Episode 14: Boxes Full of Yesterday: Our Collections Through the Years

Remember those precious childhood keepsakes tucked away in cedar chests and storage bins? The Girl Gang unpacks their collection obsessions in this heartwarming, nostalgic conversation about the things we treasure and why we can't let them go.

From concert ticket stubs (now sadly digital) to playbills destined for shadow boxes, childhood toys that survived into adulthood, and travel magnets that tell stories of adventures, the Gang explores how collecting evolves throughout our lives. They share creative display ideas like magnetic walls and curio cabinets while laughing about the perpetual struggle between wanting to declutter and being unable to part with sentimental items. The conversation takes a thoughtful turn when they consider which single treasured possession they'd grab in a house fire—revealing the deep emotional connections behind our most cherished objects.

Whether you're a "clean hoarder" with organized collections or simply someone who appreciates items that spark joy without matching any particular theme, this episode celebrates how our collections tell our stories. 

What do you collect? What childhood treasure do you wish you'd kept? Share your collection stories with us on social media—we'd love to see what makes your collection special!

Transcript

Rachael 0:34

Hi everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name's Rachael,

Sarah 0:36

I'm Sarah

Brandi 0:37

and I'm Brandi and we're your hosts for this episode.

Rachael 0:40

So earlier, the Girl Gang we were talking about childhood memories, and then we got down this rabbit hole of things that we used to collect as kids and that kind of morphed into what do we collect now. So we just decided we should talk about this because it's interesting and some of the things that at least Kozy collects we've never even heard of so we we want to know more.

Rachael 1:02

Um so Kozy. What are, what's the main thing that you collect, and is it from your childhood, is it from adulthood, and how did you come to collect these items?

Sarah 1:11

I have so many random things. I feel like I'm kind of borderline hoarder. I think we've talked about that before. Like I, I love to be prepared and just have the things that make me happy for no reason. Some things will never get used, but I have them if I ever need them. And some things I just keep for no reason and I have plans to do something with them, but that's something that's future Sarah's problem. They're going to be something eventually. So I collect a lot of different things. I really miss having printed tickets. That was like one of the first things that really came to mind, because I used to collect all of my concert tickets and I really wanted to put them in like a really cool looking shadow box, but now all the tickets are online, which is I get it. It's more environmentally friendly, but come on. So then I also collect playbills from all the musicals and shows that I go to see

Rachael 1:59

Nice,

Sarah 2:00

and eventually I'd like to put those in like a big picture frame, kind of like Twilight, if you were a Twilight fan.

Brandi 2:05

The graduation cap.

Sarah 2:06

The graduation cap.

Sarah 2:07

Oh yes, like I want a cool shadow box of like all the different playbills in all the shows I've seen throughout my life

Rachael 2:20

So when he gets on video calls, people are like oh, you go see shows.

Sarah 2:24

I mean, I don't have the ones

Brandi 2:25

You're cultured,

Sarah 2:26

I don't have the ones from like when I was a kid kid, but I mean I feel like I've been collecting them at least since like I've been buying my own tickets to like shows.

Rachael 2:42

Do you have like a cedar chest where you keep all your keepsakes and like things that are important?

Sarah 2:44

I do. I have a couple different ones. All of my playbills are in a shoebox like they're well in an overflowing open shoebox, but something cool this is kind of what got us talking about. It too is something cool my mom really did, which I absolutely loved and adored.

Sarah 2:52

That she did this is she put together a treasure box and she made like a little keepsake of all of the things that I did in school and she gave it to me as a gift for my high school graduation.

Sarah 3:03

So she put it in like a little big treasure chest kind of trunk. You open it up and it's got all these different file folders and it starts from infant to toddler, pre-k, kindergarten, all the way up to my senior year of high school, and it had like accomplishments or like certificates or artwork stories. I wrote schoolwork, you know, volleyball pictures, like a little bit of everything and I thought that was really cool because I love like scrapbooking in the baby books and I know I had one, but this was kind of like just everything in one little box,

Rachael 3:31

yeah,

Sarah 3:32

and it was all like the most important thing. So I turned that into. Now, whenever one of my friends has a baby, I get them like a little collapsible bin, file cabinet bin thing, and I'll put the file folders in there and I'll start to mark some of them and then leave some empty ones so they can market themselves, whether they want like pictures from holidays or if their kid is really, you know, a big scholar or really into music or sports.

Sarah 3:55

They have like different areas or little file folders

Brandi 3:58

and all their art when they're kids too.

Sarah 4:00

Yes,

Brandi 4:00

there's so many little projects like that.

Rachael 4:02

I wrote a book like I think it was oh, what grade was this? Maybe fifth grade that I wrote a book like you could write it and then they would actually print it. You do the artwork and everything. And I was down at my grandparents house a few weeks ago and my mom was like, do you want any of this stuff? And it was my book that I created in like the fifth grade. It was called the gateway flames. It was about a hockey team and a girl falling in love with a hockey player and it was pretty bad, so it's going to my cedar chest yes I will say first boyfriend was a hockey player.

Sarah 4:32

That's cute

Brandi 4:33

hockey romances are quite big right now,

Rachael 4:35

I know it's a whole genre the girl that I met in Florida is writing a hockey romance

Sarah 4:40

oh

Rachael 4:40

she's getting into

Sarah 4:42

I could get into some sports romance books

Brandi 4:43

I loved writing um and my, my grade school had a um, oh god, what was the writing program called?

Childhood Keepsakes and Memory Boxes

Brandi 4:54

oh, it's gonna bother me now, but I wrote for them in one year I think it was fourth grade my story. So each grade level, so it was broken up into third, fourth and fifth grade at my one school and so everyone in that grade could it was voluntary could submit one and then you could win for your grade.

Sarah 5:16

Oh yeah,

Brandi 5:17

and then I also won for the entire school.

Rachael 5:22

That's badass.

Brandi 5:23

I beat everyone and then I got to go to a conference where there was like some authors and stuff and I got my book signed by her and I still have all of my stories and I've actually been thinking about going back and like obviously I was in third and fourth grade, so they're not like the most robust books, you know. But I was like maybe I should go back and like structure them a little bit more

Sarah 5:45

it's kind of like going back to your childhood imagination and like

Brandi 5:49

I had some good stories.

Brandi 5:50

The one that won everything was about this girl who found these letters from this old veteran and like all of this stuff, and I was like that would actually like make a really cute like

Sarah 6:02

that'd be super cool,

Brandi 6:03

so I I made copies of them because my dad wouldn't let me have the original. He's like no, I'm keeping those fair enough, so I have copies.

Rachael 6:09

Put it in a folder like does, did he store all that stuff?

Brandi 6:12

Oh yeah, it's all organized by, by grade,

Rachael 6:15

collecting all that good stuff,

Brandi 6:16

and then he also did of like.

Brandi 6:19

It's not like a full scrapbook where you know it was the special paper and the stickers and everything, because he's a dad, he wasn't really into all that, but he did make a memory book and he took like my favorite artwork from each grade and everything and he made like it was more like collages in the pages.

Sarah 6:35

Oh nice

Rachael 6:36

that's cute.

Brandi 6:41

But yeah, he, he made a whole.

Brandi 6:41

He had to get an extender for it because it's so big.

Rachael 6:43

I feel like I've never met your dad, but every time you talk about him I'm like best dad ever. Let's met this guy.

Sarah 6:47

Oh yeah,

Brandi 6:48

I love my dad, yeah,

Rachael 6:50

thanks, dad.

Brandi 6:51

Um, yeah, no, he, he doesn't know this, but I found he had parenting books um on his shelf and one was like how to raise like a, something about a strong-willed daughter, or something like that. I was like, well, I think he like did something right because I feel like I turned out okay.

