Exploring the Idea of Treasures with Kids

Last (school) year my daughter brought home a Scholastic magazine from school, as she did from time to time. They’d read the articles in class and then she’d bring it home when they were done.

This article made me smile, as it talks about “stuff.” In fact, it asks the question “Toys or Treasures?” which reminds me of what we often think about: “is this item ordinary, or extraordinary?”

This article, from “The Treasure Issue”, is for lower elementary-aged kids. It spends a lot of time talking about how some toys from the 70s and 80s are now worth thousands of dollars.

But they also dedicated a page to sharing three kids’ stories: Pepper and her stuffed frog, Myles and his shark tooth, and Arturo and his handmade creations. Cool! These kids get it – it’s not always about the money, sometimes it’s about how something makes you feel.

Do you have items from your childhood that are particularly close to your heart? I still have a lot from my childhood. I probably have too much, and I should start asking myself some tough downsizing questions one of these days.

Speaking of downsizing questions, have you downloaded our new free resource yet? Grab your copy of “Downsizing? 3 Questions to Ask” free download on our resources tab.

Issue: Scholastic Storyworks 2 December 2023/January 2024

Introducing Our New Podcast!

Listen to the trailer for our new podcast here! Search for Exhibitsmith on Apple Podcasts!

I am so excited to tell you about a little something I’ve been working on. Over the course of my career, I’ve experienced a lot of amazing, strange, and unbelievable things behind the scenes in museum collections storage facilities.

I’ve also had a lot of opportunities to learn about how we as a society deal with material culture (aka stuff). And I mean how we deal with all our stuff. Old stuff, new stuff, important stuff, irrelevant stuff. National treasures. Garbage. Stuff. With my background working with museum artifact collections and archives of all shapes and sizes, I have a lot of professional and personal thoughts about this that I’m eager to share with you.

And if I’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that if a person has a lot to say, they should start a podcast.

Ha!

In any event, that’s what I’ve decided to do. Introducing Exhibitsmith, a podcast brought to you by me, Lindsey Smith. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a lot of stuff - and you might not know what to do with it. I love to help people interpret, preserve, and better understand what they have and what their options are to deal with it. This process can be very overwhelming, especially if you are downsizing, inheriting a houseful of items, or are just tired of the stress or the mess. Believe it or not, I truly believe that artifact and heirloom preservation can be both easy and fun. In fact, I’ve even developed a series of introductory-level workshops and courses that prove my point!

This is why collections assessments are my favorite part of collections consulting. To conduct a collections assessment, I visit a museum or organization’s collection, assess their collection’s current state, and understand their available resources. From there, I develop an easy-to-understand report and plan of action to help the staff go from being completely lost and overwhelmed to feeling confident that they will reach their goals. Their confidence is the best compliment they can give me. I’m looking forward to sharing many aspects of this process with you, too.

So, I invite you to sit back, relax, and listen to my professional thoughts, personal musings, and the exciting and sometimes ridiculous stories that I’ve encountered while in the trenches working with old stuff.