I haven’t blogged for a really long time because I feel I had already covered all topics in collecting toys. You would have noticed that I have been posting mainly toy updates for the past couple of years. Now I feel the need to blog again to vent my frustration at home.
Well I first blogged about this Gundam toy kits invasion topic in December 2011 and more than 2 years later, the issue is back to haunt me all over again!! The feeling is quite the same or worse, as the volume of the toy and clutter invasion has increased some more. It has even strayed into other toylines like Transformers and Kreo.
Below is what I blogged about back then:
“Just as I have been painstakingly reducing my massive toy collection over the year, this is also the untimely period when my husband plunged into the “rapid growth” stage of collecting Gundam model kits!
I blame myself for letting him accompany me to the toy sections of departmental stores whenever I popped in to check out the latest ponies and other toy releases to blog about. He somehow revived his childhood interest in Gundam and in the last 2 months, it had been a downward spiral for his $$ and my emotions!
He keeps reassuring me that he only buys them at massive discounts from both retail stores and online sellers, but he doesn’t seem to detect my built up stress at seeing the more than 30 boxes of unassembled MIB Gundams cluttering up our room!
I had strived so hard during the year to clutter clear my home and room, only to see other people’s clutter build up all over again! (FYI I did not clear out my toys so that other occupants can bring in replacement toys for themselves). And if you collect Gundam, you will know that each HG & MG model kit can take up to a week or more to build (PGs are worse!), assuming that you can only build on weekday nights after work and on weekends if you don’t go out.”
In 2011, there were a bit more than 30 boxes. Now in 2014, there are definitely more than 100 big and small boxes of unassembled Gundams. Around 30-40 assembled Gundams are on display in a glass cabinet, with another 50-60 assembled SD ones in storage boxes. The stored unassembled Gundams in their large bulky boxes have displaced my own toy collections from their original locations in the cupboards and shelves!
Now my own toy storage boxes are outside on the floor looking like clutter, which I gradually can’t stand to look at anymore, as it irritates the hell out of me by just seeing them. “Rapid growth” collectors like my husband have become immune to seeing clutter, as the cluttered space seem non-existent in their clouded mind. I have been through and done every stage of toy collecting, so I know what is going on in his mind. I’m too experienced for him to bluff me.
Sadly, I have lost 20 years or 2 decades of my life – during my youth and prime years being “cursed” with a compulsive collecting hobby and I only seriously spent the last 7 years tediously culling the majority of my older collection. During these 7 years, some compulsive collecting behaviour still set in and I did buy some more toylines, only to lose interest soon after getting those I wanted.
Quitting a collecting hobby that is 2 decades old can’t be done immediately with a “sudden kill”, because the behaviour had been so entrenched in the mind for way too long to overcome successfully. Other than ranting about this money and space wasting clutter frustration online, I wonder what else I can do without getting into a full blown confrontation with the other toy collector in the house.
One word of advice for toy collectors around the world – only 1 person in every household can be a toy collector. Not 2 or more, unless you and your family live in a mansion with at least double the number of bedrooms, where every occupant has 2 large bedrooms to themselves. This is 1 prenuptial agreement I had overlooked, so don’t follow in my foot steps and regret it.
I pray that my children shall never endure the same curse as both their parents, and miss out many more wonderful things a non-collecting and clutter free life can bring. After all, when we are finally gone from this mortal world, we can’t take any physical things along. So it’s best to keep your collecting hobby moderate, well documented on their costs and value; so that you can clear them off easily in your lifetime. If your descendants have to eventually clear them off instead, at least don’t make it too tough for them. Be considerate and thoughtful to them.
