There are collections, and also collections. The author isn't really talking about physical objects that accumulate around the house seemingly all by themselve

There are collections, and also collections. The author isn't really talking about physical objects that accumulate around the house seemingly all by themselves. The author's talking about collections that are deliberately, lovingly curated as a labor of love. The difference is critical. It's not entirely unlike how I knit and sew purely for pleasure, while my grandmother did so because her family couldn't afford off-the-rack items. The physical details of the two activities might be similar, but what was actually happening there was radically different.