Is saving everything I, my parents, and my grandparents ever owned the same as collecting something?

My mother actually "collected" things--match covers, coins, doilies, dogs (especially Scotties), postcards, shells, rocks...yikes. I mostly just "keep" things. Baby clothes, books, shoe boxes, photos, letters my mom and dad wrote each other in the 40's. I refer to these things as my daughter's inheritance.

Someday I'm going to have a really cool collection of something, when I decide what it is. I made the mistake of telling a couple of people I liked puffins, and I ended up with puffin salt shakers, puffin magnets, puffin dish towels. Erf.