Oddly Satisfying: What’s Behind Our Drive to Collect Useless Items?

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Today, Conti Schwartz moderates her own Facebook group for Stanley “obsessives” – here, 660 members buy and trade tumblers, pleading for those they’re “diso” (desperately in search of). Speaking via Zoom in late June, Conti Schwartz concedes with a warm laugh that she could have “made do” with just two cups, but “I just fell in love with them. They make me incredibly happy.” (View Highlight)
Every time she uses a tumbler, Conti Schwartz updates an Excel spreadsheet with a cross, “to make sure that I use them all, so that nobody gets left behind”. (View Highlight)

Collecting, Belk says today, also makes people feel accomplished. “Most people in the world are not at the top of their professions, but the little world of collecting is something where we have a greater chance of success.” (View Highlight)
Malone believes there are oddly satisfying elements in one-in-every-colour consumerism, arguing that companies invite us to “design our own aesthetic life at a cinematic level”, selecting props that represent us like characters in a film. (View Highlight)

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Today, Conti Schwartz moderates her own Facebook group for Stanley “obsessives” – here, 660 members buy and trade tumblers, pleading for those they’re “diso” (desperately in search of). Speaking via Zoom in late June, Conti Schwartz concedes with a warm laugh that she could have “made do” with just two cups, but “I just fell in love with them. They make me incredibly happy.” (View Highlight)
Every time she uses a tumbler, Conti Schwartz updates an Excel spreadsheet with a cross, “to make sure that I use them all, so that nobody gets left behind”. (View Highlight)
Collecting, Belk says today, also makes people feel accomplished. “Most people in the world are not at the top of their professions, but the little world of collecting is something where we have a greater chance of success.” (View Highlight)
Malone believes there are oddly satisfying elements in one-in-every-colour consumerism, arguing that companies invite us to “design our own aesthetic life at a cinematic level”, selecting props that represent us like characters in a film. (View Highlight)