Designers have a deeper appreciation of the beauty of objects compared with most people, but they also tend to live minimally. That got us wondering: When designers do cave in to their basest impulses and start hoarding, what do they collect, and why?

So we reached out to more than a dozen of our friends in the design community. To say we weren't prepared for the responses we got is an understatement. Designers collect lots of things, and many of their collections are far weirder than you would ever possibly expect. (Ahem, the cofounder of a designer sex toy company who collects three-headed parakeets). Here's what the designers we asked collect, and why.