Rachael 7:14

Hell, yeah,

Sarah 7:15

definitely,

Brandi 7:15

yeah, um,

Rachael 7:17

that's badass.

Brandi 7:17

So, yeah, no, he's got all of that kind of stuff still yeah,

Rachael 7:22

I feel like my mom and my grandma like going since my grandpa passed away, like they've been going through my grandparents house and she kept a lot of like birthday cards and all of these things. But something that I really like when I think of my grandma, I think of this she collected egg cups. So if you don't know what egg cups are like, google them. But they're basically like porcelain cups and they're designed all different types of ways and then you can put an egg in it and she put fake eggs in it.

Rachael 7:52

But she has literally two cases, like glass cases, of these egg cups um and so when I was down there a few weeks ago, I got to pick out a couple of my favorite and I don't know, it's just like when I look at them, I just like think of my grandma

Sarah 8:06

you just put them out on display?

Rachael 8:08

yeah.

Rachael 8:08

So I have kind of a shelf behind, like in my office. I have this full shelf bookcase and so I have like the egg cups that I took. I took like three or four, and then my great grandma collected owls, and owls was also um the mascot for, like my sorority, so I've always collected. So when my great grandma passed away I got all of her um like gold, brass owls. And so you know friends who have gone to like different countries, like I have one from Italy when I studied abroad in Italy, like I got a owl made out of like lava rock from Mount Vesuvius. And then, like my friend studied abroad in Mexico, so he brought me an owl from Mexico, um, so I feel like egg cups and owls, like that's my, that's my thing, but I mean like it very much like stemmed from my grandma.

Rachael 9:01

And then you know things that I wanted to do for myself. I just remember when I was a kid, like my babysitter brought me this little snow globe from Disney and I broke it and I was so devastated that I always wanted snow globes. I always wanted to collect snow globes. So I collected four or five of them and then I quickly realized like it's kind of hard to like store snow globes

Sarah 9:22

and ship them yeah

Rachael 9:24

like travel with them, make sure they don't break. I always just have this thing in the back of my mind of like I'm gonna shatter it, just like I shattered my Disney one as a kid. Um, so then when I was, you know, making all my life changes the past couple years, I switched to magnets, and so every time I travel somewhere now I collect a magnet where I go.

Sarah 9:42

Those are easy to carry with you.

Rachael 9:44

Exactly.

Brandi 9:45

And you can do some cool stuff with them.

Sarah 9:46

Absolutely

Rachael 9:49

yeah.

Brandi 9:49

I mean, I have a. As a kid, my grandparents were over-the-road truck drivers,

Rachael 9:53

really?

Brandi 9:54

and so they would get me in new states. They went to, they'd get me. Do you guys remember the state magnets?

Sarah 10:04

Oh yeah,

Brandi 10:04

it could like build the us, even though half of them weren't the right proportion.

Family Heirlooms and Meaningful Collections

Brandi 10:07

So like it looked really wonky when you have the full country like mapped out appropriately. But they'd give me one of those magnets and a postcard from the states they went to. So I still have those. I never got a full country, but again, like you go to northeast and it's really hard to get because they make them big enough that you can read them. So you're not going to get like a little tiny rhode island, right, um, and so I've kind of started collecting magnets. My stepmom has a whole fridge full of them, to the point where she has to like take one off if you get her a new one. And we've talked about because there's magnetic paint out there now.

Sarah 10:43

Oh yeah,

Brandi 10:43

we've talked about like taking a wall and like the basement

Rachael 10:46

oh, that'd be badass.

Brandi 10:47

And putting magnet paint, and then she can put them all on display.

Sarah 10:51

Because I've seen people do that with, like, old license plates too.

Brandi 10:53

Yeah,

Sarah 11:04

and like decorate a whole wall.

Sarah 11:04

That'd be really cool.

Brandi 11:05

So yeah, there's, there's cool things you can do with, like to display things like that. But yes, magnets way easier to travel with. Tsa does not like snow globes.

Rachael 11:08

I know

Brandi 11:08

they because it's got like um like a gel in it, almost in the water and stuff.

Brandi 11:10

Yeah that flags bright bright red on their monitors

Sarah 11:14

and it's not like you can really test it without opening the thing up, because, like I like I've tried it with candles and they have to swab those.

Brandi 11:20

You have to either throw it away or check your bag.

Rachael 11:22

Oh yeah, my mom was always a big collector of coffee mugs, and so I always liked to collect coffee mugs. But again, like you, only have so much cabinet space.

Rachael 11:31

Oh, that's really hard to like collect that many and

Brandi 11:35

you only drink so much coffee you.

Rachael 11:36

and once you find a, mug like you use that mug every time. Like you like it.

Sarah 11:39

It's, you know my dad collects mugs, but it's only specifically Waffle House mugs,

Rachael 11:45

really,

Sarah 11:47

and he will never get two of the same. He gets a kick and he doesn't really go to Waffle House all that often, but it's like every once in a while he's like

Rachael 11:54

so good

Sarah 11:55

and he really likes going it when he goes to like a new state or a new place that he hasn't been that has a Waffle House.

Brandi 12:00

Do the Waffle House mugs have a state on them?

Sarah 12:02

So from what my dad said, because he obviously, I think he befriended a manager of one of them-

Brandi 12:07

Of course he did

Sarah 12:08

, yeah, of course Each one will have different ones. They have like a new yearly logo ones they'll come out with. But he said it's kind of fun because each different Waffle House either like has some back in their, their back room of ones that haven't sold, or they're all kind of different and sometimes you'll find like antique ones, Sometimes you'll find new ones.

Brandi 12:28

So it's not like Starbucks, where they have like the state on them.

Sarah 12:31

I mean, it could be not to I don't know about it to my knowledge, but that's at least what my dad had said

Brandi 12:35

I've only gone to waffle house once in my life.

Sarah 12:37

Oh, I love a good waffle house. It's entertaining too good

Rachael 12:40

my friend

Sarah 12:41

breakfast in the show yeah, yeah.

Rachael 12:42

My friend came to visit from Chicago last year and he was literally like all I want to do when I come to see you is go to Waffle House. And we went

Brandi 12:50

disgusting,

Rachael 12:50

and to be fair, I was like really like you want to go to Waffle House, but okay, sure, if you want to go, let's go. We went and it was so fucking delicious.

Rachael 12:58

I was like this is so good and

Sarah 13:01

absolutely

Brandi 13:02

still the minute they put an american slice of cheese on my eggs.

Brandi 13:06

When I said I wanted, I was like this isn't for me

Rachael 13:10

honestly, I feel like you should give it another try, because the Waffle House that we used to go to at like 3 am after drinking all night is way different than the Waffle House today, with all the same character. We should try it.

Sarah 13:25

And they're never closed.

Rachael 13:26

She's giving me the evil eyes right now. She's like why would you even suggest?

Brandi 13:30

I will keep to IHOP.

Rachael 13:32

IHOP is just too commercialized

Sarah 13:34

Waffle House all the way. I mean.

Brandi 13:37

Waffle House isn't?

Sarah 13:42

Unless you're local to the area too. We have Ginghams.

Rachael 13:44

Ginghams is fucking delicious,

Sarah 13:46

you've never been to ginghams,

Rachael 13:47

oh my god

Brandi 13:48

and I lived 30 seconds from there and I never went.

Rachael 13:50

Okay, we're literally going to a concert on Thursday and we should go there afterwards for those, yeah,

Sarah 13:54

for those who don't know it's local to our area. It's a little 24 hour like home cooked comfort meal food ever you get breakfast, lunch, dinner, all of the above.

Sarah 14:04

They have a great menu.

Sarah 14:05

It's amazing

Rachael 14:06

okay, you want to hear some fun

Brandi 14:08

those yellow apartments behind it.

Brandi 14:10

That's where I used to live.

Rachael 14:12

Okay, my last two experiences.

