If you enjoy building sets I would say to find a shop that sells full 500 count boxes of assorted commons, sometimes with low level autograph or relic in the box. I built up most of my collection that way and I loved doing it...I still do it when I can but the only place I know of now that does it is in Connecticut, where I don't get to often...maybe once every other year. (He does do mail order, so if you want to go that route, I'll take any excuse I can find to get over there and get you a buisness card! :) )
Other than that I'd say do what you enjoyed doing before...just because you had a horrible experience doesn't mean it can't bring you joy again now. If you liked buying factory boxes, do that. If you tried to piece togther full sets as singles, do that (etc).
Good luck! One of the reasons I began scanning my entire collection back in 2009 was because I store them remotely and rarely get to see them, I hope you at least had some scans of your original collection to look through.
VERY slow trading due to health problems. Not transferrable so safe to trade with, just moving is painful and can't always access the cards.
Cardboard History My COMC
New Collection Website: Cardboard History Gallery (Still under construction)
Tips on how to make your scans look like the card does in hand (No more washed out, fuzzy scans!):