BlytheLife.com opened in July 2010 and is a blog and resource hub for all things Blythe!
QOTW: How many is too many?
Written on September 1, 2014 at 12:00 pm by MichelleFiled under: Question of the Week
“I’ve reached my limit.” “I’d really like to downsize.” “One in, one out. I can’t go over 5.”
I’m sure these are all very familiar words that have been echoed through online forums and at doll meets. A lot of people have a maximum number of dolls that they’d like to stick to. I did too, once upon a time.
When I got my first Blythe, a Cappuccino Chat (Sophie), I told myself that I was only going to have one. Then a month later, my Love Mission (Belarus) arrived. That lasted long.
Then I told myself that I would only have five dolls. Then that became six. Then I bought my Kenner (Emmalynn), who is number seven.
Kenner #1, Emmalynn.
Of course the next logical ‘limit’ number was ten. So I told myself “Ten’s a nice round number. I’ll stop at ten.”
Blythe #15, a Friends With Blythe custom named “Cameo”.
That did not last long. How many dolls do I currently have? Well, I recently added #15. Well, #15 if you don’t include my Middie, Petites or other dolls. As it is, at 15 I still do not have a BL, which I would very much love to add to my doll family one day. Which would mean a minimum of 16 dolls. Is that too much? I know some people are probably reading this and thinking “15? That’s nothing! I have 2-5x more than you!” and I think that’s great! The more dolls the merrier, right? But then I’m sure there’s also some people reading and thinking “15? I have 1. Clearly I have more self-control than you do if you couldn’t keep with your original self-imposed limit!” and if you managed to stay at one, I do applaud your self control because I would find it very hard to downsize, at this point, to one Blythe.
How many dolls is too many dolls?
Agggggg u say u have a small number 1 is not enough
I’ve got +/- 15-20. I did initially feel a need to downsize, but as I came to realise, this was based more on other peoples’ reactions to the size of my collection rather than how I felt about it. So now? I am letting one or two go – the girls I haven’t felt a “spark” for, even after a length of time. And there are still girls arriving. I think the answer is – it’s really personal number – and different for everyone. 🙂
I’m rather hoping that my “personal number” will end up even higher as the years go by 😉 You know, once I have the money and the space (very important!) for everything.
I don’t know if I have ever had a number. I have never let a doll go because I “needed to downsize” so I guess I have never felt that they are unmanageable-y many. Right now I have nine girls, and there will be a tenth eventually…just not for awhile (due more to finances than anything else) I don’t give all of my girls camera time or take them all out and about everyday, but they all bring me something that spurs me to keep them and love them.
I’ve only ever let go of one doll, and that’s because she sat around in her box, NRFB, for over a year, neatly tucked back into her shipper! And she found a great new home where she was loved and photographed 🙂
How do you organize/display your dolls, Michelle? Or rather, where do you put them? Do you keep them all in the same area or shelf? I sometimes wonder if having physical room is a real issue, but then I see people with, like, 20+ or 50+ dolls and am like, “How do they even store or display their dolls??”
All of my Neos get displayed on a shelf (I have a shelf unit that’s a bit like a mini Expedit). My Kenners get tucked away in a drawer though, so that they aren’t exposed indirectly to a lot of sunlight. 🙂