How Do You Keep Up With Your Purchases?

I went home to Cyprus after nearly a year of travel restrictions in the UK and took along with me the year's accumulation of stamps and covers purchased for my collections along with a naive thought of spending some time sorting and filling up pages in my albums.
Naive, considering that I hadn't been home for a year... and yes there was a lot to catch up on that did not pertain to philately.
And I forced myself not to go the Cyprus Post Office Philatelic Counter to collect my standing orders because I just didn't have the courage to add more envelopes to the multitudes eagerly spilling out from the stamp cupboard in the study (the bookshelves were filled up ages ago).
So, no stamp mounting took place but I did rummage and open a few boxes, envelopes and albums to remind myself of what was lurking behind their lids and covers and I started wondering; when the hell will I ever get a chance to sort all this out? When will I have the time to make/print pages (Steiner doesn't always work) and get them mounted? Will my collection just be an accumulation of boxes and envelopes and half printed/prepared albums?
I have thought of bringing a country collection to work on whilst in the UK but due to work/housing arrangements it isn't quite that easy. So I just troll the auctions and pick up pieces for my collections taking them back with me on each visit home only to increase the numbers.
Does anybody else have this dilemma? What do you do to keep things manageable?

Does anyone else have this dilemma?——LOL

Yeah, .... maybe.

Organization is key!

This reminds me of a similar phenomenon in modeling (plastic miniatures, tanks, planes, etc): it's usually called "trapped under plastic." Hobbyists buy too many models to ever build, and build too many models to ever paint. The solution is called "slaying the gray," and involves a combination of 1) biting the bullet and just grinding through the backlog for a single night or marathon weekend or longer, and 2) parsing things out to friends for help with assembly or paint.

The day I get something, I put it away that night: nothing makes it to dawn without being put into a stockbook (intermediate step) or album (final). A few minutes every few days is easier than a few hours once a month.

Do you have any friends who could be trusted to sort or print mount or organize for you?

Moose, if I wasn't forced to clean up for an in-laws visit I'd drag it all out and take a picture for you, stamps and covers in glassines, envelopes, plastic containers, most packed in larger plastic containers. Taking up way too much space. I like to think I know where things are when I'm ready for them but the truth is it's a mess.

Me too. I finally decided to clean up my act. Slowly but surely.

Jack Kelley

if possible I would set aside an hour or two of dedicated time on a given day each week to devote to organization for as long as it takes. once that stage is reached, devote the time to sorting and mounting. along the way at any stage sort the inevitable duplicates by country and alphabetically.

Moose, are you describing a problem or are you just bragging?

Same here.

The moment it's out of the envelope it's processed.

I have a natural aversion to clutter so that probably helps!

Deciding to drastically cut down my collecting scope & selling off everything else has helped with this problem a great deal. Not a solution for most probably, but working for me. As a benefit, has been more satisfying too as I have a strong completionist bent, and narrowing scope makes that more obtainable.

Also helps having a spare room where the "stuff" ends up - out of sight, out of mind can be practiced.

~Greg

My philatelic focus is quite limited, so I don't buy a lot of stuff, but I usually process whatever I do buy within a day or two, so there's no backlog.

I buy a lot of DVDs, and I also add them to my inventory right away. Unfortunately, I don't always get around to watching them immediately. Consequently, I have a distressingly large number of DVDs that remain unwatched after 10 or 15 years.

If I had to spend two hours looking at each and every stamp or cover that I buy, it would be a huge problem.

@ Classic paper - Nobody out there that I know will give stamp collecting any time of day, my daughter once, decided to go thematic - lions - but it turns out that she just didn't want to disappoint me by saying outright no to stamp collecting, my son was less diplomatic and as for the missus....
@ Germania - If I had an organised collection in albums the way I picture it eventually, yep that would be bragging but at the moment it seems like a problem compounded by the 5000 miles between me and my collections

I'm a neat-nick but even so, my home office and workshop get completely overrun with "stuff" and I have to just stop everything and organize/clean up be it a for a day or a few hours. Clutter drives a me a little nuts. I have a lot of stuff but everything has it's place.

My wife claims I am OCD, to which I continually have correct her: CDO (proper alphabetical order)

This conversation reminds me of a dealer with a shop in Rockville, MD back in the early 80's that I used to frequent. His back room was a disaster. It had rows of shelves and filing cabinets that were over flowing ans spilling all over the place. Stuff stacked everywhere with several inches of material on the floor that he was walking on and had to "navigate" his way through. I asked him why he didn't just take a weekend per month for organizing and cleaning. I mean he could never find anything and always had to call you back. He said he didn't have the time, desire or energy to do it and he just wanted to sell the shop and get out. At the time I was interested but didn't have the means and I was making serious headway on the foundation for my career. I even offered to come in and help him but he had no interest. It drove me a little nuts just to walk in his shop.

Moose ---- I got a few stamps that I am processing from a stamp auction purchase .

I'm sorry but I gotta talk about the elephant in the room.

I've been reading all of the posts on this thread, and I'm reading a collective sighing of relief that everyone here is experiencing the same thing. Oh, my. I haven't laughed this hard in awhile.

Thank you all for being like the rest of us nut jobs. See we are not alone. #129315;#128514;#129315;