By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Downsizing may be essential before a move, but that doesn’t mean everything has to go. For Marilyn Paul, who lives at Brooksby, there is plenty of space in her apartment for her treasured collectibles.

Paul doesn’t consider herself a collector of any one thing, but through the years she has accumulated small collections of giraffe figurines, Swarovski crystal animals, thimbles, and miniature furniture.

As a hobby, Paul and her husband ran a dollhouse furniture show in nearby Danvers, Mass., twice a year for 15 years.

"As a result of having it for so many years, I started to collect a lot of little things I enjoyed," Paul says.

Today her thimble collection resides in an old printer’s tray, which looks like a small wooden frame of shelves. Paul says the tray acts like a frame, but it’s not holding any ordinary picture.

"It’s more alive than just a picture," she says.

Though the thimble collection has grown to more than 50, leaving little room in the printer’s tray, Paul is not opposed to picking up new, meaningful items if she has the space.

"If I go to the shows and something attracts me, I add it to my collection if it has a spot on the shelf," she says. "But just having it on a bureau, I don’t want that."