGO obsession is taking over my life!

danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
edited February 2014 in Everything else LEGO
Hi folks, wanting to get the thoughts of others if you've felt this predicament.

I'm a very simple-living person. I used to collect DVDs until one day I realised that I never watched most of them and they were taking up way too much space. I've stopped buying DVDs and am slowly selling the ones I own.

Two years ago I decided to fulfill my boyhood dream of owning some Lego trains so I bought the current cargo and passenger trains... and from there my life has become an obsession with Lego.

I decided two train sets wasn't enough, so I started buying more and more City sets with the intention of setting up a City-themed layout.

Then I decided that the Star Wars sets looked too good to ignore so I started buying them too. ALL OF THEM. Anything I could get at a reasonable price from the last 5 years.

Then I got to the point where any new sets that came out, I HAD TO HAVE THEM ALL.

So now I have sets from City, Star Wars, Creator, Lone Ranger, LOTR, Hobbit, Monster Fighters, Marvel/DC, Cars... 286 in all, with many tens of thousands of dollars spent.

I even bought a bigger house so I would have enough room to put everything on display.

Lately I've been wondering if Lego really fits in with my desire to live an uncluttered life. When we packed up our house to move, three quarters of my personal stuff was Lego.

Has anyone else considered/tried to/successfully quit or cut down on their commitment to themes?

Comments

  • ACWWGal2011ACWWGal2011 Member Posts: 534
    Sounds like you need to get your collecting narrowed down to stuff your really want and cut out excess buying

    i realized last year that my buying was out of control so I decided this year to do my best to follow 3 goals to cut back excess buying while still getting stuff I need and here's how it's working for me:

    1) decide what sets/themes I really like and what I can pass on. So far, it's looking promising.

    2) get my collection organized. That I am currently working on at this time and have made some promising progress lately. I still need a few organizing containers down the line but so far so good.

    3) use bricklink to fill out areas in my collection that is lacking. I did an order this year that helped some areas but I still need to do another small order or 2.
    TheLoneTensorMasterBeefy
  • graphitegraphite Member Posts: 3,275
    I am currently packing to move and am realizing how ridiculous my last two years have been. With buying for me plus opening a Bricklink store with now 130k parts not including cmfs polys and sets. It is looking at this point that my Lego is going to be at least 1/3 of the 26ft Uhaul I am getting.
  • KiwiLegoMeisterKiwiLegoMeister Member Posts: 212
    only 130K parts???? peanuts!
    FollowsClosely
  • legomattlegomatt Member Posts: 2,543
    It is very easy to get caught up in the buzz that others feel for a theme, or set, or get wrapped up in the 'newness' of the next thing, and buy into it before realising you have little real lasting desire for it yourself - or simply nowhere to put it.

    If your collection is beginning to feel more like clutter than something which makes you smile, and is starting to stress you out, it does sound like a 'get back to basics' reappraisal of your favourite sets/displays/themes is in order.

    The key thing, as ACWWGal2011 above says, is focus on your core interests.
    Perhaps strip the collection down to what you really like about lego or a theme (displaying figs are a good way of keeping a theme without taking up space with the whole set - and figs can be displayed in a frame on the wall).

    Or just use your many bricks to build one amazing diorama, which sums that theme up, instead of having several sets spread across a surface.

    Needing to have ALL of something is certainly not helping you here.

    For example, Star Wars - none of us really need 4 renditions of an X-wing. Choose a few of your favourite ships to display, and use the parts of the rest to build something else. As long as you keep your Instruction booklets in a safe place, and parts organised, you can always peruse those booklets from time to time, and rebuild the odd set.

    Hope these few suggestions help.
    :o)

  • KiwiLegoMeisterKiwiLegoMeister Member Posts: 212
    edited February 2014
    You're in NZ, @danielnzlego . Roughly whereabouts? I'm a little north of Wellington.
    I quickly settled into only buying certain ranges. In particular, I excluded StarWars, and most City. But I buy what I like (and what my daughter likes - Friends, Disney, etc).
    And almost anything on clearance special (when that happens).
    My Lego Simpsons #71006 arrived last Friday!
  • drdavewatforddrdavewatford Administrator Posts: 6,754
    danielnzlego said:


    Lately I've been wondering if Lego really fits in with my desire to live an uncluttered life.

    In a word, no....

    ;-)

    D.
    SirKevbagsandheDanGPOldfanAdeelZubaircharlatan13
  • monkeyhangermonkeyhanger Member Posts: 3,169
    I don’t consider myself to have a ridiculous amount of Lego, but I am considering paring back a little myself.

