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Home  >  Musings  >  Help! I’m An Airline Packrat…
Musings

Help! I’m An Airline Packrat…

Matthew Klint Posted onMarch 9, 2019March 9, 2019 31 Comments

A packrat is a person who saves unnecessary objects or hoards things. When it comes to airline-related paraphernalia, I am guilty as charged.

I know I’m not the only one, so let me address this more generally to all of us who love to hoard: are we sick or do we just love our airline amenities?

My house may look clean, but open up my closet and you’ll find stacks of airline premium cabin menus and amenity kits. Visit my underwear drawer and you’ll see the primary contents are airline pajamas. Step into my garage and you’ll see box after box of airline menus, models, amenity kits, pajamas, ticket jackets, boarding passes, and other memorabilia. 

I consciously try not to fill my house with unnecessary material objects. But I struggle oh so much with airline-related stuff. My problem is that I have a photographic memory and every time I look at a menu or amenity kit, I can suddenly vividly recall the flight I collected it on. It’s my hobby and passion. How can I just throw this stuff away?

Yet I don’t live in a mansion. Quite the contrary, I live in a cottage. Space is limited and part of me would love to be liberated from all my dear airline memorabilia. 

Theoretically, I could scan all my menus and discard them. I could give away all my amenity kits to charity with the exception of my Rimowa kits from ANA, EVA, Lufthansa, and Thai. I don’t need 100 pairs of airline pajamas: the only ones I wear on a regular basis are my Emirates, Air France, Lufthansa, and Air Serbia ones.

But I’ve got a problem. I can’t bear throw to it away. And so the boxes grow. The piles grow. And I’m left wallowing in material objects I will one day leave behind.

CONCLUSION

Am I alone or are some of you experiencing the same thing? What do you recommend I do with all this “stuff” that has accumulated over the years? (I know the answer is to throw away, but I mean for someone who cannot bring himself to throw it away…).

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

31 Comments

  1. Gene Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 12:48 pm

    @ Matthew — Donate the stuff to veterans or homeless organizations. It is very liberating.

  2. Howard Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    Buy a bigger house.

    Or build a shed.

    • Matthew Reply
      March 10, 2019 at 8:50 am

      That’s what my wife says!

  3. WR2 Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 1:18 pm

    amenity kits and pajamas I can understand as they are useful…but boarding passes? menus? Are you ever going to look at these things again? Take a picture of them and throw them away.

  4. Bill n DC Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Best wishes, One of my prime efforts in retirement is throwing stuff away 🙂

    A few weeks ago I took all the pajamas and amenity kits to the neighborhood shelter.

    But I understand your attachment – safe landings

  5. JetAway Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 2:27 pm

    I agree with @a-rent a storage unit. A lot of people do that for their hobbies or collectibles.

  6. Christian Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 4:25 pm

    It’s nice to keep a thing or two as a keepsake or memento. More is just a hassle. If you have a homeless shelter that you like, maybe offer up some duplicates, at least. Condolences on the photographic memory, by the way. A major blessing and curse all at once, but one that can never be undone.

  7. Jack Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 4:46 pm

    I also have a box of amenity kits. Finally going to get rid of it when I move. Take a picture and move on. That’s my motto.

  8. Cleo Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    A storage unit.? To just sit there and pay for month after month? Really? When will you ever touch it? I had lunch with a new acquaintance on Friday who moved 10 years ago. Put stuff in storage and hasn’t even gone to the unit! Don’t make that mistake!
    Give it away! It is truly truly freeing!

  9. Javier Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 4:57 pm

    I would be more than happy on taking some pijamas away from you!

  10. Greg Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    I still have TWA amenity kits and menus, much of which is sitting in a storage locker, some of which is in my office. My wife has become an enabler, buying me things like the glasses from the press plane from Nixon’s last foreign trip, the menu from the press plane for his famous trip to China, and the menu and boarding passes from one of Pope John Paul II’s trips on TWA to the US.

    She knows how much pleasure, nay, joy, they bring me, and they’re cheaper than golf clubs.

    • Matthew Reply
      March 10, 2019 at 8:54 am

      Great memories!

  11. James Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 7:23 pm

    Make a detailed photo of each item, put in a gallery in this blog. Share the joy.

    • Matthew Reply
      March 10, 2019 at 8:51 am

      Yes, would love to do that but so many of them are unopened. I hate to disturb them.

  12. Justin Reply
    March 9, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    Yes, I knew I wasn’t alone!

    My vice is throw blankets. The one from the new Singapore A380 suite matches my guest room nicely.

    • Matthew Reply
      March 10, 2019 at 8:52 am

      One of the Givenchy ones?

