Couple of things you need to know to factor into your advice:

• I am not gifted at the art of home decor.  At all.  
• I hate pintrest because it won't let me look at things without signing up and I don't want to be taken hostage my yet another social media thing I don't understand.
• In all other areas of my life I abhor clutter to such a degree I can't even tell you and will throw things out with merry abandon if not stopped, because I consider the lack of clutter to be a gift for the family*.  

However - I'm a mom, a wife, and a sister....and you know what that means...

Stuffed animals, tchotchke, keepsakes given to me by people who love me and really know me.  I love these things and don't want to pack them away (think Ma Ingalls china shepherdess x eleventy) but I don't really have a place for them so they are kind of scattered throughout the house on various flat surfaces and I've never been happy with that because it's so disjointed.  

For example - atop the piano I have a collection of framed pics of my kids over the years in various frames which makes me happy.  Sticking a couple of figurines in there because I have no place to put them isn't optimal.

(One would ask why we have a piano that no one has played ever...and I've now forced two different husbands to move a total of 8 times...but one won't ask that, will one?)

As dated as it would be** if it were all a cohesive collection (i.e. all Hummels or Precious Moments) I'd buy one of those curio cabinets with the glass front.  But I have such an odd assortment of things I don't think that would work - do people put disparate items in those?  I've never seen that.

For reference this is stuff like:

• A nurse figurine we bought my mom for her graduation from nursing school when i was little
• Precious Moments stuff from when we were married and the birth of my kids
• Hummels from my mom/grandma
• Hello Kitty swavorski line which my family has now decided I collect
• Various figurines of Mary and angels mostly crystal and china
• an inlaid music box my sister got each of us when Mom died - we all have the same in a different color and it plays a hymn she loves
• A tiny framed Ace Frehely guitar pick caught in concert by a friend.  
• KISS figurines and ceramic display cups
• a couple of decorative tea cups with a butterfly motif
• several tiaras (less than 20)
• two sets of 3 swavorkski crystal penguins.  Small and large...why so many is a long and stupid story.

That kind of thing.

Not to mention the stuffed animals.  I don't know how to display stuffed animals as an adult but the kids and husband keep buying them for me and I do think they are cute...so now I keep a couple of the smaller ones on my dresser and the big one on the bed because there is no where else to put her...and the rest in a box which I rotate out every now and again.

Is there a whimsical way to stick all of them on a shelf in the family room so they would be up and out of the way, but their cuteness not hidden in a box?  

I am great at cleaning and organizing stuff like closets, pantries, storage etc....I wish I could trade one day of top to bottom house cleaning with someone good at this kind of thing to come to my house and just do this kind of thing for me.  And while they're at it move my furniture where it would look best, since I think I got that all wrong, too.  

*(No, I don't know what happened to the two HUGE boxes of VHS tapes my husband insisted on moving even though we no longer have a VCR.  I'd have tossed the DVDs too if I could have gotten away with it.)

**(and I don't care - I still have and love a china cabinet and google tells me that style has been passe for years.  Well, google ins't coming to dinner so google can shove it.) 

I don't hate this kind of thing but there is a reason they only show them displayed with larger and tastefully coordinated objects...I don't want to spend any money if I'll hate how they look with all different kids of smaller things in there.  

Maybe a one of the cabinets with the glass front for the stuffed animals...I'll position them as if they are trying to break out and one of them can be holding up a little sign saying "help me - the mean lady locked us in and took the key!"