10 things I collect from my travels & how I’ve organized them

*** Please note that this post contains sponsored links

Welcome to the post “10 things I collect from my travels & how I’ve organized them”.

As 2020 has been a bit of a disaster, to say the least, most of us were not able to travel much, if at all.

To cheer myself up during that difficult time, I spent some time organizing my travel souvenirs.

Looking at all of the things that I have collected over the years, gave me the idea to write a blog post about it.

Now I have to warn you, I am pretty minimalistic with my possessions. However, when it comes to travel memorabilia, I unleash a level of hoarding that is legit crazy.

I have no regrets though, as looking at all of those items makes me happy to have had the chance to visit all these places.

As well as it gives me hope for the future that hopefully soon when it is safe to do so, we can go back to exploring the world. 

Below is my list of 10 things I collect from my travels as well as how I have organized them.

Hopefully, you can get some ideas for items you would like to collect in the future or if you have a huge collection like me, how to organize it and display it.

1. Fridge Magnets

First, we have the widely popular Fridge Magnets. For the longest time, I was looking for a way to display them.

There are currently other things on the fridge and a lot of the magnets that I have tried to put up on the fridge have been knocked off before.

This is why I am afraid to display them on an actual fridge because I don’t want to break or damage them (I am staring at my dog right now, who is the main suspect!). 

So for the longest time they were just chillin’ in a drawer. However, I found this black magnet board from IKEA that you can put up on the wall. Here is a link to it (not aff). 

Also, you can also use it as a chalkboard to write on if you desire. I decided to display most of my magnets on it.

Those are not all of them, but right now I don’t have enough space for a second board so I have just displayed my favorite ones.

Board number two will eventually happen. I just have too many for one and not enough for two (also no space).

To the left, we have mostly magnets from Europe. The top left corner is Italy. The bottom left is mostly Eastern Europe. Top right we have the USA and Canada. Bottom right we have the Caribbean and Asia (just Dubai for now).

Recently, I have really been more into ones that are weird shapes, 3-D, or handmade.

For example, I love the one with the two cats at the bottom left corner (close up above). I got that magnet from Kotor, Montenegro.

I was there with my best friend and we both love animals and there are tons of stray cats in Kotor.

The magnet was hand-painted (it is a stone) and the proceeds from the sale go towards finding homes for a lot of those stray cats.

We also thought that those two cats were me and her.

She bought almost the exact same one, so we both have a little magnet with two cats (us).

Unfortunately, we live in different parts of the world and every time I look at it, it reminds me of the good times we had together.

2. Keychains

To be quite honest I don’t know when the idea of collecting keychains started. I don’t actually use them to put keys on them.

They had a similar fate like the Fridge Magnets – I had no idea what to do with them or how to display them.

Finally, I came up with the idea of just putting them on command hooks.

No need to drill your wall, just get ones with really strong adhesive. Here are the ones that I chose (not aff).

I chose black command hooks because they matched the magnet board as well as the frames of a couple of the pictures that are in that area.

I have two left hands when it comes to any type of handiwork and DIYs but I was able to arrange them pretty nicely.

From top to bottom: 1. Western Europe, 2. Eastern Europe and Italy, 3. USA, 4. Canada, the Caribbean, and Asia.

There are 10 on each hook, so 40 in total.

3. Teddy Bears/Stuffed Toys

I have no recollection of how that idea started either oops. I don’t buy a teddy bear from everywhere I go.

Mainly because I always travel with a backpack or small luggage and therefore don’t have space for teddy bears.

I just find these stuffed toys really cute. Since I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with them. I guess some things just never change lol.

They are not all on the bed headrest, I just put them there so that I can take the picture. Some of them reside on my desk.

As you can see there are other animals, not just teddy bears (I am getting creative !).

For example, we have a parrot from Panama, a camel from Dubai, a sheep from Ireland, a duck from Boston (it is related to this children’s book called “Make Way For Ducklings”), a sea lion from San Francisco (the lazy ones from Pier 39), etc.

As I run out of space, I try to buy smaller and smaller teddy bears. I have about twenty of them.

4. Art

All of the art that I have is collected from different travels. Some of them are paintings, some of them are photographs.

I really like buying art from street artists, especially ones that are painting something from that country.

I have so many art pieces that I don’t have enough space on the walls to display them all (shocker lol). Below are some of the ones that are on the walls. 

From the top, we have the Mayan monthly calendar.

In the middle is the God of time and around are the different months. Mayans had more months than us but they were shorter.

I got this when we were in the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

Below it is an original painting from Québec City, Canada which depicts the stunning Fairmont Le Château Frontenac (hotel).

The last one is a little art piece from Montréal, Canada that depicts the Olympic Stadium, the official venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics.

These are two photos that I bought from a photographer while I was in Havana, Cuba. They depict everyday life in the city and I really like how they look faded.

To the left, we have a sketch from Paris, France, and to the right a sketch from Ottawa, Canada.

These three are kind of just chillin’ on my desks and other furniture. From left to right we have the Old Town in Dubrovnik, Croatia; the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland (the old man who drew this was super cool, I got it from Galway) and a view of Big Ben in London.

