On Display
 

I am just trying to get the house in order, and box up the obsessive things G "collected" so that I can have them sent back to his house, and I am running through some memories that were extremely stressful at the time, but are actually hilarious now that I am no longer a part of the equation.

Sometimes I wonder how I put up with it for so long...

At any rate, I thought I'd share, and see if anyone else had a similar experience.

G wanted a hand towel in the bathroom. I had one he could use, but it didn't match (the bathroom has a seashore/Wildwood colors theme), so we went out looking for one that did. I found a pack of eight white towels with embroidered beach items across them, sold tied together in a pretty looking package. G loved them immediately, and insisted we got them. Next thing I know, he has declared they are "too pretty to use" so they are now on display on the bathroom counter. Hand towels are now back on the list.
We got a nice festive orange one, which G immediately put up on the other "display towel rack" with our nice towels and the ones he had embroidered, so that one wasn't for use either. Hand towels are still on the shopping list.
Then there was the cheap bright pink ones at a different store, so we purchased a pair. He wanted them to go on a nice rack, so we found one that holds two towels (one on each side) and put them up. I was happy, until he declared that these towels were for display as well. So, towels go back on the list.
Then there was a white one with an embroidered shell. I thought this one would surely fit the bill, and sure enough, G loved it. We had run out of places to put towels, though, so G installed a towel ring on the far side of the counter, and he actually used the towel once. Then he decided the towel was too far away from the sink, and too nice to use, so we needed a different one. Hand towels go back on the shopping list.
Finally we got a cheap, ratty, thick, heavy, scratchy dull pink thing. Finally, this one is junky enough that we can use it. It's jammed over the edge of the laundry basket, underneath the counter, on the far side, and is the most inconvenient of all the towels to use, but it was the only one we were allowed to use because the other ones were all "too nice".

Now I am realizing, everything had to be on display because I was "on display." It was never about being comfortable and happy, it was all about other people playing to G's ego.

Or he just liked torturing you with a stupid mind game!!

Oh, he was always talking about inviting people over so they could see what a wonderful apartment it was.
And he'd periodically re-arrange them, or at least, as best he could re-arrange the ones that weren't tacked to the wall.
I honestly believe he really did think it looked nice to have a hundred towels on display in the bathroom. I mean, his mother had four nice towels on display that nobody was allowed to use, so our bathroom was 25 times better than hers!

I'm sorry StarCat, I do understand (sort of) the mentality, but your post made me laugh a bit.

This just made me chuckle. I don't know of any times I've left someone's house talking with my friends or boyfriend on the way home about, "And you know they really had some nice hand towels...." lol.

I'm glad, really.
This is the most ludicrous of the examples.

There's also about 87 paintings on the walls (it's a 1 bedroom apartment, by the way), glass dolls on corner shelves wherever he could fit them, knick knacks on every available space (seriously, he's always complaining there's no room to cook, but he's the one who put all the "stuff" up), and even antique boxes from clothing items in the closet and the washroom closets (to the point there's no room for detergent). There's also eight different throws scattered about the house, and he's always looking for more different better ones. And don't get me started on the $87 pillow be bought for the couch. It's a pillow and it's not even comfortable. ("It's for display. Just move it when you sit down, so you don't ruin it.")

This isn't an apartment, it's a museum!

the hand towel story was deliriously funny! My mother always had "pretty, do not use" but I have never heard of them becoming a collection!
87 paintings?! wow!

Alright, I'm adding pictures, since apparently G is in a class by himself. I always knew he was "special" - I just didn't realize how much of it was the "remedial class" kind.


Here's the towel collection. Behind the towels on the rack there are more metal peddle cars. Also, not all the towels fit in the picture, my bathroom is a "T" shape and there's more in the other section, but here's the "easy to take pictures of" ones. (This also doesn't include the towels on display in the bedroom - I left those ones out. He even got them embroidered.)
http://i54.tinypic.com/2w34xzb.jpg

Here's an average wall. I took this picture today; the table you see behind the loveseat used to have a giant Sherlock Holmes chess set on display, but I boxed it up already:
http://i53.tinypic.com/rjkv4l.jpg

I have more boxing to do than I realized when I started.

Gorgeous bathroom for expecting to host a beach house party of a dozen!

ROFLMAO

Yes, because all of us go to visit people and immediately investigate the Hand Towel Situation.

LOL.

It just struck me...it is a catalogue ad, where merchandise is displayed attractively..and below you choose the things you fancy to buy.

hide that one on the hamper better, tho. ;)

Now I am completely cracking up.

