The Saga Museum Blog!

Almost 20 years of collecting means 20 years of figuring out where to store my collection. The first 4-5 years were free since I took advantage of my parent’s attic above the 2-car garage in New York.

I moved to South Florida in 1994 and once I settled in, I rented the largest Public Storage unit and shipped the items down from New York. Once the early collection arrived, I tightly fit the boxes into the “climate controlled” unit. I aggressively added items to my collection and quickly ran out of storage space. The toys started overflowing into my garage, living room, walk-in closets, etc. and my collection started suffering after 2 years in Public Storage. Besides the space issues, the unit started having endless A.C. problems and roof leaks. Once a roof leak entered my storage unit and damaged part of my collection of boxed Large Dolls, it was time to move.

My main fear of living in South Florida is the long hurricane season and the flooding since we are only a few feet above sea level. I never worried about the safety of friends, family or myself during a storm, but I had many sleepless nights thinking about how my collection would survive a catastrophic Hurricane!

A new warehouse complex comprised of three floors was built nearby. I chose a large 20’ x 30’ space in the middle of the warehouse located on the 2^nd floor. This newly constructed warehouse complex would be the perfect facility to house my collection. It had all of the security elements that I was looking for: cameras, security alarms, and secured entry gates with fulltime employees to watch over everything. This warehouse had everything that my collection deserved and I took every hurricane precaution that I could think of.  My thought process was:

1.      If a hurricane removed the 3^rd floor roof – my collection was safe on the 2^nd floor below an 8” concrete ceiling.

2.      If a hurricane compromised the 10” exterior concrete walls – my collection would be safe not sharing an outside wall.

3.      If a hurricane brought in flood waters to the 1^st floor – my collection would be safe located 14’ above the rising waters.

Well, that is what I told myself in order to get a good night’s sleep during the 7 month hurricane season.

Once I invested over 4 years to documenting, research and writing for the book project, it was time to start the photography. After 12 years safely stored in the warehouse and almost $30,000 in rent, it was time to transport the collection to the photography studio. I had the perfect photographer, but he resided in another state, and was without a studio. So, my sitting room off of the master bedroom was as good as any….. But that is a future entry.