Rachael 14:15

Going to Ginghams's I know this is not related to collectibles, but should know. My partner was joking around, pushed me out of the booth and I fell over in the middle of everybody and everybody's like what the fuck Is this girl drunk? I'm the only sober person here, people Okay. And then he proceeds to eat five bowls of chili, not exaggerating.

Rachael 14:35

He's like, obsessed with their chili.

Brandi 14:43

Yeah, the last time I saw him and you guys were like let's go to Gingham's, he's like I'm getting the chili and it was like 80 degrees out and I was like, ew,

Rachael 14:48

yep, gotta get that chili.

Sarah 14:49

The Waffle House mug is what, I'm sorry, collect. The other thing I think I have from my like childhood childhood are these, um,

Rachael 14:58

the mice.

Sarah 14:59

They were called the mice. Yeah, I have these little figurines. They're called charming tails and I think there are different like animals that they have, but I specifically have the mice one. That's what my grandmother assigned me as a child.

Sarah 15:09

I think I was mice and my sister was bunnies.

Rachael 15:12

Really,

Sarah 15:12

yes,

Rachael 15:12

that's cute

Sarah 15:13

and so I remember it was and I think these were. I don't know if they were big, like in the 90s, early 2000s, it was a big Hallmark thing. I can remember they always had them at hallmark in those like fancy little glass figurine stores,

Brandi 15:23

okay,

Sarah 15:23

and we would get one for like our birthday and for Christmas, and it'll always be a different one. So out of the ones that I have, I have a little like cute little mice statue for like every holiday, um, I have like the nativity scene, I have like a little um parade float of like this little train kind of thing and I have like a birthday one and like statue of liberty and all sorts of really cute little.

Rachael 15:47

Where do you keep them?

Brandi 15:48

I've never seen these

Sarah 15:50

at first I started rotating them like throughout the season and only bringing out like the holiday ones. But I don't have too too many for each holiday, so it'd be like four of them out at a time and then I'd forget to switch them out. So I kind of just took all of the non-holiday ones and I just keep them out, or, like all of my spring ones, all my summer ones, I have them by my plants, like on my kitchen, but

Brandi 16:09

I think I actually think I have seen them by your plants.

Sarah 16:11

They're kind of like all over the place, like wherever my cats can't jump up to get, because I don't want to.

Brandi 16:16

So when you guys get a bigger house, you're gonna get like um

Sarah 16:20

they will all be on display

Rachael 16:21

in like a cabinet

Brandi 16:22

aren't they called like curio cabinets?

Sarah 16:24

yeah, like those little display corner cabinets or something.

Brandi 16:27

Yeah, you're gonna have.

Brandi 16:27

Yeah, you're gonna

Sarah 16:28

have one of those

Brandi 16:29

you're gonna have one in each corner for something different yeah,

Rachael 16:32

didn't you also collect?

Rachael 16:33

didn't you ask for gnomes for your wedding?

Sarah 16:35

I always love gnomes.

Travel Mementos and Display Ideas

Sarah 16:36

That was right. I did add a quite a bit of gnomes on our wedding registry list.

Sarah 16:40

I really don't know why.

Sarah 16:41

I just wanted like little garden figures.

Rachael 16:43

Garden figures,

Sarah 16:44

I think it was when my mom and my dad moved out of my childhood home. My mom gifted me like a lot of different garden I don't know if you still call them figures Like flower beds, not even that. Like frogs or like you know a gnome sitting under a palm tree umbrella, like little statues you'd put like out in your yard or in your garden, like turtles

Brandi 17:08

I have the turtle,

Sarah 17:08

oh yeah, see, my mom does the frogs. So we have quite a bit of frogs, but gnomes are just cute. I don't know why I like gnomes. I'm getting into like those little fairy things too, like little fairy doors and like,

Brandi 17:14

oh the little fairy gardens

Sarah 17:15

yeah, I want to collect all those little things because I love little figures but I have.

Sarah 17:19

I need to get a proper display case because I can't just put them out on my countertops, because my cat has really been liking climbing on our main island and she's never done that before, or at least haven't caught her doing it. So I have to be careful with the little things I put out.

Rachael 17:32

Yeah,

Brandi 17:33

I get that.

Brandi 17:34

I can't really do puzzles anymore because my cat, like I, have to either finish it in one sitting.

Sarah 17:39

Oh, online puzzles,

Brandi 17:39

finish it in one sitting.

Brandi 17:40

I actually did get like a little roll-up thing, so that way, when I'm like I got that from my mom yeah, I was. Just I got tired of being like where the hell is this puzzle piece? And it's, there's like five of them scattered on the floor because of a cat

Rachael 17:49

can you collect.

Rachael 17:51

I've always like I like puzzles, but I'm like, once you're done with them, then you have to break them all up which is sad, or you can glue them and hang them.

Brandi 17:59

I saw on tiktok you take painter's tape and you do like

Sarah 18:05

oh, on the back, yeah, I've seen that too,

Brandi 18:08

and then you do it again vertically and then it almost makes it like this, like wavy thing, because they're all like double attached,

Sarah 18:14

that almost is better for, like the time that you do want to take it apart and like maybe redo it or something, because my mom would always mod podge them and then put them into a frame and hang them on the wall, but then you got to keep them for a while, so it'd be like one really cool puzzle,

Rachael 18:27

yeah

Sarah 18:28

or one, you can change out

Brandi 18:29

she had some kind of like case that she like slid them into

Sarah 18:32

oh

Brandi 18:33

and like to store them but again,

Rachael 18:36

I always wanted to collect something like that or like those paint by number kits.

Rachael 18:39

I'm like, oh, it'd be great if I could like paint by number and that. But then I'm like what am I gonna do with all this artwork?

Brandi 18:44

you throw it away just like, just like Painting with a Twist

Brandi 18:48

and like all those places. Like I had a couple of them but like I'm always rushed during those things because I'm too busy drinking and talking to you that they never turn out very good and I'm like I'm not hanging this up and I end up like I probably donated a couple and then I've thrown a couple away, like I'm like I literally just went for the social aspect

Sarah 19:05

we did a lot of those in college like, yeah, I mean, we I think it was before we were legal drinking age too we wanted to have like those painted home nights.

Sarah 19:13

So we had so many nights in college with my roommates and my friends who lived in our apartment complex and just come over and take a canvas and like paint something, like to make our own house artwork. So I have all of those still in my office.

Rachael 19:23

We did that one night at your house we did

Sarah 19:25

oh yeah, that was I think it was, and it was before, like I got my cricket too, like in college

Brandi 19:30

we also did.

Sarah 19:30

I just love making little canvases

Brandi 19:32

flower pots.

Rachael 19:33

Yeah, we painted flower pots that one night,

Brandi 19:34

yeah, but that kind of stuff's useful, but the bunch of canvases, I'm like I have too much stuff that I actually want to hang up that I'm not going to like put those god-awful paintings on, because I have an artistic ability and like I don't want those on display, like I'd rather take my time and paint something and then put it up.

Sarah 19:54

Yeah, and my office is not like nothing matches, like there's no theme, it is just. Here's a ton of artwork on one wall matches like there's no theme, it is just.

Brandi 20:05

it's not like Kozy just vomited her ideas up on the wall.

Sarah 20:06

Absolutely,

Brandi 20:06

I never would have guessed

Rachael 20:07

that this depends on the time in the day and how you're feeling, and all that good stuff

Brandi 20:11

girl, the day that your events are one thing, but the day your house has a set theme,

Sarah 20:17

yeah,

Brandi 20:18

it probably will day hell freezes over.

Sarah 20:19

Gen Z I have to look this up. Gen Gen Z is calling that something now.

Brandi 20:23

Yes, we talked about this a couple weeks ago.

Sarah 20:24

It's a certain like aesthetic.