All of those were purchased from street artists and most of them are actually signed by them. There are more but if I have to show you all of them, we’ll be here all day.

5. Brochures/Maps

Like I said earlier – hoarder!!

From all my travels I keep all of the brochures, maps, and even tickets.

This year I had the time to actually sit down and organize them. I ordered these accordion file folders from Amazon (as one wasn’t enough).

The smaller one holds trips that are the oldest where I did not collect as many things. The bigger one holds everything more recent.

They are organized by country/city (depends) and the year. The smaller one has 12 slots and the bigger one has 24.

In them goes everything that is paper. I keep them because I never know when I will be going back to those places.

Or if I want to write a blog post about them I have all the information at my fingertips.

The project took a while to complete as I had to figure out how many slots I would end up needing and how many file folders I would need to buy.

This is the smaller one.

This is the bigger one.

I definitely prefer the bigger one as it is better quality and the flap bends backward – easier to organize without it closing on you.

6. Flags

This one is self-explanatory, I get a flag for each country that I visit.

Sometimes it is hard to find small flags like this and I am currently missing at least five flags.

I am planning on ordering some from Amazon eventually to complete my collection.

All of the flags are very different from one another, some of them are on plastic sticks and some are on wooden sticks.

Some of them are larger than others or made from different materials.

I wish they could be a bit more uniform but then again that is not going to be possible. They are situated in a big mug on my desk.

7. Statues

I don’t really know what I am supposed to call those.

They are like little statues of famous landmarks for example the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower.

The top shelf has statues from the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean. The bottom shelf has mainly items from Europe plus Dubai.

A lot of those statues are actually snow globes, I have 4-5 of those.

I like the ones that move, for example, the little windmill’s arms can spin.

I love them to death but they are such a pain to clean – they get super dusty and their surfaces are hard to clean.

In here, I also have some coins and I don’t know if you would know what I’m talking about but it includes these crushed pennies that are stamped with a design.

Most of the crushed pennies are from the USA, but I have a few from Europe as well.

8. Jewelry

I absolutely love jewelry and I really can’t help myself when I travel. All of the pieces that I have bought are very unique, most of them are handmade.

Everything in the below picture is from the island of Murano in Italy. It is known for the glass making traditions going back centuries.

All of the pieces are from different unique little glass shops located on the island.

One of the glass masters showed me how he made the butterfly one which was really cool.

Below we have from left to right: a pearl set that my partner bought me for my 30th birthday while we were in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Palma de Mallorca is known for the pearls. Absolutely love this one!

The bracelets from top to bottom we have Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico (those three were handmade) and the last one is from Zaanse Schans (the cute village with the windmills) in the Netherlands.

The circle necklace is the Mayan monthly calendar with the God of time in the middle.

The earrings are the famous Mayan calendar (the one everybody was freaking out about).

The long pendant is my name written in ancient Mayan.

They are all silver and are from our trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico. Mexico is known for having a lot of silver.

The puzzle pieces – the earrings and the ring are from Belgrade, Serbia, and are also handmade (the guy explained to us exactly how he made them but it is too complicated to reiterate).

Underneath is a necklace from Varna, Bulgaria. Handmade and truly one-of-a-kind (the lady who made it said it was too difficult to make it and that this will be the one and only one she will ever do).

9. Clothes 

I love getting a nice cute T-shirt or a hoodie when I travel. 

First, we have Dublin, Ireland; Disneyland, California; Amsterdam, Holland; Marigot, St. Martin (the dolphins on the shirt become different colors after being exposed to sunlight); Las Vegas, Nevada; Samana, Dominican Republic.

Here we have London, UK; Cuba; New York, USA; Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

The sweaters are self-explanatory.

The two scarves: the one on the left is from the island of Burano, Italy. That Island is known for its amazing lace. The circles on it are handmade lace. 

The right one is from Galeries Lafayette in Paris (the one behind the Opera House). Absolutely love both of them!

10. Postcards

I don’t usually buy postcards just because they always end up getting squished or bent.

The only time I would buy one is if something is photographed at night or you’re not allowed to take pictures inside. 

Here are some of them:

Top left corner: Lake Louise, Banff/Calgary, Canada; 1000 islands (an area shared between Ontario, Canada, and New York State, USA); Montréal, Canada.

Middle: the top two are from Washington DC; Las Vegas, Nevada.

Right: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (this is a really cool place called Magic Gardens where the artist is using all sorts of recycled materials to create a sort of a labyrinth that you can walk through). 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (at night) in Abu Dhabi, UAE

***If you want another idea for what to do with your best souvenir, your pictures, check out Mixbooks where you have the option to use your own travel images to make a custom photo calendar that you can enjoy on your wall during the whole year.

They are fully customizable where you can add your own photos, layouts, backgrounds, stickers, and text.

Also, you can start the calendar at any month that you want and add your favorite holidays or important dates to remember.

Oh my God, that was a lot! If you’re still reading then I sincerely applaud you. I hope this post has been interesting and that you have enjoyed it.

Thank you for reading the post “10 things I collect from my travels & how I’ve organized them”.

In the comments below, tell me what is something that you collect during your travels.