how do you count your models??

Hello all!

I had a question  A lot of people near my home and on my work that has seen my collection, and/or know that i am collecting, ask me how many models i have.
I want to count them, but sadly with my dyscalculia (math disability) this isn't the easiest thing to do..  
so does any of you knows a easy way to count figures? how do you do it? on paper, on computer or take pictures of each model??

any ideas or examples are much appreciated!  

Thank you,

-Nardien (Stardust)

I don't bother counting, there are too many. Maybe you can group your figures by type and write it down on paper, then add all? Pictures would help you too, if you put them all in a folder it will tell you how many photos you have.

I know its's pretty annoying to organize your models, even if I've so much less than you! You must be very happy when you need to clean them
Hmm I don't have more good ideas... LeeAnn already told good ways to do it
And awesome if I can call you Nardien, not Dust

Maybe via abacus?
Depends on how severe your dyscalculia is
Maybe you could just get a large thing of toothpicks or small coins and add one to a jar for each model, dividing into smaller sections if you need. And once you finish a section/whatnot, then take them out and count into groups of five. If you do groups of five, then combine two groups of five into ten. tens might be easier. Then you could write down how many full groups of ten you had and the partial group.

Or...
you could just write down the names of them all in a program like excel. Spreadsheet, multiple columns. Brand, animal, number. any notes. then under the last one you enter, in a new cell, =sum(x) or similar based on the program. where X is all the rows selected. Say, C2:C100.

If you only have one of each, then you would know when you reach row 101, assuming 1 header row, you have 100 animals. If you don't have header rows, row 100 equals one hundred figures.

Not sure if I was remotely helpful...

I have far too many animals/soldiers/etc. to even contemplate counting them, although I suppose I could get a reasonably accurate figure by going through my photos of almost (I'm sure to have missed a few ) everything.

If you want to do a count, obviously best to count them in small groups, by species and/or brand, or whatever groups your collection naturally divides. Do a list, perhaps first on paper as rough notes, then transfer to your computer.

None of us know how bad your maths disability is, so we can only suggest you do some sub-totals (which most of us would do as well anyway) as you go, to make the final adding up easier. Say starting with groups of species (e.g. lions, tigers & other big cats) for each of your main collected brands. Then do a total for each brand (i.e. sub-totals), with a last sub-total for any 'other brands' of which you only have a few item.

A few years ago I counted by shelf (totaling maybe about 30 per) and used a grouping method. You could just break them up as small as you need to (horses, pigs, tigers etc. or even further to brown horses, painted horses, etc. if you need to) and write the group numbers down, then add them together with a calculator. After that I stuck a piece of paper on the side of one of my shelves and whenever I get new models I add the group number to the total and its accurate from then on as long as you don't forget to add.(I have trouble with math too, though its mainly because I just don't like it )

I little while ago I realised that I had lost count of my growing collection. So I went to my website and counted up each category. After each category had been counted up 64 +4+5+4 and so on and so forth I had them added up to the total of 108.
You could try putting them into categories and adding up the number of each category so that you are not doing all at once. I don't know what you collect, but with schleich it is for example
Africa: 68
Arctic and Antarctic: 2
..... like this for each category. It makes it much easier for me. Once you have the complete total create a log book with the total in it. Each time that you get new figures you add it to the total.
This is what I do anyway
My logbook is two pages now and it has gone from 1 to 108

Thanks a bunch guys for all those great tips!  I think i'm gonna do it this way:
I took a picture of each model, and put them in a map (like LeeAnn said  ) :



I write the name of each model underneath, so i can't forget that, too xD

when i am finished with this i am gonna print it out and create a logbook ( Like Schleichgirl's idea)

i am long not finished yet, but this is very addictive and fun work, so.. xD

Thank's again guys!!

Those photos look great! Good luck with this big task of sorting them. Let us know the total number when you are finished

Good you found a way to count them

I started posting pictures of each of my figurines here on forum, and I have uplosaded each photo on Picasa Albums where it is displayed how many pictures are in particular folder. I have sorted my figurines in different groups, so that each group became a folder. Then I have summed up all pictures from each folder and I could count all figurines in easy way :) Making photos was a tiring thing to do, but it helped a lot.
Unfortunately I have stopped doing it due to lack of time or my laziness, and now I have to do it once again to count them all, lol.