      • Justin Reply
        March 11, 2019 at 12:41 am

        You got it.

        • Matthew Reply
          March 11, 2019 at 12:42 am

          I like mine too.

  13. tgt Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 1:47 am

    Get rid of it all. I never even bring this stuff off the plane. You don’t need any of this.

  14. Phil G Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 3:09 am

    I collect the amenity kits and give them out to soldiers I work with. (I’m not military, just contract to work with them). They love it and I usually can add some snacks or candies to it.

    My boss LOVES this idea so much, he even lets me use the company Fedex account to send/receive stuff.
    If interested, send me an email and I can give you my fedex account number and can send you back some pictures of smiling soldiers 🙂

  15. Paolo Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 3:57 am

    Keep the quality items and those with sentimental value, keep older timetables/menus, ditch the rest.
    Why throw out things you enjoy? Send them to storage . It’s harmless fun.
    Document everything. Just as you blog is an aide-memoire, so too the documentation of your collection will be something useful and great in a few years .

  16. Hkl Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 7:55 am

    Watch Marie Kondo – after watching 2 episodes it gave me the inspiration to clean up! (I also had 3 years worth of boarding passes – almost 500 of them!)

  17. Arusha Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 8:45 am

    I would start with asking myself ‘does keeping this particular item actually make me happy?’, and take it from there.
    If the answer is no/not sure , then i let go of it.
    If the answer is yes, then I would decide whether keeping it or donating it would make me happiest.
    Good luck!
    Arusha

  18. hbilbao Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 9:29 am

    You could auction most of them, publicize your auction here (I’d love to place a bid for a couple of amenity kits), have a lot of fun creating the descriptions for each item -while remembering your flights- and donate the proceedings to charity. And do it all over again in a couple of years.

    • Matthew Reply
      March 10, 2019 at 9:30 am

      I already donated a huge batch of amenity kits to charity several years ago that were supposed to be auctioned and ended up (I believe) being thrown away. Need to do it right this time.

      • Paolo Reply
        March 11, 2019 at 1:00 am

        They sell at auction, as do PJs (I guess the buyers then sell them on eBay). I now sell them once a year via my local auction house and donate the money to charity. I still give some to a shelter where I do some volunteer work ( but replace the items inside with alternatives/more appropriate).

  19. Imperator Reply
    March 10, 2019 at 5:47 pm

    I have no advice to give. For me to offer Matthew advice would be akin to an alcoholic telling someone how to kick the booze.

    I love my airline memorabilia. And it’s not going anywhere despite the husband’s constantly mutterings of “useless clutter”. I don’t save pajamas and I now giveaway the amenities kits (though I still have the kit from my inaugural first class flight: BA from BOS to LHR back in 1986). However, I do save & love the menus and boarding passes. Oh, and I will fiercely protect my collection of airline timetables from the 1970’s (including Sabena, UTA, Varig, East African Airways. Interflug and other gems). I’ve been toying with the idea of wallpapering my study (which the husband obstinately keeps calling the guest bedroom) with the menus and boarding passes.

    My most prized piece of airline memorabilia is a swizzle stick. It’s from a cocktail my dad enjoyed on a Hamburg to New York flight back in 1958 aboard a Lufthansa Lockheed Constellation. I was five months old and my family was emigrating from Denmark to the US, so I have an especially emotional attachment to that little blue stick with the faded gold crane.

  20. Rob Reply
    March 11, 2019 at 8:30 am

    My other half does exactly the same thing. The heaps drive me nuts. Fortunately, he doesn’t really notice when I toss out the 2nd (3rd or 20th) amenity kit copy.

  21. Mattt Reply
    March 11, 2019 at 4:24 pm

    I’m getting a couple end tables made with a collage of boarding passes under the glass… should look pretty cool. And old passport pages will be made into coasters, same idea.

    But Matthew, let’s be honest, you do not have a photographic memory. That’s a silly idea to have based on you remembering some meals from flights…

    • Matthew Reply
      March 11, 2019 at 4:26 pm

      I’m not sure what you mean. I can look at a domestic United meal picture from 15 years ago and remember the flight, trip, and the day.

  22. Esteban Reply
    March 13, 2019 at 4:09 am

    Keep them. I used to have a large collection of magazines, stickers, timetables, soaps ( the little ones from the 80’s), menus, etc. They all went to the trash when we moved.
    I still regret that decision.

    I had memorabilia and miscellaneous from Pan Am, Braniff, BCal, Challenger Air, Avensa, Swissair, UTA, etc. How can you replace that?

    And a picture is not enough. If you are crazy about airlines, keeping a picture won’t do it.

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