[Confession] I have four tents and continue to purchase additional ones, which make no sense.
I have four tents. I camp maybe 5 times per year. The arithmetic is not right yet I cannot relax and start researching and buying new tents. Each of them is different and required under particular circumstances that is me lying to myself.
Tent 1: Years old basic dome tent. Works fine. This should be sufficient.
Tent 2: Purchased a superior dome tent as the original one was too small. (It wasn't.)
Tent 3: Ultralight backpacking tent on the occasion that I have gone on one such trip.
Tent 4: Family dome tent large tent on a supplier on Alibaba to group camping that I have never arranged.
The issue is that every tent symbolizes hypothetical situations of camping that I think about but do not implement. I would ask myself, what in case I would like to go ultralight backpacking? even though they mainly car camp. Therefore I purchased an ultralight tent in case. It is in storage as I utilize the basic tent on real journeys.
Tent collection is now a hobby of its own, independent of camping. I look up specifications, feature lists, reviews, and make myself believe I should have certain features that I am not going to utilize. The tents are aspirational purchases to an outdoorish lifestyle that I do not entirely live.
The absurd thing is that I am now browsing rooftop tents. Should I have a tent, which attaches to a vehicle? Absolutely not. Will that prevent my obsessive research of them? Also no. The tent pile will go on until I have no place to store the tent or even myself.
I believe that this is the appearance of the gear acquisition syndrome. Any other person gathering equipment as a hobby in which they hardly use it?