Sarah 20:25

this like messy vibe Not messy vibe aesthetic, but it's.

Brandi 20:29

Oh God, what did you call it when you were telling me about it?

Sarah 20:31

Oh, I don't know, I can't remember now.

Rachael 20:32

Well, aren't they calling scrapbooking junk journaling?

Sarah 20:35

Okay,

Rachael 20:36

I feel slightly offended by that,

Sarah 20:38

but it was this concept of like you no longer have to have like a dedicated theme, like you just have the things that just make you happy and you put it up on your wall because you like it. Yeah,

Rachael 20:47

so it doesn't have to be a theme,

Sarah 20:49

right, and I'm like okay, gen Z, I see you. This is one thing that.

Sarah 20:52

I like

Rachael 20:52

the theme is happiness.

Sarah 20:54

Yes, this is one thing I like, because theme and I do like to collect random things and just buy things that make me happy and I want to like hang them up my wall, but nothing is ever really like coinciding together. But it doesn't have to.

Sarah 21:11

Gen Z says it doesn't have to

Brandi 21:13

and I was kind of stuck in that mindset of like, oh, this has to go with this and this has to go with this and then. I was just like

Sarah 21:20

who cares?

Brandi 21:22

I was like I have all this cool shit that I don't really I can't put on display because it doesn't match the aesthetic of

Sarah 21:27

who cares. We're over it yeah

Rachael 21:29

I collect plants!

Rachael 21:31

how

Rachael 21:31

did I not think about this as a collectible?

Sarah 21:32

Absolutely

Rachael 21:33

I collect the hell out of plants

Rachael 21:35

I have so many plants,

Sarah 21:36

the leaves that I find on the floor and I try to propagate them.

Rachael 21:41

Oh, okay,

Sarah 21:42

they're like it's not technically stealing some of them, some of them, but I mean.

Sarah 21:47

So I used to work at Lowe's back in college so like I mean, you know outside home and garden, if they're on the floor they're just gonna get swept up anyways. So like might as well see if I can propagate them. So there's been quite a few that I've propagated.

Brandi 22:00

I'm a pro at getting them to regrow, like I have this one plant and like it goes in vines and like I swear god every time I look at it like the half that's in the dirt is dead and then the other half of it's fine so I pull the whole thing out, cut the dead part off and then I stick the good part in dirt again and it grows all over again.

Brandi 22:18

Nice. So I can propagate, keeping things alive, unless they're succulents. I have I've killed many a succulent and I've killed many a cacti, nice. But the ones that are surviving, we're in for the long haul, so

Rachael 22:33

You gave me a plant for something. My birthday,

Brandi 22:36

yes,

Rachael 22:37

something. You gave me a plant for something and it was like in this little disco ball planter. I moved it into a different planter and it is thriving it is, like

Brandi 22:48

mine's still my disco ball.

Brandi 22:49

Maybe I need to move it.

Rachael 22:50

It probably needs to be moved into something bigger, but then I moved a smaller plant into the disco ball and that one's thriving too. So I'm just like rehoming.

Brandi 22:58

Yeah, mine's growing quite a bit and I'm sure it would just go crazy if I put it something bigger. So yeah, but my goal in my new bedroom is to put like hooks like on the wall and have them like actually hang and stuff so they can get, because there's only like one good spot in my house with sunlight right now and I'm like I can't have all of them right here

Sarah 23:18

that's what you want to do with our books, because I know you have quite a collection of books too.

Brandi 23:21

So many books actually. I just I got a new one in the mail earlier this week, so I have an updated um catalog which, if you want to know about my book catalog, check out my blog. Um, I am up to, I think, 588 now nice so my goal is 600 by the end of the year.

Rachael 23:45

That's badass

Brandi 23:46

I think.

Rachael 23:47

I went to the Strawberry Festival this weekend and I bought one of those mystery book packs. So it's like,

Brandi 23:53

oh, like a mystery date with a book.

Brandi 23:55

Yeah, it just gives you a synopsis or a trope.

Rachael 23:58

Yep,

Brandi 23:58

nice,

Rachael 23:59

I opened it up and it's about dog love. It's like two owners with Dalmatians and I'm sure they fall in love by the end.

Brandi 24:06

A little meet cute A little. 101 Dalmatians without Cruella.

Rachael 24:09

I know Exactly, so I'm excited about that.

Brandi 24:11

That sounds like a good one.

Sarah 24:13

Oh, I definitely have something to collect. When we talk about books, I have a collection. I have no idea where these came from, but I remember telling my parents that I really wanted to keep them because I wanted them for my children.

Sarah 24:24

It's like a collection of not kid kid books, like there's not, it's not like a picture book, but they're all of all of the um most popular books, like Huckleberry Finn like the Prince and the Pea like the classics, you know, Peter Pan like all those books, but they're probably like middle school age reading, um, so they still have like the story and then maybe every couple pages there's like a black and white photo or something.

Brandi 24:47

Yeah, like a sketch kind of.

Sarah 24:48

Yeah, um, I have all of those. There's probably like a collection of 30 of those books.

Rachael 24:53

Nice,

Sarah 24:53

Frankenstein's in there.

Brandi 24:54

Yeah, I collect different versions of Pride and Prejudice because it's my favorite.

Sarah 24:59

Oh,

Brandi 25:06

and what I've, I actually saw this and I wanted to do it when I went to Dubai a couple years ago. But we didn't really go to a bookstore or have the time to do it. But I saw this one lady she did. The Great Gatsby was her book. Every country she went to she got it in that language.

Sarah 25:19

So a book in a different language is what you collect.

Brandi 25:21

Like I would get Pride and Prejudice because it's a classic.

Toys and Childhood Collections

Brandi 25:24

Like you have to pick one that's like a classic. So yeah, like when I go to Norway later this year, like I want to try to go to a bookshop and find it,

Sarah 25:35

oh, that would be cool

Brandi 25:36

In Norwegian,

Rachael 25:38

that would be so cool,

Brandi 25:39

yeah.

Rachael 25:40

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite.

Brandi 25:41

That would be so cool, yeah that and The Hobbit, like if I could get one or the other.

Brandi 25:45

Like those are my two favorite books

Sarah 25:46

oh yeah

Rachael 25:48

I, oh okay, this is like newer for me um pins like

Brandi 25:53

oh yeah, because you got a couple at Dance fest

Rachael 25:55

yeah. So like I bought some pins at Dancef est last year and now I have like an obsession, so they go on my hiking backpack and I'm just like new pin hiking backpack.

Rachael 26:03

Let's go.

Sarah 26:04

There are so many more things popping up for me right now.

Sarah 26:06

Do you want to know how many ribbons.

Sarah 26:07

I have?

Rachael 26:08

what kind of ribbons?

Sarah 26:10

I have a ribbon from damn near every single volleyball played. Volleyball game I've ever played

Brandi 26:16

like a hair ribbon?

Sarah 26:17

like from my travel team. High school, mostly through college too, but mostly I would say elementary school, middle school, high school every single game.

Rachael 26:25

What do you mean by ribbon?

Sarah 26:26

like a ribbon you would put in your hair or like a bow we had a thing at the club that I played at where every single game girls would rotate and, like each person would just bring a couple ribbons and we each have like a theme ribbon for that game. So on my vault you said backpack. So on my volleyball backpack I have, oh my god, probably thousands

Rachael 26:43

really

Sarah 26:44

just like one string cut ribbon that's just tied on a knot to my

Brandi 26:47

probably frayed like hell now,

Sarah 26:49

oh yes most definitely yeah but that's reminding me of that I have so many of those that was so much fun to do as a kid, for like sports, like it was something that was just kind of I don't know and I see a lot of like.

Sarah 27:00

Maybe it's more softball that I see like online. They all do like the colored hair and they all like have something that they do together as like a team. But the ribbons were always really fun.

