Scrunchies, hoarding and stories...

I have always been a hoarder. I think it’s a reaction to my father’s ‘If it hasn’t been used in six months then it should be thrown out’. To this day, my poor mum comes home to find the kitchen cupboards rearranged as dad has done a spot of culling. Ebay has been a boon for him!

When someone offers me their ‘stuff’, I can’t say ‘no’. So the other day, when I was offered an older friend’s complete scrunchie collection—collected over the past 30 years—how could I refuse? The large box filled with different colours, fabrics and sizes looked so cheery and beautiful and seemed to be calling my name.

My creative mind keeps telling me that ‘you never know when you might need 50 or so scrunchies for an 80’s theme party’ or ‘I’m sure they could be turned into an amazing fabric sculpture’ while the other side of me is saying ‘take them to the op shop…now!’

Actually we’ve had heaps of fun with them. The baby loves pulling them out of the box and throwing them in the air. My nearly 3-year-old boy loves putting them all up his arms and legs and turning himself into a colourful caterpillar. And, we all had fun the other night with my step-daughter dressing up and creating crazy hairstyles…dogs included.

I’m sure the reasons for hoarding are many and varied. I know part of it for me is about holding on to history, sort of documenting events and lives through objects. It’s the same reason I love writing and especially love working on Barefoot. Stories and words are another way of holding the history of an event or a person. We all use stories as a way of being anchored to the world and connected to others…and Barefoot is all about stories and connection.

So, for now the scrunchies are staying…you might even see a picture of an amazing scrunchie sculpture posted on this blog sometime soon!

Rachel