Is it a guy thing to keep all their childhood toys?

February 22, 2010 8:14am CST
What a weekend. We spent the whole time sorting through all my partner's childhood toys and packing them up to move out of his Mum's house. We now have a huge assortment of original Star Wars toys and models (not boxed but played with) an equally large collection of old books and annuals, some of which date back to the 60's and other bags and boxes of *stuff* and we will have to go back to her house again soon to collect a huge collection of boxed model cars. We have very little space in our house, so adding all this collection is going to be difficult and I know that we don't have the room to keep everything here. My partner is adamant that he won't part with any of the toys and books, our attic is full to bursting as it is and the garage is full too. Is it a guy thing keeping all their toys :-D
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8 responses
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
23 Feb 10
You could always encourage him to sell his various collection on Ebay, point out how much money he could make, I certainly would, but then I am not a collector of childhood toys, so it's not always a guy thing. I am what you call a minimalist, in that I periodically have a 'purge' and get rid of stuff that I haven't used for months, rather than years! I don't have anything from my childhood, apart from photos but you can't really count those, I have one album of photos of me as a child, not many but treasured and that's it. Wish I had Star Wars toys, never had a single Star Wars figure, no wonder I had a bad childhood LOL!
23 Feb 10
That could be a very good idea, if I could only persuade him to part with them all. I don't mind the odd one or two pieces, the rest could easily be sold off. I think I might have to go *on the offensive* soon and see if we can't have a purge.
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@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
25 Feb 10
If I'd been asked to choose who I thought out of men and women I probably would have said women...I guess it can go either way...lol. Come to think of it, my Dad is pretty good at keeping his shed filled with what I can only think of as junk...he has a use for everything though.
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@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
25 Feb 10
There might be something worth some decent money there. Be vewy, vewy careful how you approach him about "cashing out part of his investments?". He'll probably be inclined to dig his toes in.
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25 Feb 10
There are always uses for junk LOL
25 Feb 10
I will be vewy vewy careful hun, and if persuation fails, there's always blackmail LOL
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@Ravenladyj (22902)
• United States
22 Feb 10
No its not a guy thing at all..I have a particular toy from my childhood that I have no intention of getting rid of...I think its a sentimental thing ya know, rather than a "guy thing" or "girl thing"...
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22 Feb 10
Thanks hun, I did wonder as he has hundreds of toys yet I don't seem to have any.
• United States
25 Feb 10
some of those toys,particularily star wars ones,are worth quite a bit of money. it's the only reason i let my bro get away with having all those damned action figures in the house.although i wish he would at least buy shelves. i can't say it's strictly a guy thing..i have a few myself. but mine all fit in one display cabinet.
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25 Feb 10
I would love to be able to fit some of these toys into a cabinet, if I had the room for the cabinet - LOL. I'm going to have to persuade him to sort through them all soon, keep some of his real favourites and maybe put the rest up for sale or find somewhere else to keep them
• United States
25 Feb 10
I kept some of my toys from when I was a kid. But from what it sound like your partner there really hung onto EVERYTHING! Well atleast you know if times get tough financially you could possibly sell some of them & make a lil room in your home too.
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25 Feb 10
Oh yes, he's hung onto EVERYTHING, even a couple of his teddies LOL
• United States
22 Feb 10
It's not a guy thing at all. My daughter is the world's worse! My son kept a lot of stuff until he started moving a lot.He kept all of his legos for a long time. I think my daughter has about everything still. So it can't be a guy thing!
22 Feb 10
Yup, there are a few boxes of lego in the heap here too :-)
@pandaeyes (2065)
22 Feb 10
My husband has the old teddy that his father had before him but nothing else at all. I think it must depend on the person. My brother has loads of his old toys until one year a kids TV series was appealing for old toys for their yearly charity thing, I said do you still want yours or can i send them to the series collectors and he said send them. We do have a lot of stuff though that is collected from his parents,they were avid collectors of stuff and there are all sorts of bits and pieces all piled in the shed until he decides what is to become of them. My poor old bicycle is back there somewhere but I cant even get to it so I know how you feel about the lack of space.
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• Brazil
22 Feb 10
Getting too attached to toys is some what of a problem but it's definatley a human thing to want to keep your childhood memories. I have a little room in my house that holds all my favorite toys from back when I was a little kid. It's nice to go through them once in a while and remember the good old days...
22 Feb 10
I wish we had the space to keep all these toys hun, :-)