Fading interest cycle

[fan-of-fans]

Has anyone noticed having fading interests in things?

A lot of times I'll get interested in something for a while, then once I learn about it, and obtain it, then I start to forget it and it collects dust for a while.

Vacuums, and fans, which are my main two interests, I'm like this about in spurts. I'll get really interested in either for a while, then get bored with it and not think about it for a while, but I invariably always come back a few months or a year later, for some reason. I guess seeing one or some memory something reminds me of it, and I get interested once more.

What brought this thought on was my Sunbeam Mixmaster which has been sitting on my counter unused for probably about two years. For a while I'd mix up some waffle batter in it, but it seems the last couple years I've lost interest in it and it's collected dust. Tonight when I was moving some items around I thought for a second "Why did I need this thing?"

I was reading a thread on here I made about them back in 2017. I got "obsessed" with mixers for a while, learned about them, acquired a few from thrift stores and eBay, then the interest waned.

My KitchenAid blender has also been sitting unused for about the same amount of time. I remember I got really interested in those for a while too.

So goes the trend of seeing something, wanting to know more about model variations and production dates, acquiring one or two and then getting bored of it.

I really need to stop acquiring things out of interest in learning about them and instead rely on pictures, videos or at most examining them in thrift stores but leaving them for someone else to take home.

 

[madman]

Yep. Same. For me, I think, it's not so much my interest that fades, but rather my eagerness to fix stuff. Take my antique TV, for example. Got it, worked on it for months, got tired of working on it, left it for a year or so, and resumed, and even then pretty much only because I was tired of looking at it disassembled.

 

[huskyvacs]

It happens when you have too many hobbies. The brain can only focus on so much information at a time. Also as you grow up (from childhood through teenager into young adult) you shift interest in things too. I used to collect old computers and flashlights and exit signs when I was a teenager, and those tapered off and my interest did too. I still use and have old computers for different purposes, but I no longer buy them just to collect them. I'm ready to sell my flashlight collection as I just don;t have any joy in iot anymore, and my exit signs are too special to just get rid of because I learned electrical work on them myself, and a lot of them are rare. I just need to present them nicer to get a better appreciation for them.

My main collections now I focus on are Videogames, VHS tapes, diecast cars, and vacuums. Collections I still keep but only add to when fate allows it (when i come across them randomly in life) are stamps, Legos, and old cell phones.

It's hard to have much more collections than that in a 800sqft house, it's already crowded with the vacuums themselves!

I have a lot of stuff sorted out keep/sell that I have to go through and actually post online that I want to get rid of, it just a matter of organizing a shipping station in my garage so I can photograph, weigh stuff, and list it easily.

 

[suckolux]

Mixers and vacuums here, I just rotate them. Deffinatly more interest when its new to me, or just fixed

 

[dysonman1]

Mixers and vacuums are my main collecting items. With vacuums, the vintage ones always have to take a back seat to the new ones I fix for a living. I get bored sometimes, but after 40 years fixing and selling vacuums for a living I had to find a way to keep my interest. Vacuumland is one such way for me. Also my facebook vacuum collecting group(s). And Instagram. So much fun lately.

 

[human]

I can relate...

I was pretty into Mixmasters a few years ago, had about four or five of them, but I came to realize how much space they were taking up for how little I use them and began paring down the collection. I gave one to my church's rummage sale, another to a woman I was dating at the time, and one to my niece, which leaves me with two and that's exactly twice as many as I need.

My interest in vacuums also has peaks and valleys. When I acquire one, I'll end up deciding to do some work on one or two that I already have and that will start the obsession cycle back up. I lost one a little over a year ago and that really put 'vacquisitions' into overdrive.

My most recent obsessive thing is Tom Swift books. I had a few from my childhood and acquired a couple more to go with them a few years ago and for some reason, a couple of weeks ago, I started wanting to expand my collection, especially the original ones from the 1910s, '20s and '30s. I've bought about 20 TS books in the last two weeks and have gone so far as to create a checklist of titles on my computer for both the TS and TS Jr. series. I need to stop; in fact, my life would be much more sane if eBay didn't exist.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I've ended up with several mixers.

But, it hasn't become a 'thing'...it just sort of happened.
There are a few Dormeyers, old Sunbeams, new Sunbeams, a few Kitchenaids, (New). But, I hope someone can use the "Dormies".

 

[kirbyklekter]

Vacuums, mixers and...

you would think I collected VCR's because I have 14 stored. I had to learn how to work on them as they are so mechanical and the repair shops charged a lot. So I took a one day class on repairing them and bought some really good books. This was back when VCR's were king. You could spend a princely sum on a full featured TOL model. I have a JVC that I paid 1000.00 for that was their HiFi digital 8 head with a tilt out control panel with so many features and came in a part wood and part metal enclosure.

Their is no way I would toss this machine out even though I rarely use it. All of the vcr's I own belonged to friends and family until they made the switch to dvd. I was the person who kept these machines running and all these years later they all still work. Every once in a while I pull one out and watch a movie just to give a vcr a run to keep belts from getting flat spots and parts lubed. I inherited about 300 tapes my step mom made. She took my advice and always used the better quality tapes like Maxell Gold and they look as good as ever.My little nephew stuffed his cheeseburger through the front of my brothers new vcr and I was able to restore his machine after a labor intense cleaning. The machine did take the cheeseburger and try to load it on to the video drum cylinder, not covered on the warantee.

I lose interest for a while and then later I regain it back. Often times collecting/restoring takes a back seat to what's going on at the time, it's like a cooling off period. Vacumland definitely helps me stay enthusiastic about vacuums, as there aren't a lot of people living near me who collect, nobody that I know of for sure. I feel like the Maytag Repair guy sometimes!
's

 

[human]

Might as well hoard up a few VCR's if you still watch VHS tapes since they stopped making the machines three or four years ago. I only have one VCR left. It's a dual-well VCR/DVD combo that I bought new in 2004. I don't remember the last time I watched a DVD or a VHS tape on it, although I do watch DVDs elsewhere in the house.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I still have a bunch of Disney VHS movies among other shows. I used to record a lot of shows on tapes when I was a kid, but often didn't label the tapes!

There's a Sony DVD/VCR in the living room, got it Christmas 2007, but it's been several years since I've used it. It does not have a channel tuner for the VCR, so you had to use a cable or tuner box with it (I guess because it was made when TV was going to digital).

I remember our Goldstar VCR we used to have, they were built heavy back in the 80s. I remember 4 head VCRS were considered high end in the 90s, 2 heads were the budget models, I didn't realize they made an 8 head!

 

[human]

Back in '94, I moved into an apartment and discovered the cable was hooked up (it wasn't supposed to be) so I went out and bought a GE 4-head VCR that had a built-in cable tuner. I still had an old fashioned TV with tuning knobs back then, so it also gave me a remote with which to change channels. It was a pretty sweet workaround for the technology of that time period. Oh, how I miss those good old analog days...

 

[kirbyklekter]

What they usually did

with VCR's is include the audio heads in the count . So an 8 head unit would really have 5 video and 3 audio heads. Hitachi had a real good machine that only had 3 video heads and two audio. It really had 3 v-heads, one of which was a dedicated head for special effects like 6 speeds forward and backwards and absolutely no jitter when paused or using slow motion.They all referred to that as a "trick" head.

One nice thing about VCR's was that you could record music on them that was on par with Reel to Reel audio tape recorders. The wider tape could hold more information. If your VCR was a stereo HiFi deck or Super Eight all the better!They sounded a lot better than regular cassette tapes. I didn't record that many that way because I couldn't play them in the cars tape deck!

And remember: Be kind, rewind!