Sarah 27:07

I wonder if kids still do that or not

Brandi 27:09

oh yeah,

Sarah 27:09

I would think

Brandi 27:10

I think more of it now is like friendship bracelets and things like that but

Sarah 27:14

yeah

Brandi 27:14

which were, I think, big in our day too, but I feel like the Swifties have really

Sarah 27:19

yeah, because we went to Claire's and like bought the friendship like the half-half heart,

Brandi 27:24

the matching like the ones and they would turn your skin green after a couple of years,

Rachael 27:27

or the matching mood rings.

Rachael 27:28

Yeah, yeah, I miss those mood rings.

Sarah 27:32

Those were fun

Rachael 27:33

Tell me how I'm feeling

Sarah 27:35

and I feel like it really just went to your body temperature.

Brandi 27:37

It is Well. I always stuck mine in like ice water, so it turned pitch black. If that doesn't tell you my personality, I don't know what does.

Rachael 27:46

Oh my god, I love that

Brandi 27:48

Match my cold heart.

Sarah 27:50

I still have all of my VHS tapes from my childhood.

Rachael 27:53

That's pretty cool.

Brandi 27:54

I do too,

Sarah 27:55

and I kept the VHS slash DVD duo player because for some reason I'm like I don't know where I'm gonna find a vhs player, so I might as well keep this one, because I know it works

Brandi 28:05

yeah, I don't have either.

Brandi 28:06

I have all my dvds, all my vhs and not a single way to watch them.

Sarah 28:10

I have all of my old burn cds.

Brandi 28:13

I do too.

Sarah 28:14

I would love I don't have a player. I mean I could probably put it in the dvd player.

Brandi 28:18

Yeah, you can.

Sarah 28:20

I can put in my car. My car still has a cd player

Brandi 28:23

girl, you need

Brandi 28:23

This is actually my car that I just got is the first one without a cd player and it actually made me really sad because my first Jetta had a five disc changer and I lost my five favorite cds because the radio went down.

Sarah 28:40

Oh no,

Brandi 28:41

that's my original Avril, my original Sick Puppies like all five of my, like top five were stuck in this radio, and then, when I got my car accident with my other one, I had another good cd in there that someone had given me as a gift and so I lost that one too, because you can't get that one out.

Rachael 29:00

that's so sad,

Brandi 29:00

but now I'm like thank God this one doesn't have a CD player, because I can't keep losing these damn things. But yeah, I have my whole book of them.

Sarah 29:10

Oh yeah, and then.

Brandi 29:11

I also have the thing that went on the side.

Rachael 29:16

Oh, the visor,

Sarah 29:17

oh, on your visor yes,

Rachael 29:18

and mine was a two-layer.

Brandi 29:26

It had the velcro, so you could open it up and it had twice as many slots. Of course I always doubled them up anyways because you know you can't have too many burned days.

Sarah 29:30

I definitely want to go, I feel like the only. I think I'm pretty sure the cd that is actually in my car is the broadway Wicked soundtrack cd

Brandi 29:35

of course it is.

Sarah 29:36

I know all the other cds I have I feel like they're just burned ones, but they don't actually have the songs on them. They're vibes, they're like car ride vibes.

Brandi 29:45

Oh no, I wrote every single song in order.

Brandi 29:49

I'll have to find mine and bring them in

Sarah 29:50

Same. Oh, that should be a good episode.

Brandi 29:52

We should have a little jam sesh with our.

Brandi 29:54

But I'm a very nostalgic person and while I am trying to declutter my house, still after six months I think we've talked about this, like in February, about cleaning. Yeah, maybe March. I'm still decluttering, but I have such a hard time getting rid of sentimental things.

Sarah 30:09

Yes,

Brandi 30:10

so, hard.

Sarah 30:11

Yes,

Brandi 30:12

and I'm like trying to get changed my mindset, but like I'm borderline, I'm not like a dirty hoarder,

Rachael 30:21

she's a clean hoarder.

Brandi 30:22

You know, like I don't have rats in my house or like, but like I have so much shit for one person.

Sarah 30:29

Well, I feel like we're kind of at that age, with that generation too, like our parents, like kept everything, at least my parents did.

Sarah 30:35

They kept everything and they had everything from their parents and from their grandparents. And now I think our generation is like we're all moved out and some of us are married and have kids and everything, and I know my parents were like here's everything that we kept from our childhood. For you, take it, and I'm like I live in a 900 square foot house. I don't have a place to put all this stuff, but it's things I do want to keep.

Sarah 30:58

So we eventually had to get a storage unit for some things because, yeah,

Brandi 31:00

so I think my dad was so particular about keeping everything

Sarah 31:04

same

Brandi 31:05

because he got rid of all his stuff like he had like the entire original so he has that regret collection from the 80s. I mean they're worth without. This collection would be worth thousands now, and he sold it when he was in college just for some spending money and so like to this day.

Brandi 31:25

He is just like it makes him sick when he sees these prices at auction and stuff

Sarah 31:30

oh yeah

Brandi 31:31

pristine condition and so he kept all of my stuff because he's like, nope,

Rachael 31:37

you never know.

Rachael 31:37

you can Honestly okay, so my mom made me keep all of my Barbies.

Rachael 31:42

I could not open them.

Rachael 31:43

And like every birthday, I got like my birthday Barbie.

Rachael 31:46

They had like the you know turn however old, and the Barbies made it through all the way, up until three years ago actually. Like made it through the divorce, like made it into the apartment. Great,

Brandi 32:05

didn't survive Marie Kondo, did it?

Rachael 32:06

No, actually this was before the Marie Kondo days. I was living in my apartment and I was like I don't care about making money off these Barbies, like truly so. I'm just gonna gift them to my nieces and that was like their Christmas gift for a year

Brandi 32:15

I did have some of those like box collector ones, but then I

Rachael 32:19

I had the Wizard of Oz collection, I had all the Munchkins and I had Dorothy.

Brandi 32:22

That's probably some money.

Rachael 32:24

It was cute.

Brandi 32:25

I have all my American Girl doll stuff, all my Beanie Babies, all my Barbies, all my Legos, all of my normal stuffed animals.

Sarah 32:31

I don't think I have that.

Brandi 32:33

I have all of it still.

Sarah 32:35

We had all of them. We did American Girl dolls had all of them. I messed that up by cutting one of their

Sarah 32:42

I did it once.

Sarah 32:43

I'm sorry, Kirsten, I'm really sorry but, the haircut turned out really cute. It wasn't bad. I didn't like shave her head, I just gave her a little short haircut?

Brandi 32:49

Absolutely not

Sarah 32:51

yeah, my mom was not happy

Brandi 32:52

oh my god. No,

Sarah 32:53

she was not happy, so we didn't get any more American Girl dolls after that,

Brandi 32:56

oh my god.

Brandi 32:58

No, I didn't touch my barbie. No, I didn't touch my Barbie's hair. I didn't touch my doll.

Sarah 33:02

Oh, I always cut everyone's hair.

Brandi 33:04

No, oh, man,

Sarah 33:05

One Polly Pocket was bald. She's got a little afro going.

Rachael 33:07

Oh, I loved Polly Pocket,

Brandi 33:09

you were my nightmare.

Sarah 33:10

Yeah. I wanted to be your stylist for a little while. Oh, never someone else's.

Sarah 33:21

only my own.

Rachael 33:21

So what I did, I feel like I used to be very sentimental, and I still am to an extent, but I'm more selective with my things now. And what I did a few years ago is I had my cedar chest. Like I had my cedar chest, I have like a couple of tubs of things, like I have multiple things of all of my past experiences, so, but I went back through everything and if I did not like remember where it came from or like the memory attached to it, then I decided to get rid of it.