    I only do O/T SW, and one of our bedrooms in the house is my own “mancave” with the main PC on a desk, a decent sized TV/Surround amp/Xbox360/Bluray set-up on a TV stand.

    On one wall (about 3.2m long, clear of the door) I have 2 x 3m runs of shelving and some units underneath, so around 10 linear metres of room to display stuff. Unless I want to plaster the other wall with shelves (which I don’t), something has to give. I really like my UCS models, but I also really like the minifigs. In 2 of my 6 UCS I have the best of both worlds (minifig scale UCS MF and IS). I have a Hoth Diarama (around 70 minifigs, motorised AT-AT, AT-ST, cannons, gun placements etc) and an Endor Diarama (around 60 minifigs, 2 x bunker combined, speeder bikes, trees AT-ST etc), taking up most of the shelf. The units are quite random in what is on them (recent Tattooine stuff, Slave I, Death Star (10188), UCS IS, UCS R2D2, UCS MF, UCS SSD). My UCS X-wing (10240) is perched on top of my printer oon the computer desk. It’s all getting a bit much.

    Should you pare it back or rotate displays? That is the question – I love it all! I can only see it getting worse with UCS Slave I and sandcrawler coming in 2014, as well as an ISD (depending on how it looks). I have already displaced my Tantative IV with the UCS B-wing and have just got a Jabba’s sail barge ready to be built and nowhere to put it – the Ewok village is tempting me when I can get 20% off it.

    Decisions, decisions…
  • MorkManMorkMan Member Posts: 916
    edited February 2014
    Some pictures of your dilemmas would be great. I've had the same problem and my solution was to buy only what I deem to be the essence do my hobby... Pieces that are iconic, not all from a collection. I don't need every Creator plane, car, helicopter, or house, but a nice sampling is OK. Sure, I get disappointed by not buying all the sets that came out, but I also allow myself to enjoy what I do have all that much more.
  • monkeyhangermonkeyhanger Member Posts: 3,169
    MorkMan said:

    Some pictures of your dilemmas would be great. I've had the same problem and my solution was to buy only what I deem to be the essence do my hobby... Pieces that are iconic, not all from a collection. I don't need every Creator plane, car, helicopter, or house, but a nice sampling is OK. Sure, I get disappointed by not buying all the sets that came out, but I also allow myself to enjoy what I do have all that much more.

    I pretty much consider all my stuff to be iconic, as it is OT SW, which is my issue – where to pare it back. I have Hoth and Endor – the 2 greatest land based battles of the OT, the Jabba Tattooine stuff, I have 2 system X-wings and a Y-wing dog fighting Vaders Tie and 2 regular ones (all hung from the ceiling by fishing line, so they’re not taking up shelf space). I suppose the least iconic ship I have is the B-wing, purely on screen time – it is my most recent UCS acquisition (ended up costing me £96 net when taking into consideration the £20 voucher promo that was on and a discount given for a battered box). My favourite 2 single items have to be my UCS IS and UCS MF, followed closely by my motorised AT-AT (more for how it walks like a drunk dog than build accuracy). The least favourite thing I bought was probably the home one/mon calamari set, although I still like it a lot.

    I think I’ll have to get my Slave I sold soon, to temporarily free up some space before the UCS version comes out.
  • kekekekekeke Member Posts: 33
    I only started collecting lego about 6 months ago, and my bf is already complaining I spent too much money on it. I also start feeling the house is looking packed(with all the display set...). So I did cut down my purchase since Christmas. As many suggested here, that you need to work out what themes you like the most, initially I bought sets from SW, Modular, landmarks and big licensed sets. Then I realised I prefer displaying the modular buildings. SW sets are fun to build but many UCS sets are way too big to be displayed.

    Also to me, if I have too much of something, I won't appreciate them. I enjoy playing with lego and I don't want to feel tired about it too soon. So that's another incentive of cutting down the purchase :P

    BTW, can anyone suggests a good way of storing all the empty lego boxes? currently I have all of them in the loft but they do take a lot of space!
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    edited February 2014
    MorkMan said:

    Some pictures of your dilemmas would be great.

    Ok so this is about 3/4 of my MISB sets.

    image
  • LegoboyLegoboy Member Posts: 8,827
    Well my friend, if you have 286 sets and that small pile is 3/4 of your MISBs, I would say you have done done very well with your building and its not such a waste that you have bought so much. I'm impressed.
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    I've made 88 sets so far, so the majority are still MISB awaiting my attention. The problem I'm having now is that some of these sets I've had for over a year and I'm finding myself not wanting to open them coz then they won't be mint anymore :(
  • richoricho Member Posts: 3,830
    edited February 2014
    @danielnzlego,

    I don't think that's too bad actually. When that's your toilet or porch, then you have a problem.

