How and Why I Narrowed my Sentimental Circus Collection

 Welcome collectors and otakus. This post took me quite some time to conjure up so I hope it will help anybody out there dealing with a collection that isn't making you happy.

It is amazing when you find that one thing you can't help but love. It just puts a smile on your face and whenever there is a new design or series or merchandise you absolutely NEED to have it. It doesn't matter how much it costs or what you have to do to get it, you will find a way.

That was me with a lot of things I blog about, limited edition games, stationery and so much more. For this post, the collections that these directly correspond to are my Sentimental Circus collection and stationery collection which overlap since all my pencil cases are Sentimental Circus. Earlier this year I realized I wasn't remembering all of what I collected and those items I didn't use! I have been decluttering for two years and didn't touch my collections until 2020, decluttering is a process, not a race. I took a lot of steps to get this far and I can say that I fully enjoy and use my collection to the fullest.

This is what I did to finally get to the point I am at today!

Looking back at purchases: PayPal transactions, stores, and amounts should be familiar to you. If you don't remember what you bought then you might have forgotten about it. For me, I remembered all the transactions of when I bought Sentimental Circus plushies and pencil cases. This might be due to the fact that I had to ask a few personal sellers in Japan to obtain some for me. However, loads of paper pads and note pads I bought were completely erased from memory.

Seeing what you used and kept using: You know what you use daily cause your mind and hands already know the movements they need to do to get them. For me, I know exactly where the washi tape is, my plushies are displayed, and how all my pencil cases are stacked, everything single day. 

Set items you haven't used in a box: Remember all those note pads and other items I forgot about. Well, I found them while cleaning and placed them in a box. After a week I placed them on Mercari and had sold most of them immediately after. I bought these items for a purpose and I failed to use them and failed to remember them. If I will not use them I hope that whoever buys them will use them greatly and love them even more than I did. Makes me feel better to know it will be used.

Make a list for future purchases: After figuring out what I will use and keep, I make a list every time a new theme comes out of exactly what I will buy out of it. Save money, save time, and when I am ready to buy I have no regrets.

Use money from selling to buy what you will love: Just because you sold part of your collection doesn't mean you will not continue to obtain more. You have to aware of what you really want and will use and cherish.

Solving storage: This was a very interesting thing that might just be me being creative in an overpriced NYC apartment, but I used one collection to store another collection. My Sentimental Circus pencil case collection is fully used to hold my well-loved, mechanical pencil, frixion pen, Sarasa limited edition, and many more awesome pens and markers I use for journaling and writing notes (my full collection will be shown in a future post!). Not all things are bad to keep, you just need to figure out what works best for you.

I will not stop collecting Shappo and Spica plushies but at least I am happy with everything. In the future, I hope to make more posts about the next themes I will collect!

 Please let me know what you collect in the comments! Until next time, stay hyped!

Tips on How I have Narrowed Down my Physical Manga Collection

Manga. It’s nearly impossible to obtain one absolute favorite and not slowly start to over stack your already strained bookshelves with thousands more. Especially if you are like me and have a Japanese book store within a short transit distance, multiple online shops to buy from and even a shop downtown that sells used and new books, it gets too easy to just buy more Manga and comics in general.

However, due to a blend of having massive amounts of energy to declutter and forcing yourself to contain my collection, I realized I had to figure out how my bookshelves were going to get organized. 

All of these are personal tips that I used to narrow my collection down while I had the time to do so. Please remember that you don’t have to lessen your collection, especially if your collection isn’t putting you in hardship. 

1. Compile everything you have into one space.

You really need to take inventory of everything you have. For me I had manga in two different places because when I moved most of my books were placed in my toy box because it was the sturdiest thing to put them in and the rest that couldn't fit in a large black trash bag. Seeing all of your manga will help you take inventory of what you do have, don't have and might want to update. Make sure you have a large clear space with a mat to place everything on.

2. Break them down by series.

This will make your life easier when placing them back on your shelves in the order you like. Or in alphabetical order based on title or Author. Its all up to you. It really makes everything look put together when you see your collection sectioned by series and not thrown together at random. Besides that this step helps you see which series you didn't keep up with getting more volumes for and what you read but didn't feel like continuing at all. I had several standalone first volumes that I remember reading but just didn't want to continue buying. 

So far so good right?

3. Taking note of missing volumes.

Life gets in the way and you miss a few volumes. Don't worry! For the most part you can get those missing volumes of your favorite series as long as you took note of it and use the internet to find it new and or used. This is also be a big help in not obtaining a copy of a volume you already own.

4. Extra volumes go into the sell pile.

It happened to me twice. I don't know how but I had two of the same volume 6 but somehow I forgot I bought it before! Just saying if you got extra and its still new sell it for regular price if you can. If you don't want to sell it and its a volume 1 you could give it to a close friend. Who knows maybe someone else will like it as much as you do.

5. Keep your favorites, sell the rest and move digitally.

This is where I really had to make hard choices. The manga I was close to finishing and really wanted to keep stayed while I sold the shattered random volumes of other series. You need to remember that you don't need to have every single one of your favorite manga in your physical collection. If you found and or pay for a decent manga app you can have your favorites all on your phone/tablet! However please be mindful of your storage space on your devices. Sometimes it is worth getting a phone with removal storage, large cloud storage or even investing in a large online drive. If it has been difficult to find volumes in stores or ordering them online, it might be best to go digital as long as its updated on the manga site of your choice. 