Brandi 33:44

Girl, you know how good my memory, my long-term memory, is.

Brandi 33:47

Short-term sucks now

Rachael 33:48

well, yeah, because you're a fucking genius,

Brandi 33:50

fucking everything I have a memory of

Rachael 33:52

Kozy and I Kozy and I don't remember what happened five minutes ago

Brandi 33:57

but 10 years ago, 20 years ago, oh, my friend from high school was like, hey, remember this one time. She's like I can't remember and I like launch into this detail. She's like this is why we're still friends, because I just mentioned something and you can just tell me exactly. So everything's got a fucking memory for me.

Nostalgia and Sentimental Attachments

Rachael 34:12

I mean hey, that's your brain capacity.

Rachael 34:23

I'm not remembering to those things. So I'm just like nah,

Sarah 34:24

I feel like I'm really bad with like the. I want to keep it because I want to do something with this or I want to use it for this. So I'm just going to keep it into a box and whenever that feeling or motivation to do it comes to me, I'll have it all ready. But I'm very bad at collecting.

Rachael 34:31

Aren't you planning on doing that with some of the stuff that you have, Brandi, like the quilts of, like concert t-shirts or like?

Brandi 34:38

yes, I have so many t-shirts that I want to make into quilts, so that's on my list. But now that I have like nieces and nephews and stuff and they're getting old enough now where I'll actually like I'll babysit if the parents need to, because they're potty trained, or like my sister just had her little girl. Like my barbies and stuff are gonna come in clutch. I'm not gonna have to buy new toys for my house when they come to visit, they're gonna have, I've got. I've got boy toys, I've got girl toys, like they're gonna be set

Sarah 35:08

same.

Sarah 35:09

That's why I kept all my beanie babies, like

Brandi 35:10

I have two totes.

Sarah 35:12

Oh my gosh. My sister and I, I remember as a kid, used to play zoo, like in my grandmother's basement, and we'd pair up all the animals like they would be in the zoo, the cats together and the bears together, and I'd drag her along in a little wagon and then bring the parents downstairs and like give them a zoo tour of everything.

Sarah 35:27

And that was, oh, that was another thing I can beg my parents to keep

Brandi 35:30

I cam tell you like grew up with siblings, because I have siblings but like I didn't see them very much, uh

Sarah 35:37

and you guys weren't close in age right.

Brandi 35:40

No, my sister and I are like eight years apart,

Sarah 35:41

okay,

Brandi 35:42

but like I had a wooden block set and I would make like an actual zoo layout with like the blocks as their pens.

Sarah 35:50

Nice

Brandi 35:50

or make them, little houses with my blocks

Sarah 35:52

oh nice.

Sarah 35:52

Oh yeah, we just took over the whole basement.

Sarah 35:54

This corner here, the couch, here is this. Yes,

Brandi 35:57

imagination was

Sarah 35:58

love it.

Brandi 36:00

I used to have all my Polly Pockets, but then I gave them to my little sister and I don't know what happened to them after that. Like the big ones, like the, the ones with, like the rubber clothes

Sarah 36:08

oh, yeah,

Brandi 36:09

I had so

Rachael 36:11

Polly Pockets were a lot of fun

Sarah 36:13

we had groovy girls and either one of you had groovy girls.

Sarah 36:16

I don't know if that's like a midwest thing or like just where I was from or like what group I associate with that had groovy girls. But I had all the groovy girls.

Brandi 36:25

It had to have been a little after older gen z's

Sarah 36:28

it might yeah, it might have been, because I just remember having those,

Rachael 36:32

yeah,

Sarah 36:33

and that was yeah, you're probably right, because it was after the Barbies and the Polly Pockets. It was kind of like moving out of dolls, but these were like,

Rachael 36:39

was it

Rachael 36:39

Diva? Like Diva Girls or something like that. I felt like those, or maybe we're talking about the same thing.

Sarah 36:45

These were kind of like things Cabbage Patch

Brandi 36:47

I was not

Sarah 36:48

Think like Cabbage Patch Kids and Bratz dolls had a baby, that's kind of how I referred to it.

Rachael 36:53

Ah, okay,

Sarah 36:53

I don't know if that's a really good idea or not, but because they were made like do you

Rachael 36:58

remember Furbies?

Sarah 36:58

Furbies, oh my god, you want to know something about Furbies.

Sarah 37:01

I might have said this in a previous episode or not, but my sister and I had a Furby. The last one that we got was like the mom of Furby, where she would give birth to a baby Furby

Brandi 37:11

they had that?

Sarah 37:11

they had it. She was supposed to hatch an egg and out came like a little stuffed animal, Furby

Rachael 37:15

that's weird.

Brandi 37:16

Did the stuffed animal one talk?

Sarah 37:18

no, it was just like a normal stuffed animal, but the mom one was the actual mechanical Furby and it was supposed to be. You have to care for her. You pet her so many times and, like you do all these things, eventually she's going to pop out an egg. My sister and I had that for probably two years thing would never happen out of that thing would never hatch.

Sarah 37:34

Nothing happened. We're like all right, it's kind of broken, kept it in the basement. I think I went out to college and I think my sister went off to college and there was one time we came back and we were going through stuff in the basement and we're like the Furby she still hasn't hatched. We touched this thing once and out pops the egg.

Rachael 37:52

You just weren't touching it in the right spot, I guess,

Sarah 37:54

or she just needed one more,

Brandi 37:56

oh god.

Rachael 37:57

Magic touch, obviously.

Sarah 37:59

Or she really just needed that one more touch that we just didn't do back then.

Rachael 38:03

Yeah, yeah, it's such a certain way.

Brandi 38:06

Those things were creepy. There's no way anyone had a collection of those, because one was terrifying enough.

Sarah 38:11

Yes, webkinz.

Rachael 38:13

I bet people have collections still.

Brandi 38:15

Oh, I'm sure they

Sarah 38:16

do, do you?

Sarah 38:17

remember the Webkinz?

Brandi 38:17

Those were after us.

Sarah 38:19

That was still after Okay, so that's still aging me. So I did get the Webkinz things because those are all with my Beanie Babies.

Rachael 38:24

I have no idea what that is.

Brandi 38:25

I think like it was a Beanie Baby, but it's like Neopets too.

Sarah 38:29

Yeah, you could like take the.

Sarah 38:30

You buy the stuffed animal, you get the code and then you can go and play in like take care of them.

Rachael 38:36

Interesting.

Sarah 38:37

So I have quite a bit of those from myself and my sister.

Brandi 38:40

My younger siblings did that, but I did not.

Sarah 38:41

I mostly liked them for the stuffed animals because I thought they were just kind of cute and like different looking. But that was also, like, I guess, my age video game era, like the Neopets and computer ROM games and Sims.

Rachael 38:55

I had my Game Boy.

Rachael 38:56

That was what I did.

Sarah 38:57

Yeah, I never had those

Brandi 38:58

Sims. I had my Game Boy. That was what I had. I still have my Game Boy Advance with my original Pokemon cartridges.

Rachael 39:04

I love that.

Brandi 39:05

I told you I don't get rid of shit.

Sarah 39:07

I still have the first version of the Wii that came out, because when that came out my dad was obsessed. He's like we can do all of these fun games and it's like exercising. He got the Wii Fit Board, we got bowling and the tennis rackets, all the attachments and everything. So I still have all of those but it's very outdated but it still works. I

Brandi 39:25

have a Wii U

Sarah 39:26

.

Brandi 39:26

I'm getting the Switch, this year Switch 2. Nice, that's going to be my Christmas present to myself. They're kind of pricey and I have to wait until after my trip.

Rachael 39:37

You know

Brandi 39:37

that's my Christmas present to myself.

Rachael 39:39

It's balance.

Sarah 39:40

Would there be one thing that you still have now that would be like your prized possession, like, is there one?

