Collectors - How do YOU Organize Your Collection? (or does Chaos reign Supreme?)

[Misterei]

I was posting on What's the Postman bringing? thread when I realized I organize my decks into families. I never thought of this before ... but I do.

 

Virgo Moon ... so OF COURSE my collection is organized 😇 But perhaps some folks don't even clock organization as necessary?

 

Curious to hear from others ...

 

• Is organizing your deck collection important to you?
• If yes ... HOW is it organized?
• Do you display your collection so people can see it? Or keep it private?

 

My decks live on shelves in a reading nook. The south side has RWS and its clones. The north side has historic decks, pip decks, oracles, and LeNormands.

A couple decks that straddle the line (I'm looking at YOU Rose Tarot) have their own shelf above RSW & clones.

Within the shelves ... the decks live in "families". Historic Italian decks are together. Playing card + Tarot hybrids together. TdMs together.

 

Over on the RWS & clones side ... the decks live next to decks I feel would be related if they were people.

If I don't anthropomorphize my little cardboard darlings ... I would say I group them according to artistic style and color palette.

And size. The mini decks have their own section. Decks with larger boxes usually get a prominent place or angle such that guests can see them as art.

 

It's pretty obvious to visitors that a Tarot reader lives here. The reading nook is in the living room. You don't see it from the front door ... so strangers wouldn't see it right off ... but once a guest is in the house ... there's no missing it.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by Misterei

[Guest]

Before participating in the DotW, I usually worked with a particular deck/s for an extended period of time. I keep these on my desk and that's it. Because I don't have to track specific decks all that frequently, I didn't feel the need to organize them in any conceptually meaningful way.

 

I store the rest in boxes, away from the heat, dust, etc. I group them by size. I keep kits/sets together - the same goes for standalone decks. That is mostly to maximize space more than anything though.

[gregory]

Oh god my huge thing.....

 

Once upon a time I had a small suitcase.......

 

NOW.....

 

Is it important to me - you'd better believe it, or I would never see some of them ever again.

 

I have a very small room full of chests of drawers (including two Alex ones on wheels from IKEA) and bookshelves for books and big-box decks that don't fit in drawers.

 

 

 

This has leaked into a chest on the landing, two bureau drawers and two blanket boxes in the bedroom.....

 

How organised - they are in order of acquisition and I have a data-base listing exactly what is where. (this deck is in no 48 - that's Alex no 1; that one is in drawer 7 - in the corner; I'll have to move both Alexes across to get to it.) The only exception is that all my Oriental decks (Japanese and Chinese in those book-type shelf boxes with manuals) are together in one place - on the chest of drawers you can see on the left, in two shelves at the back of it against the wall.)

 

Does this answer your question ?  May I suggest restraining yourselves early in life. I failed. 

Edited March 12, 2023 by gregory

[fire cat pickles]

I do an inventory of my small collection of 100 or so decks every year. I pretty sure I have all of them... This year I'm not doing that. I am going through my collection of decks per week, and I am organizing them by putting each deck on the shelf in my cabinet in the order I bought them. I am not reading with my Thoth decks. I believe it takes more than *just a week to get get to know the Thoth deck: Here is a picture of my cabinet:

 

[gregory]

Oh god if I could manage something so beautiful.... 

[DanielJUK]

I am afraid I am very much Chaos reign Supreme! 🤣

 

I have a shelf in the main living area in a cupboard where I have my most used decks and decks I am currently using

The rest are in my bedroom and it's quite disorganised. I want to have drawers in future to organise them better. I really should write their locations on my list of them so I can easily find them, often I loose decks for a while. I lost the Glastonbury Tarot for ten years (!!!!) because for some odd reason it was on a non-divination bookshelf with the spine out! One day my eye just spotted it!

 

My plan sometime in the future is to have drawers to organise them or plastic boxes because it is still a growing collection and I need to organise better.

My long-term plan (aka the dream) is to have a divination little room in a place. I would have shelves or drawers which are my most used decks, then organise by tarot, oracle, lenormand, kipper, etc by A to Z probably.

 

I keep it quite private, not sure why but I do!

If you have a list of decks, it's certainly worth listing the location of them if they are in different places. I may start this 🙂

 

Love seeing your areas @gregory and @fire cat pickles ❤️

[Flaxen]

I’m probably in the category of ‘organised chaos’. I have one cupboard where my most used decks are kept - because they are frequently used, they can get in a jumble and every now and then I have to reorganise. 
 

I have a few shelves on a bookcase which has my rarer, OOP and large box decks. These are in no real order but all my Baba Studio decks are together and all my historical are together. I know roughly where everything is although I do occasionally come across something I forgot I had. 

[gregory]

2 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

I lost the Glastonbury Tarot for ten years (!!!!) because for some odd reason it was on a non-divination bookshelf with the spine out! One day my eye just spotted it!

 

 

I lost my tarot of Montreal for about that long. It is ultra fragile and came in an envelope; I THOUGHT I had boxed it but had no recollection of which. I found it by accident in among a lot of dollar store boxes I had stashed in a corner. NOW I have labelled the box and put it somewhere more sensible - you can actually see it in the second image there, under the big white  box on the white chest of drawers !