    As @legoboy says, looks like you have cracked on with some good building, that's half the battle for some of us here,

    rich
    Dougout
  • LegoboyLegoboy Member Posts: 8,827
    edited February 2014
    You're not wrong @richo. @danielnzlego, I don't think you have half the problem you think you do. :-)

    Okay, I can't resist.......That's not a knife, that's a knife.

    This my friend is a problem.
    DougoutrichoStormKittyMathBuilderAdeelZubairPaperballpark
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    Ok so that is a lot of unmade sets.

    A friend of mine has probably 1,000 MISB sets. He buys up to 10 of each set, mainly Star Wars. Not sure why. I think he's counting on making a fortune some day.
  • kekekekekeke Member Posts: 33
    Legoboy said:

    You're not wrong @richo. @danielnzlego, I don't think you have half the problem you think you do. :-)

    Okay, I can't resist.......That's not a knife, that's a knife.

    This my friend is a problem.

    That's very organzied!
  • richoricho Member Posts: 3,830
    @legoboy,

    That's looking nicely organised mate!

    Rich
  • khmellymelkhmellymel Member Posts: 1,313
    My problem is that my boyfriend and I live in one bedroom at the moment. Not a one bedroom flat, ONE BEDROOM. It's our bedroom, living room, storage and study (we share the kitchen and bathroom with flatmates - it's a flatshare with no real common room). So it has to store all of our stuff. Right now I've got Lego in my suitcases, under the bed, on shelves and in dresser drawers (more drawers of Lego than of clothes!). It quite literally makes up about 2/3 of my possessions (the other third likely being textbooks and notes, HA).

    Additionally, when I graduate this year I'm hoping to move all my Lego from Canada over here to the UK. I'm likely going to get rid of everything else (obviously all the furniture and that), but the Lego must come with! :) Needless to say, we're going to have to move, but for now I have put a moratorium on buying, unless there is a set that I think may be difficult to come by later if I don't grab it nowish.

    *shrug* At least I'm saving a bit of money!
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    khmellymel said:

    Right now I've got Lego in my suitcases, under the bed, on shelves and in dresser drawers (more drawers of Lego than of clothes!). It quite literally makes up about 2/3 of my possessions (the other third likely being textbooks and notes, HA).

    LOL well that sounds like my last house!!

    You have a very understanding BF obviously since you've not mentioned any dislike of his for your collection. I'm also pretty lucky that my wife has no issue whatsoever with my collection or spend.
  • ACWWGal2011ACWWGal2011 Member Posts: 534
    ACWWGal2011 said:

    Sounds like you need to get your collecting narrowed down to stuff your really want and cut out excess buying

    i realized last year that my buying was out of control so I decided this year to do my best to follow 3 goals to cut back excess buying while still getting stuff I need and here's how it's working for me:

    1) decide what sets/themes I really like and what I can pass on. So far, it's looking promising.

    2) get my collection organized. That I am currently working on at this time and have made some promising progress lately. I still need a few organizing containers down the line but so far so good.

    3) use bricklink to fill out areas in my collection that is lacking. I did an order this year that helped some areas but I still need to do another small order or 2.

    got an update to #3. I did a BL order that knocked about a dozen items of my wish list plus some other needs. Still have to do another one but not until I get my hands on some of the organizing containers I need. Plus I won a small technic brick lot off ebay yesterday so that's another problem mostly solved
  • MorkManMorkMan Member Posts: 916
    edited February 2014
    @acwwgal2011 How does buying items from Bricklink help you to not allow this hobby to take over your life? Doesn't that bring your collection to an even larger amount?
    FollowsClosely
  • YellowcastleYellowcastle Administrator, Moderator Posts: 5,234
    @legoboy - why do you have a statue of @matthew? ;o)
    StuBoyMatthew
  • ACWWGal2011ACWWGal2011 Member Posts: 534
    edited February 2014
    MorkMan said:

    @acwwgal2011 How does buying items from Bricklink help you to not allow this hobby to take over your life? Doesn't that bring your collection to an even larger amount?

    what happens is that I'm able to get a small order of parts in to fill out areas of my collection that I need parts in and/or can use right away and past orders I've done has also been for this reason.

    So instead of doing way to much set buying that takes up a lot of space and there's parts that I already have enough of in my collection, I can get parts that I actually need.

    the BL order I did, for example, is 211 parts and that's helping to fill out some areas of technic, starting to restock my log bricks, getting the final few parts I need to finish the second story of a small house I'm building, get a couple wedge plates and bar holders I need for a emmets glider I want to build, and a few different parts for emmets car that I don't have, a few types of parts to fill out a couple catagories in my collection, then a small amount of parts to try out a few ideas I have brewing.