Sarah 39:51

thing that

Rachael 39:51

like if your house was burning down and you had to choose one thing?

Sarah 39:54

Yes,

Brandi 39:54

oh, this is my worst night. I'm terrified of my house burning down because of all the shit I would lose, like I would be. I'd have to get like put in a 72-hour hold, oh God, and it can't be my animals.

Brandi 40:08

Like it has to be like a

Sarah 40:09

yeah, no, I mean, obviously the animals are coming.

Rachael 40:11

The thing that you've kept your entire life,

Sarah 40:13

yes,

Rachael 40:13

or like plan to keep your entire life, because it is like your most prized possession.

Sarah 40:17

I'll go first because I already know mine. I have a stuffed animal that I got the day I was born. My cousin Missy, who's also my godmother, sewed it for me when she was in eighth grade. I named him Mr Snuggles. He's very, I think he's very cute.

Rachael 40:32

Do you snuggle with Mr Snuggles every

Rachael 40:34

night?

Sarah 40:34

I used to. I don't snuggle with him now, mostly because I keep him high up so the dog doesn't accidentally get him. Um, but I still have him and that would probably be something that I don't know. It's the first thing that came to my mind and I've had it since literally I was born, so I'd probably go back and get that I like that.

Brandi 40:51

Oh that's so tough

Sarah 40:52

thanks, Missy,

Brandi 40:52

you've literally hit on like one of my first, like the amount of times I've like I should get like a, a box together of like all the stuff that I like have to have, and then it's like a, it's like a go box where I just grab it.

Sarah 41:06

Well, that's that's my box in the storage unit. Like I made, I have my own like personal box and then Brian's own personal box. That's just all of the random things we're never gonna touch or never really gonna need, but we just need to keep. So we each have our own little box in the storage unit,

Brandi 41:21

so I think it would have been.

Brandi 41:28

I have a little Tupperware not Tupperware but Rubbermaid. It's like the size of a shoe box, but it's got all the printed photos from over the years that I've thrown in.

Sarah 41:38

Oh, there you go.

Brandi 41:39

Yep, and that probably would have been it, but I just actually thought of I have my cat luke's urn of ashes,

Sarah 41:48

oh,

Brandi 41:48

and I'm like yeah, I'd probably take him and like leave the photos wait a minute I couldn't leave him because those urns aren't like fireproof or anything, you know, like they would

Sarah 41:59

I was just gonna say that I mean,

Brandi 42:03

it's ashes

Sarah 42:04

put him in a fireproof case and that'll be fine, put him in a fireproof case and a fireproof urn, and and that'd work right.

Brandi 42:13

But here's the thing. So, like I have a fireproof safe for, like my documents and stuff

Sarah 42:17

oh yeah,

Brandi 42:18

it's like the briefcase size. I need to get a bigger one, but I someone told me this a while ago and it like dawned on me so, like, gun safes are fireproof as well and all that stuff you should have them in the bottom floor of your house, if you have a basement.

Sarah 42:33

Yes,

Brandi 42:33

it should be there, because if it's on your second or first story and your house, like, is burned, it's gonna fall through the floor. it's going to crack open, Right, and the smoke and the water and the chemicals from putting the fire out are going to ruin everything in it.

Sarah 42:50

That's true, that's a good point

Brandi 42:52

yeah, anything that you want in your fire, safe or whatever safe, you keep it in, keep it in your basement or on the first floor of your house or whatever, because

Sarah 43:02

and in tubs too, for water damage.

Sarah 43:04

I know so many people who have lost collections of cards or books or pictures um from just having them.

Brandi 43:11

Yeah, as I go through all the crap from my childhood because I do that is part of my purging plan at some point, um, I do plan on organizing things better, like labeling what shit is.

Sarah 43:23

Yes,

What We'd Save in a Fire

Brandi 43:24

because clear totes were kind of a thing then. But I feel like the old school totes were like those really thick rubber made you can't see in them.

Sarah 43:32

Yeah, that's why I got the qr codes for the outside.

Brandi 43:34

I have those I have those.

Brandi 43:35

I haven't fully used them to their full potential yet.

Sarah 43:38

Yeah,

Brandi 43:39

End goals.

Sarah 43:40

End goals. I gotta get rid of shit first, baby steps.

Brandi 43:43

But yeah, no, I have. I've collected so much stuff over the years and just kept it all, Like you know. Yeah, it's insane how much shit I have in my house.

Rachael 43:53

I feel like I don't have one thing, Like I don't really

Brandi 44:04

oh, I have

Rachael 44:05

I feel like I'm not sentimentally attached to anything so much that I can't live without it but I have kept for all these years is I had like this little jewelry box growing up and it's like white and on one side it's you open it up and it's like a necklace holder and then there are like four drawers on the left hand side and they're like ballet slippers on the front of it.

Brandi 44:20

Oh, I know that's which one you're talking about. I didn't have that one, but a couple of my friends had something yeah.

Rachael 44:24

And so when, hopefully when I have a daughter eventually, like that'll be like her jewelry box.

Brandi 44:29

Oh, that'd be cool.

Rachael 44:33

So I'm like and then I did not have these like this little mouse that somebody gave me I think it was like my grandma and it's like a little St Paddy's Day thing.

Rachael 44:40

And so.

Rachael 44:41

I feel like that little mouse in that jewelry box has like stuck with me for a long time.

Brandi 44:45

So those would be what you take in the fire.

Sarah 44:46

Those would be there,

Rachael 44:51

granted, I wouldn't be able to get to them in time because they're in my cedar chest or like in a barrel in my basement.

Sarah 44:55

Well, we'll put it into a place where yeah.

Rachael 44:57

What was that? One that you said you collected stuff and then somebody threw them away. And now you're recollecting.

Brandi 45:03

Oh, my Barneys, my stuffed Barneys,

Sarah 45:05

Barney,

Brandi 45:06

I was obsessed with Barney. So like by the age I think I was two, maybe just turned three, and I knew how to fully work VCR because I had the video like VHS, Barney, so it wasn't just on TV. I had the VHS party, so it wasn't just on TV. I had all the feature movies and everything, and that's how I would entertain myself, because I was also the oldest grandchild too, and everything. So we'd get together. So it was just me for four or five years. So I learned how to work the VCR so I could put one in play, knew how to rewind it, knew how to take it out and put another one in, start the process all over again. Loved Barney, and I had a lot of Barney stuffed animals. I just love stuffed animals in general. I think that's where my love of animals started. But my Barneys were like key and most of them got thrown away as a kid.

Brandi 46:04

And so my family has started. I just got a barney for my 32nd birthday.

Brandi 46:05

I'm still getting like if they find them like at an estate sale or something and they're clean and you know they, they buy them for me now.

Brandi 46:13

So I've got like six or seven of the

Rachael 46:14

they're just like the regular barnies too, like

Brandi 46:16

yeah,

Brandi 46:17

that's, yeah,

Rachael 46:17

okay, nothing special

Sarah 46:21

I'm pretty sure, I still have my vhs tape and I do have no memory of doing this or where it came from or why we did it, but I do have a vhs tape that is my face put into a Barney episode or song or something

Brandi 46:38

okay, I did not have that.

Sarah 46:40

I have a memory and I know that I have the tape and I have a weird memory of exactly what it looks like and I think they just would take your photo and they had a little music video and they just put your face on something.

Brandi 46:49

Yeah, honestly, I don't know where my Barney VHSs are. I think my grandma had them. I don't know if she still has them or not. She's moved a couple times, so they're either probably in storage or they got rid of them, which it is what it is, but my Barney collection's coming back up.