[PathWalker]

I have a fair few, but no real organization. I can see them all, behind their glass doors, that's about it. Um, all the pip decks in one place, all the majors only in another. This photo is old, but the level of organization remains the same

 

[Nemia]

Organized! My tarot decks are sorted into 12 different groups, kept in baskets, according to topic. For my tarot calendar, I will use one group after the other, all through the zodiac, each year starting with a different deck. 

 

 

The baskets are cheap: actually they're baking trays, but they're just the right size and very practical. I keep the books that belong to the decks next to them on the shelf, and general tarot books above them. Most of my tarot books are on my Kindle though. 

 

 

There are also baskets for my "eternal" decks that always appear on the tarot calendar (Thoth, Tabula Mundi, Arcana of Astrology, Hermetic Kabbalah), and for playing cards, oracles and Lenormand decks. 

 

 

I crochet bags for my decks but I also keep their boxes. Extra cards and special things like magnets, stickers etc are stored separately. I also store my spread maps, posters and other tarot-related things with my decks, and there is of course my altar. 

 

It may look chaotic - many different sizes, colours, textures and styles, but I know precisely where everything is. 

 

I also keep a list of my decks, where I write when I bought them, where, how much they cost and when they arrived (sometimes there can be months between ordering a deck and holding it in my hands, owing to the remote corner of the world I live in). 

 

I'm also very organized with my books, art materials, crochet stuff etc. Even my kitchen and wardrobes are well-organized ... though I have to re-organize some corners... but I like having my beloved possessions in their proper places. It gives me pleasure. 

 

 

[Rachelcat]

My decks are organized only on paper.  I have 326 decks on a list divided by tarot and oracle and listed alphabetical, and then by system and theme.  (The latest theme is decks with unicorns in them!)  And a list of my decks of the week, which I started three years ago at the beginning of the quarantine.  (Omg, this week is the third anniversary!)  And a list of acquisitions in date order that I started about the same time.

 

Physically, I have a desk that my father made for me when I was a kid packed full of decks in bags and tuck boxes. 

 

 

 

 

And shelves that my ex-husband made in the living room for boxed sets.  Tarot on one side of the corner and oracles on the other, somewhat alphabetical, with books for the desk decks on the bottom.  The shelves are getting packed, too!  That's why they're only somewhat alphabetical!

 

 

And the rest of the shelves in the living room have my esoteric books.  (Other books are exiled to the upstairs spare bedroom!)  

 

 

(Yes, my daughter-in-law gave me a framed picture that says "witches before bitches"!)

 

Thanks for the thread!  I enjoyed seeing everyone's display and storage, and sharing mine!

 

[Misterei]

15 hours ago, Akhilleus said:

Before participating in the DotW, I usually worked with a particular deck/s for an extended period of time. I keep these on my desk and that's it. Because I don't have to track specific decks all that frequently, I didn't feel the need to organize them in any conceptually meaningful way.

So ... NOT a virgo moon, then? 😆

9 hours ago, gregory said:

Once upon a time I had a small suitcase.......

Is it important to me - you'd better believe it, or I would never see some of them ever again.

... they are in order of acquisition and I have a data-base listing exactly what is where. (this deck is in no 48 - that's Alex no 1; that one is in drawer 7 - in the corner; ...

D&mn! Organized by date of aquisition using a coded database. That's deep. And somehow very occult ...

[Misterei]

8 hours ago, fire cat pickles said:

... organizing them by putting each deck on the shelf in my cabinet in the order I bought them.

@fire cat pickles and @gregory its interesting you both organize by date of acquisition. That would have never occurred to me.

7 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

I am afraid I am very much Chaos reign Supreme! 🤣

... My long-term plan (aka the dream) is to have a divination little room in a place. I would have shelves or drawers which are my most used decks, then organise by tarot, oracle, lenormand, kipper, etc by A to Z probably.

LOL or just surrender to the chaos };>

7 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

I keep it quite private, not sure why but I do!

Yes ... some ppl feel that way and others not. it's interesting to see our different approaches.

[Misterei]

4 hours ago, Nemia said:

Organized! My tarot decks are sorted into 12 different groups, kept in baskets, according to topic. For my tarot calendar, I will use one group after the other, all through the zodiac, each year starting with a different deck. 

...It may look chaotic - many different sizes, colours, textures and styles, but I know precisely where everything is. 

@Nemia you're so crafty! Actually the organization of the crochet bags and bakers boxes totally shows. It's like "cozy cottage organized" haha.

4 hours ago, Nemia said:

I also keep a list of my decks, where I write when I bought them, where, how much they cost and when they arrived

Wow. I think i'm obsessed with organizing ... then i read this thread and realize i might be more in the middle 😇

4 hours ago, Nemia said:

... Even my kitchen and wardrobes are well-organized ... though I have to re-organize some corners... but I like having my beloved possessions in their proper places. It gives me pleasure. 

I feel ya. Just finished de-cluttering our big closet. I feel emotionally better knowing its neat and tidy in there!

