My husband is a pack rat with toys, reliving his youth through our children and almost never allows me to get rid of them aside from the baby and small toddler toys. He has also started to amass quite a collection of his own adult starwars and lego collectables. They are overtaking the house. My children are 5-11 so we have built up a very sizeable amount over the years. Particularly Playmobil and very large and expensive lego sets that they have displayed (completely overtaking an entire room in my house). I used to use the room as my office, but I will not set foot in it now as it makes me too angry.
The other week husband needed to empty the loft so brought down 2 very large clear storage bins (roughly 100cm x 60cm x 60cm) full of deconstructed playmobil sets, vehicles, plans and people and brought them down to the already overflowing room I detest. The two boxes he brought down then meant there was 6 of these gigantic boxes full of toys (mainly Playmobil, Lego and wooden trains), plus several smaller boxes as well as a lot of lose toys and other bits of his and the children.
My youngest loves playing with playmobil, but also has a load of other toys that have overtaken our main living room. Last week husband brought in the 2 boxes I mentioned previously above that were from the loft and has left them in our main living room & dining area. The children have pulled every bit out and have been playing with some of them. But they have overtaken the room with planes and cranes on the island, boxes of people and various cars and emergency vehicles on the dining table. It's pretty much the same for any other available surface in the room. The lesser used sofa, the entertainment unit, coffee table and 60% of the floor!! This was in addition to all of the toys they regularly play with. Some quite large like a toy kitchen.
I cannot handle the mess. I detest and resent it, but have now stopped attempting to even tidy it up because it is not my mess and my husband refuses to thin it out. If it's in the way when I'm trying to walk I just frustratingly kick it aside. Every time I bring up the subject of what a mess it is in our main room he just throws it back in my face (often in front of the children) making me look like the bad person telling me I'm no fun, that the children play with it, that child 1 loved 'that set' when they were younger, etc. He always finds a way to justify it. I am sat here staring at the mess of toys (many sets in pieces not even put together so that they can be used) strewn across the floor. I find it so overwhelming I want to cry. I know it has to be cleared up (at least off the floor) but mid week because the cleaners are coming. But it's hugely frustrating and embarrassing that the cleaners will see some of it. I no longer invite people into the house because it is such a mess and just so embarrassing.
This has turned out to be more of a rant, but if you're still reading this now AIBU for not tidying up the mess even though I hate seeing it everyday?