donofoblivion wrote:donofoblivion wrote:LOL--funny you should mention that

. I'm cleaning, putting up displays, and storing away boxes and Pops! even as we speak (or write, actually). I use different "systems" for display and storage in attempt to optimize them both. I think someone in the "Spring Cleaning" thread mentioned flattening boxes or stacking them inside themselves (I use these mainly with putting away some shipping and storage boxes that I want to keep, but certainly some OOB Pop! collectors have described flattening their Pop! boxes and storing the inserts separately--which could be good for condensing them into a space or transporting but seems like it would be a headache to keep up with which inserts go where; I'm sure that they must label them). Me personally, other than for traveling I prefer to keep everything intact; so what is important to me (generally speaking) is lightening the loads that I put away as much as possible. This means getting as many things on display as I can. That's where I really try to innovate.
I do have a climate-controlled, leased storage unit (which I would need anyway for my kids' college stuff), and this helps a lot. But even here, my biggest storage problem has to do with the size of some of the boxes for the sculptures I collect as well (some are really big). That actually is my biggest storage issue. I will post some additional pics showing some display and storage ideas and strategies I am currently working on. These won't be finished, but it'll be good to get some other opinions, and maybe some of what I'm doing will help some funatics with ideas.
I appreciate your comment(s).

Once again, thanks for your comments--and your question is a very good one. This response is very personal for me, but I thought I'd go ahead and share it with the community.
I do have more display options than some. About 10 years ago, my fiancée and I made plans to build a house--a rather large one where we would display art that we loved or even that we created ourselves, and our various collectibles and mementos. Enter Funko.
I'm not looking for any sympathy here...just giving you all some background to the story.
My fiancée died of misdiagnosed uterine cancer before the house was completed. She never saw it. After that, I realize it now, I went into a bit of depression for about 4 years. I only worked, ate, and slept. It's been 10 years since her untimely demise. The truth is that I am still recovering. My children are adults now; they are generally away in school or doing whatever it is that young people do. I have 3 daughters and one son, the latter of whom is autistic. He is very friendly, highly functional, and a gifted artist. He will always be with me. The house has a number of large rooms. As the kids are generally away, I have a lot of potential to express myself.
One of the very special areas is a garage unit that is attached to the house but has been converted into an additional bedroom. This is the area of the home that I have maintained specifically in the memory of my fiancée. It has her bed in it, with her linens on it. The house has a notable Tuscan flair; so some of the décor is rustic or simple. I recently found these unfinished, unfortunately expensive large planter boxes that I thought might work well as displays. So I modified the divided boxes and then stacked them vertically. I found that I could get 2 to 3 Pops!, protos, and/or boxes into a cubicle, without the space seeming crowded. This is one of the set-ups that is helping me to get a lot of my collection out of storage boxes and off the floor. Getting as many up on display as I can is an important goal for me. Based on the nature of this hobby--sure, some things do have to be put away. Hopefully I can share more on that at a later date. Right now, I am focused heavily on my displays.
I call my fiancée's room the "Princess" or Fairy Tale Room. Here are some pics:















As you will hopefully be able to appreciate, the slots of each cube are large enough that I can often display a common or prototype (out-of-box pieces [OOB] ) with a specialty item or in-box pieces. This way, I can collect and display different versions of a given item that complement one another. Sometimes I will mix non-identical items--like the silly rabbit, dodo, and leprechaun cereal icon combination, or the Wizard of Oz Pops! that you see in the pictures.
These "display boxes" are nothing more than unstained, natural-colored wood that I chose to go ahead and buy because I didn't want to spend the time or effort to do the work. There are some others in the house that I am experimenting painting or staining. The point here is that anyone with reasonable carpentry skills could probably do these at a fraction of the cost of what I paid for them. They are not fancy at all. Here is a pic of a single planter box that I am toying with elsewhere.

I have more pics, suggestions, examples from my collection on the way. This area and pics was what I had readily available. There are about 180 Pops! and boxes on that display so far--and since all the spaces are not filled and some are singlet, I guestimate that when I'm finished well over 200 items will be displayed (I counted boxes with 2 or 3 Pops! in them as "1 Pop!"). I don't think the area looks too busy. There is another horizontally positioned series of 3 planters/displays under the window in the 1st picture (the light coming thru the window makes these hard to see). That area, I suppose, will contain another 100-plus Pops! I think it is possible to display Pops! in such a way that they don't necessarily take over the entire room--but regardless of how we choose to display, optimizing our spaces will take some creativity and imagination.
Then again, sometimes we do just have to make hard choices on which items and how many we can collect. I didn't know I was going to get this much into this when I started. Still, I'm glad that I went ahead and just collected what I liked at the time; doing so has allowed me to complement this room that means so much to me. That's what I meant in earlier comments when I said the house means a lot to me. I think the room is tastefully done in memory of my fiancée, and I can't imagine going back and trying to collect a lot of these. I'm getting a lot of this stuff out of storage and putting it out, which I think is a sign that I am moving on. But this one area of the house, I have chosen to preserve...this fairy tale.
Long post and story (yet again), but I hope it encourages some funatics and possibly gives some additional ideas. Collecting is a labor of love for me.
More pics and rooms coming up in the future. Thanks for "listening".