You just have to dereference the array in your method body and you can do normal array operations like shift, pop, etc.

sub addThings {
    my ($self, @new_things) = @_;
    push @{$self->{things}}, @new_things;
}
sub getThings {
    my ($self) = @_;
    # If the caller expects a list, then dereference the array 
    # before returning it, otherwise just return the reference.
    return wantarray ? @{$self->{things}} : $self->{things};
}
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Of course you can use embedded hashes too if you can guarantee uniqueness of keys.

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"The dead do not recognize context" -- Kai, Lexx