He LOVES those magazines!

Now that you mention this, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this was his entire experience in home decorating. I can see him now, combing through some home decor magazine, dreaming of the day when he can decorate his own home with everything on the page!


Now I have a problem... How am I supposed to write nice thank-you cards for Christmas presents when I'm stuck in "tearful hysterical laughter" mode?

:lmao

I'd take all the hand towels
and sew them together
and make a huge bath towel.

or a floor throw.

lol

actually =- I know some people like that
and was raised by one...

everything is 'for the show'
the 'when we have company' thing
but they never HAD company.

SO why have a formal service for ten?

I truly believe
they're trying to fill an empty place inside.

and that makes it sad.

but -
if you're stuck with this stuff or something =-
two words!

YARD SALE!

I am packing it in boxes and trash bags, most important things first, and whatever I can pack to send to his place is going.

Whatever is left will go to goodwill or the trash, depending upon whether it is nice or cheesy. I have already started throwing out the crazy signs he made me make in ********** and laminate to tack up everywhere. I don't want my closet labeled "White Swan Wardrobe" even if there is a crazy white swan on the light's chain pull.

alright, before i say this, know that i am disturbed.

the light switch? i know it is supposed to look like a seashell.
but really, really, why that one?
bwahahahhahahahaha

there must be some kind of theme in the living room, i am not getting it.
mystery? suspense?
i am no decorator for sure. i am too rigid to have things hanging haphazardly like that.
you had to laminate things so he could hang them up?
you poor woman.
i, too, used to laminate things, i had one in the store i worked at.
i loved to laminate. the smell or burning plastic, well, it smells like victory!
LOL

he should have taken all the money spent on that crazy stuff, and bought one beautiful vase, keeping it simple looks more elegant and refined.

please tell me he embroiders his own towels! i am thinking he actually paid someone to do it.

okay, i am done on the decorating smack down on G.....


wait a minute? this was an impressive display to him?
good god in the morning.

Beth

You're going to have so much fun turning it into YOUR place!

ok -
now the seashell light switch is messing with me, too :lmao

hey, I like the decor in the LR...I have looked at many a catalogue similar. ;) LOL
Got to turn the floor lamp tho' so it lights the sofa rather than illuminating the table lamp.
It is "sophisticated collectibles"

(I have spent way too much time poring over home decor magazines in my life..how else would I have recognized one.)

Yeah, it's a Sherlock Holmes / London / Hitchcock / Train / Chess theme.

Forget the vase, he should have taken all the money he spent on this and used it to pay off part of his $156k in credit card debt! He has 31 credit cards (19 are closed, the others he continually maxes out).
He had 33 until I paid off two of them for him, but once I realized that me paying off his bills was another excuse for him to charge more on other ones, I gave up. He's going to be in debt up to his eyeballs until the day he dies, and there's not a single thing I can do about it.
Have I mentioned he bought a brand new Toyota Rav4 last year, too, while his Ford Escape trade-in was worth $10k less than he owed on it? That's not included in the $156k (which is an accurate number).



And yes, I am going to have a blast redecorating.
I loved "Where's Waldo?" and "I Spy" as a kid, but I never intended for my apartment to be a guest feature.

Sorry starcat, but I couldn't stop laughing either.... I know it isn't funny living through it though - I did have the same kind of experience with my AH. He was so changeable and with each change of interest he had to have the latest and best of whatever - we went through every religion and I have all the books to prove it - he had all kinds of running gear/yoga gear/ weight machine and weights, then there were the changes in his clothing style from suits to casual wear, and let's not talk about the changes in his eating habits - meat or veggie, pasta to protein shakes, etc. - and the pots and pans that go with it all - diet books galore and.... don't mention books - all kinds of books.

He too picked out towels and sheets and pillows and furniture etc. He planned our wedding. He wanted a new car but mine was older so he pushed me into buying a new car and then bought himself one. The phones he went through, the computors etc. I wasn't like we could afford these things but I never had a man who wanted to be so involved in stuff and had an opinion about it all.

When he first moved into my house he started rearranging everyroom and made a list of items to buy over the next umpteem years. It was crazy making. He even had an idea of where we would retire to (never minding that we didn't have that kind of money) and what we take or leave and have to buy again - and what we would be doing everyday. there was never any time to rest between changes.

So yeah, I get it. After he moved out, I spend this past year not buying one thing - making do with whatever (like I used to) and waiting for all the plans we were sucked into to run out and pare them down or eliminate them. I left things be for a long while because i just didn't want anymore change. My life is back to being simple with simple plans.