Who else enjoys organizing Pokemon cards?

Life is chaotic. You never know what's going to come your way, whether it be good or bad. In a single second, you're inundated with more information than you know what to do with it. Sometimes, the chaos is overwhelming, and I don't want to leave the house to face it.

This is a product of anxiety, as well as experience. Undoubtedly, if something unexpected is to happen, it'll probably happen outside the confines of my apartment. I believe it is the overwhelming chaos of existence that motivates the compulsion to systemize.

How to systemize Pokemon cards

Pokemon TCG feels designed for systemization. Some people collect them for the gorgeous artwork. Others are competitive and want to construct the best deck possible. There's collectors and then there those of us who are around to systemize

The process is pricey but pleasurable. It begins with buying a lot of booster packs. Ten or more is ideal. Next, you get to have fun opening them all, but you can't go about it willy-nilly. Instead, you need a system. One pile for holofoil cards, another for full art cards, one for energy, a pile for regular cards, and finally, a pile for cards that aren't holofoil but you really just like.

Next comes the fun part. Each pile has a place. Holofoils and full art cards go into albums, but they're sorted by color. There is one exception, which is Pikachu. All of those go into a singular album together.

The pile of regular cards is sorted according to their Pokedex number. It's a tedious process, but for some reason, it feels natural and good. This sorted pile is then slotted into my larger set of hundreds of cards kept within Elite Trainer boxes. The end product? Nothing but a pile of organized cards, but it makes my brain very, very happy that they're in order.

The same thing happens to duplicates, and the few cards that I like are sleeved and kept in a tin. The system has been laid out and executed.