6. Would you buy this series if a HARDCOVER or COLLECTOR EDITION came out?!

I wanted to bring this up because some older manga will be reprinted in a hardcover or collector edition, like FullMetal Alchemist and Soul Eater for examples. This is a pain because if you already have the full series physically or digitally you need to ask yourself are you willing to get rid of these to obtain the new editions or do you have the money to shell out and the space to hold EVERYTHING. However if you love the series but didn't collect the volumes yet, the hardcover or collector edition is a great opportunity to get them all! 

The FullMetal Alchemist is so pretty in hardcover!

Bonus. Placing rated M and adult manga in a separate space or hidden, especially if you have people visiting your home and you don't want them to see it. Depending on how your shelf space is you might be able to place manga behind the others you organized. My bookshelves are pretty deep with a closed back so once I line all the volumes up I placed the adult manga in the back. If people don't actually go looking at your manga you could get away with placing them within the rest.

Personal example!

The reason why I curated these tips is because I wanted to share my actual experience. It took me two years to really let go of a lot of stuff (clothes, stationery and small items) and I finally got comfortable to do this with my manga. I know there are many people like me that have been collecting for over a decade but couldn't find the heart to condense the collection. It is ok to keep collecting! You don't have to let go, but when you tell yourself everything has to fit in a certain space, which is exactly what I did, you need to make a choice and I hope these tips help you on your journey. 

Thank you for making it this far! Please remember to try and support the official release to keep our favorites going, and I will see you next time. <3

Decluttering the Hoard in 2019

Hello everybody, Tsubaki here with a helpful and informative post on how I have officially decluttered everything! Everything being over hundreds of items that were not being used or were bought as a temporary fix when I was living in a much smaller space that was being shared with other people. Just to put how much space my hoarded items were taking up, it was approximately 70% of a full room in a decent-sized New York City apartment.

Decluttering any amount of items really takes a mindset that will help you evaluate the value of items you have. An example would be selling or donating a sweater you bought and never used because it wasn’t your style but keeping a sweater you use every Fall and Winter because not only do you use it but you can make great outfits with it. However instead of sweaters, it is piles of stuff you ordered from personal shoppers in Japan, Kawaii crates you didn't sort and plushies you bought because you were buying something anyway and it happened to be in the store! I am honest when I say that I am super guilty of buying a lot of unnecessary items and now at the end of 2019, I can say for a fact that I have a clearer head with purchases. 

Obtaining this way of thinking is simple but not easy. The way I came to this realization is by looking and calculating how much all the stuff I bought has put me in debt. After digesting that number I came with the conclusion that in order to have my space and some money back, items need to go. All the items I bought were more towards figures, cute stationery and cute limited collab storage and keychains so I didn’t use Depop but I used the app called Mercari to sell most of those items. I knew I was taking a lost because most of the items were used and not in original packaging but getting something back financially and having space made it worth it. Personally I didn’t use EBay because I didn’t want my items to be auctioned. Also Mercari has an option for you to take the price of shipping out of the amount the buyer paid for the items and they email you a prepaid shipping label. It saved me so much headache plus anybody with a basic printer can ship almost anything! I will link my Mercari code here in case anybody is interested in selling and or buying on there! 

Remember to take you time really sorting your items for selling. Being picky about style, color and even which anime or manga character it is or is on it is completely valid. You want to keep your favorites that make you happy so that you can start a new point in your life with a fresh space.

Now onto how I saved money with packaging for those who want to sell stuff. Everybody that uses Amazon especially Amazon Prime knows that everything you order comes with a decent box depending on the item and packing material to secure the item. I have been using old Amazon boxes and packaging along with packaging from Etsy and smaller sellers to get around buying packing material. Everyone ends up using boxes that were used before to ship items, do this too so you don’t have to give money to a supply store or Postal Office. Just remember to use boxes and packing material that are still in relatively great condition. Which boils down to not using a box that has a clear noticeable hole in it and bubble wrap that has already been popped all the way. A side note is to always try to take off as much of the old label as possible before using the box to ship an item to sell. It makes the fact that you are using an already used box less noticeable. 

Some huge warnings for selling anything. People are always upset if somehow the item isn’t what they expected. Try to make sure your item description is VERY descriptive. So many people will try to get their money back and send it back but in the end you don’t need the items so you hope they are happy once the tracking says they have it. 

If you have sold has much as you possibly could and are still left with a few items that didn’t sell, remember that donating to a local charity is an option. I have actually donated eight bags to GoodWill in December to clear a corner of the room that I used for donation storage. I am very happy to see the floor of that corner again and that those items that are still in good condition will be given or bought by people that need them. 

I am still left with a few items I know will sell so I will still keep selling until I think there is nothing left. I will delete the app I am selling in as soon as I have nothing else to sell because it is a double edged sword. You will get tempted to buy stuff on the app you are selling on which might defeat the reason why you wanted to declutter in the first place. 

This is a current picture of what is left to sell after clearing almost the entire room! This room used to not have a desk and was packed with tons of totes and boxes of stuff that wasn’t being used and you couldn’t see the floor. I need to work I’m getting shelves to have a better place to store everything that is left which is all of our model kits and books. I plan to follow up on this journey with how I decided to track spending, what I have been using to track spending and the budgeting method that has been most beneficial for me. 

I hope we can all start 2020 in a better financial state, better mind set and an otaku on hype!