    And then the ebay order is also part of my technic part enhancement plan.
  • KiwiLegoMeisterKiwiLegoMeister Member Posts: 212
    You have spare space in your home?
    Then Lego has not taken over your life ...
    khmellymelmargotsidersddOldfan
  • tomalphintomalphin Member Posts: 250
    Only get new sets as gifts, buy used sets, build them, and sell most of them after you got a chance to build them. It's like renting if you want to think of it that way.

    I plan to only keep my architecture sets and a couple awesome favorites outside of that theme.
  • khmellymelkhmellymel Member Posts: 1,313
    danielnzlego said:


    LOL well that sounds like my last house!!

    You have a very understanding BF obviously since you've not mentioned any dislike of his for your collection. I'm also pretty lucky that my wife has no issue whatsoever with my collection or spend.

    Ehhhh he's not bad ;-D

    He would really, very much like me to get rid of at least some of the Lego, but never *truly* bugs me about it - probably because of his DVD obsession. Nice that we each get one! (although, he's stored most of the cases as his parent's place now... so his DVDs fit nicely in 8 large DVD wallets... he probably could say something if he wanted to...)
  • CHERUBboyCHERUBboy Member Posts: 98
    Invest the price of a couple of big Star Wars sets in a few sessions with a therapist. If you consistently have feelings of guilt or shame about your purchases it's probably a good idea to speak to someone and try to find out what it is you REALLY want!
  • rancorbaitrancorbait Member Posts: 1,842
    @Legoboy All those sets!.... Just sitting there on the shelf.... Arggh!. MUST. Build! MUST. BUILD!!

  • PaperballparkPaperballpark Member Posts: 4,268
    Legoboy said:

    You're not wrong @richo. @danielnzlego, I don't think you have half the problem you think you do. :-)

    Okay, I can't resist.......That's not a knife, that's a knife.

    This my friend is a problem.

    I spy a Taj Mahal with a broken seal! :o
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    Does anyone have the problem of not wanting to open sets because in a way there's so much appeal in a MISB? A friend of mine buys two of every set for this reason. One to build, one to keep fresh. Mental.
  • LegoboyLegoboy Member Posts: 8,827
    ^ http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/240229/#Comment_240229

    The sealed one is hidden away! ;-)
  • danielnzlegodanielnzlego Member Posts: 28
    Here's my full collection... www.kolecto.com/LaE56hG9O423
  • MorkManMorkMan Member Posts: 916
    henrysunset said:

    Only get new sets as gifts, buy used sets, build them, and sell most of them after you got a chance to build them. It's like renting if you want to think of it that way.

    Our Pleygo subscription was well worth it, since I'm not buying up sets I don't really want to keep.. Plus I get to branch out and don't feel bad renting a set I would never buy, but would like to build for the joy of it.
  • EKSamEKSam Member Posts: 349
    @Legoboy
    I am pretty sure fellow Bricksetters will gladly help you with your "problem". :-) I will do my part, ship out all the sets in the middle section on the bottom most shelf in the second picture my way. :-))

    Seriously speaking, color me impressed.
  • 12651265 Member Posts: 1,156
    Legoboy said:

    You're not wrong @richo. @danielnzlego, I don't think you have half the problem you think you do. :-)

    Okay, I can't resist.......That's not a knife, that's a knife.

    This my friend is a problem.

    Nice custom shelving. I wouldn't classify this as a problem yet, but it's a start.
    Legoboy
  • MorkManMorkMan Member Posts: 916
    Yes. It's too pretty and nicely stored to be a problem. When you're on the TV show Hoarders, then you have a problem.
  • charlatan13charlatan13 Member Posts: 118
    I can attest to the fact that moving to a bigger space does not solve the problem. My wife and I looked at a great house a few months ago, but I couldn't get over the additional six car garage (this was in addition to the 2 1/2 car garage attached to the house) since it just seemed like overkill. Wife suggested the separate garage could become my Lego room (probably some ulterior motives there...). Over time I'm sure I would have slowly filled up that space, but luckily I passed. I already have plenty of space in our current house which has twice as much stuff as compared to our first one.

    Keep the manuals and just start building furniture out of Lego for your new house. Problem solved (as long as you can live with opening the sets). Otherwise create 'artistic' furniture out of the boxes that no one can touch. Good luck.
  • monkeyhangermonkeyhanger Member Posts: 3,169
    Buying a bigger house with no extra people living in it means you just accumulate crap. There are clothes my missus hasn't worn in 5 years, will she chuck them out??? We have the room for them so she won't. Look on the bright side, Lego boxes in the loft will insulate it to a small degree.
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