My wife and I moved in 6 years ago after 3 years of dating. When I moved into her place, she didn’t want a lot of my stuff in there because, either she had it already or deemed it as junk. She didn’t want my posters, my toys/action figures and bunch of other things. She wanted me to get rid of it. I tried appealing to her and find a compromise, but she was unwavering in her stance. I almost gave them away until my friend just told me to put it in a storage unit since it wasn’t a lot of stuff and they held significance in my life. They were things I’ve had since I was an undergraduate and remind me of different times in my life. I’ve always been nostalgic and never wanted to throw anything out because I feel like these items are memorabilia for another time in my life that will never come back.
So, everything went into a storage unit. I started with a locker but now I have a 5×10, not because I have that much stuff but because I like to spend some time staying in there and just go down memory lane every now and then. I do it once a month or once every 2 months. I even got things from my parents from my childhood in there.
My wife has always been the practical one and never kept things unless they were super important or had major significance in her life. She would honestly just thrown out 90% of the things in the unit if not all so I always told her that I took care of the things she didn’t want to keep but I did. Even now when I make purchases, I know she won’t let me keep, they basically go in the unit.
Recently, my wife has been asking out kids to get rid of the toys they no longer play with, but you know kids, they don’t want to do that despite the fact they didn’t really care for their old toys, they don’t want to get rid of it either. They were so upset and crying all day. So, I basically donated the toys that went untouched most of their lives and were still in good conditions and kept the worn-out ones in my unit. I took my kids with me to show them the toys and told them to not worry and I will take care of the toys for them.
When we got home, they were all happy and cheery. When my asked them what’s up, they spilled the beans. I never told them to keep it a secret but at the same time didn’t expect them to squeal. My wife was very angry and demanded to see the unit. I showed it to her and as expected she deemed all of it as junk and wanted me to get rid of it all. I refused because I’m the one paying for it. We have separate finances, and this doesn’t affect her in any way. Now she’s not talking to me, and everyone has been bashing me for keeping such a big thing a secret from her. I just wanted my own space/den. I probably shouldn’t have hidden it, but I know she would never approve of it, and I didn’t want unnecessary tension/drama