3 hours ago, Rachelcat said:

My decks are organized only on paper.  I have 326 decks on a list divided by tarot and oracle and listed alphabetical, and then by system and theme.  (The latest theme is decks with unicorns in them!)  And a list of my decks of the week, which I started three years ago at the beginning of the quarantine.  (Omg, this week is the third anniversary!)  And a list of acquisitions in date order that I started about the same time.

@Rachelcat I'm surprised at how many ppl list decks by acquisition dates. Never occurred to me ... but it seems to be a thing. I get the system and theme bit ... I think that's what my "deck families" are.

3 hours ago, Rachelcat said:

Physically, I have a desk that my father made for me when I was a kid packed full of decks in bags and tuck boxes. 

I love that desk. How sweet.

[Grandma]

Is organization important to me? It is essential. Chaos is not allowed in Grandma's House.

 

How are my decks organized? My decks are organized in two ways. Physically, they are arranged by esthetics, integral to the ambience of my home. As you can see, many of the decks are displayed separately, and as you can not see, the boxes which are not themselves decks, are chock-full of other decks. The question then becomes, how do I know what is where? The answer is that the second way my collection is organized is on a Word document where they are listed in alphabetical order and identified by location, for example, "Langustl - blue box with green cover".

 

Can people see my collection or is it private? Yes and yes, see explanation above and photo below.

 

 

 

 

[stephanelli]

I'm on the chaotic side of deck storage...

Right now?  My decks are haphazardly in a basket just barely big enough to hold them all.  Admittedly my collection is significantly smaller than many people's here so there is perhaps less chance of things going missing.

18 hours ago, Misterei said:

• Is organizing your deck collection important to you?

Not really.  I have a list of all my decks at the start of my Divination Journal and beyond that, they are generally somewhere in my bedroom.

18 hours ago, Misterei said:

• Do you display your collection so people can see it? Or keep it private?

Its not on display in the main living area of my home, but if you were to wander into my bedroom you'd know a crystal obsessed tarot reader was around...

Its not that I would necessarily keep it private from people visiting my home, just that I like my bedroom to be a relaxed, cosy, semi-magical vibe and my decks fit in nicely with that so I keep them there.

[Jewel]

I primarily organize mine by box size and those boxes alphabetically.  I keen my treasures in a small trunk in my guest bedroom so in case of an emergency I can just pick that up and run LOL!

[Niobium]

Chaos for me, though I've been considering some sort of scheme. I have 3 large drawer bins (the kind you can buy single and stack) and 6 storage boxes (with rolly feet and hinged lids).

 

I can't really display the collection due to my cats, one of whom is a paper eater/box destroyer. I keep a few decks on my desk for use and rotate through them, though ofc if I am after a specific deck finding it can be, uh, let's say a chore.

 

 

[Misterei]

7 hours ago, Grandma said:

Is organization important to me? It is essential. Chaos is not allowed in Grandma's House.

Ah, your display is quite lovely. I'm truly amazed at the ppl who document their collections. Certainly more thorough than I!

7 hours ago, Grandma said:

How are my decks organized? My decks are organized in two ways. Physically, they are arranged by esthetics, integral to the ambience of my home.

Yes, I feel that way about my decks as art display ... its part of the vibe of my house.

5 hours ago, stephanelli said:

I'm on the chaotic side of deck storage...

Its not on display in the main living area of my home, but if you were to wander into my bedroom you'd know a crystal obsessed tarot reader was around...

... I like my bedroom to be a relaxed, cosy, semi-magical vibe and my decks fit in nicely with that so I keep them there.

Yes. It seems for some of us the decks create an atmosphere for the room they're in.

4 hours ago, Jewel said:

I primarily organize mine by box size and those boxes alphabetically.  I keen my treasures in a small trunk in my guest bedroom so in case of an emergency I can just pick that up and run LOL!

Good to know you've got your priorities covered! LOL I could never do alphabetical ... I don't always remember the titles.  i remember the artistic theme and color palette };>

[legendaryelement]

Considering the fact that when I do “alignment quizzes” I turn up in the Chaotic ___ column … LOL!

 

I have a few triple-drawer units, several large bins, and a myriad of shipping boxes. The part of my collection that comes from other forum members live “grouped” by the person I received them.

 

I purchased two more 5-shelf bookcases some months ago, but haven’t found the time to get them put together.

[Misterei]

3 minutes ago, legendaryelement said:

Considering the fact that when I do “alignment quizzes” I turn up in the Chaotic ___ column … LOL!

LOL ... in D&D I always played chaotic characters ... but when it comes to physical items and physical spaces ... Ordo ab Chao is my motto };>

[Jewel]

@Misterei ... there are times I do not remember the titles and have to go by the colors or memory of the art too, but as everything is organized it does not take too long to find as everything is on shelves.  I do have quite a few decks I purchased in my "catch-all" phase of tarot and have not yet worked with so the alphabetical just works best for when I go looking for one of those.  Usually I trip over a post here, or some article that mentions it and I go , "Oh I own that let me pull it out and look at it."  At that point I do know the name so easy peasey to pull it real quick. 😜