Brandi 47:04

But yeah, I have hundreds of stuffed animals, like that was my thing

Sarah 47:07

yeah

Brandi 47:07

, like even after high school, every Valentine's Day my dad would get me a stuffed animal and like one time I, my babysitter, would take us garage sailing and she'd give us like like a couple bucks and we could like go buy something. And I got this Little Foot. This thing was so soft and it was like two or three feet Like. It was like not life-size because it's a fucking dinosaur, but like I could like hug it.

Brandi 47:32

My dad got rid of it one time. My dad's really good at getting rid of stuff Because he got rid of my kitchen. We won't start with the kitchen, though. Um, it was a little play kitchen. To this day I'm still looking for one. They made it one year anyway. Trauma trauma is. My toys got taken away.

Brandi 47:52

I got rid of

Sarah 47:53

we will find one.

Brandi 47:54

My life's so terrible. Um, I mean, they're available, it's just you got a road trip to get them. Anyway, he got rid of it and low and behold that next summer we went garage saling again and I found another one and I bought it and he's like god damn it. I was like don't get rid of my stuff. I was like I still have it.

Brandi 48:14

I still have it

Sarah 48:15

oh, my god,

Brandi 48:16

and I was just like he learned after that like I will find a way you get rid of something that's coming back

Rachael 48:21

talk about blast from the past.

Rachael 48:22

I haven't thought of the Land Before Time since,

Brandi 48:25

oh gee so good, I cry

Sarah 48:27

good one

Rachael 48:27

really?

Brandi 48:29

yeah, I watch.

Brandi 48:30

I watch kids movies all the time

Sarah 48:32

same

Rachael 48:32

okay.

Rachael 48:33

No, I'm just more shocked, that you cry, because

Brandi 48:35

if an animal dies, I will.

Brandi 48:39

If a person dies, fuck them. You deserve that character you deserve stupid animal. It wasn't his fault

Rachael 48:46

Exactly.

Brandi 48:49

The mom Land Before Time.

Land Before Time and Emotional Attachments

Brandi 48:50

Game over. Fox and the Hound, game over. I won't watch Marly and Me. I won't watch Old Yeller. I won't. Yeah, none of those. Oh yeah, animal death get me every time.

Sarah 49:05

Yeah, can't do it.

Brandi 49:06

Tiktok, I'm on all these like pet pages and there's this trend now where it shows like a picture of as a puppy and then it's got this really sad song and then it flashes to them with their gray whiskers and everything. Oh, every time I'm like, oh, my god, like, hold back the tears. I, I swear to god, tiktok makes me cry like once a day.

Rachael 49:23

This is why you don't go on TikTok

Brandi 49:25

TikTok's life.

Sarah 49:27

It's addicting.

Brandi 49:28

Do you know how much shit I've learned from TikTok?

Sarah 49:30

So much

Rachael 49:30

I know I should be on there and. I just don't want to.

Sarah 49:33

It's a blessing and a curse.

Brandi 49:34

Yeah,

Sarah 49:35

most definitely.

Brandi 49:36

I do like that. It tells you like, hold up, You've been scrolling for too long, It'll after like an hour.

Rachael 49:42

That's why I have all my limits, Like I can only go on Instagram and Facebook five minutes a day.

Sarah 49:46

If only they did that for the things we collect. Stop, you have too many.

Brandi 49:51

And you know what I do, just like with the limits on my phone, I don't have that shit.

Rachael 49:55

15 more minutes.

Rachael 50:02

One more, 15 more minutes, it's fine, unlimited, let's go.

Sarah 50:05

The limit does not exist.

Brandi 50:06

I don't have good self-control me neither, in any aspect of my life.

Sarah 50:08

Nope, not at all.

Brandi 50:08

So if I want it, I'm gonna have it like that's just, that's, that's me,

Rachael 50:13

yeah I always.

Rachael 50:15

I feel like I say you know, I should have done this, I should have done that, and you know, Gina always tells me should shouldn't be a word in your vocabulary.

Sarah 50:23

Shoulda, woulda, coulda that's what my grandma used to say.

Rachael 50:25

Just do it.

Rachael 50:25

You're a grown-up, you can do whatever you want, she's a wise woman.

Brandi 50:32

Maybe that's why I don't go to her anymore, because I already knew all this.

Rachael 50:41

You're like I'm gonna fucking buy it.

Brandi 50:41

She's like I can't help you anymore. You already do all this.

Rachael 50:41

You're a self-empowered woman that just does what she wants whenever she wants, and you know.

Brandi 50:45

If you guys don't want to go to a concert, fuck it, I'll go by myself.

Rachael 50:48

Yeah, yeah,

Brandi 50:49

I mean I went. I traveled by myself all the time. Once I get my camper next year game over, y'all never see me.

Rachael 50:54

Bye,

Sarah 50:55

I'll be there.

Rachael 50:55

Bye.

Brandi 50:55

Yeah, you can come with.

Rachael 50:56

Oh, yeah,

Brandi 50:57

we'll have an extra bed,

Rachael 50:58

we'll tag along. I'll sleep in my freaking tent.

Brandi 51:01

Well, there'll be a queen and then all of us

Sarah 51:02

If there's room for us with all of her Barnies.

Rachael 51:04

Yeah,

Brandi 51:05

fuck off, I don't sleep with them. Okay, I don't sleep with them. I have a couple of sploosh pillows in my bedroom

Sarah 51:14

PillowPets! I had two, and that I had one with my name on it. That was pretty cool, it was a panda bear

Rachael 51:18

Aw

Sarah 51:19

I like that one.

Brandi 51:20

Yeah.

Sarah 51:21

Well, I think it's interesting of the things that we collect from our childhood, that we collect now. I'd be interested to see our listeners what kind of things you collect, things you have from your childhood, things that you wouldn't have thought to keep, because I think there's a lot of regret that comes with that too. You think of something and you're like, oh, I wish I would have kept this. I think I have that way with clothes. I go back and I look at pictures. I'm like what happened to that dress? What happened to that shirt? I have no idea what happened to it, but I got rid of it.

Rachael 51:52

Yeah, so let us know.

Sarah 51:53

Every once in a while you'll just have your purge moment and you just get rid of things and then I instantly regret it. So I agree, just keep everything, just find more room,

Rachael 52:00

or not

Sarah 52:00

Make more room, get a bigger house?

Brandi 52:01

I'm getting rid of some stuff, I mean, there's a limit.

Rachael 52:04

Does it bring you joy?

Sarah 52:05

Does it bring you joy?

Sarah 52:06

Yes. Does it serve a purpose?

Brandi 52:08

All of it does.

Sarah 52:08

Does it bring you joy?

Rachael 52:09

I'm like a broken record here,

Brandi 52:21

You guys should let us know your weirdest collection, give us your most prized collections.

Brandi 52:22

Yeah, give us some more ideas Kozy and I could use new collection,

Sarah 52:25

absolutely, absolutely

Brandi 52:25

I might be getting rid of stuff, but we can add back to it.

Sarah 52:27

Yeah, we're starting our lego collection too. We're slowly but surely we're getting there. My husband's got more of the lego collection than I do, but I'm starting.

Brandi 52:34

I'm starting the plant yes, the flowers.

Sarah 52:36

Yes, love that. Yep, send us pictures of your collection. I want to see how many you have. Yes, who's the actual collectors and who's just, you know, mediocre.

Rachael 52:45

I'm like a wannabe collector. I like have a few, but not that many.

Brandi 52:48

You've got ideas.

Rachael 52:49

Yeah, I've got ideas but then I hold myself back, whereas you all you

Brandi 53:01

always make more money.

Rachael 53:01

well, let us know. Post on Facebook and social media what you're collecting, what you're thinking about collecting, what you regret getting rid of as a kid,

Sarah 53:07

that's a good one

Rachael 53:11

let us know. We look forward to learning about your collections. And until next time,

Sarah 53:15

stay bold,

Brandi 53:16

stay empowered,

Brandi 53:17

Girl Gang out.