Sharing the Pony Room

When we moved, we decided that Roomy and I would actually share the Pony Room.  Along with the Ponies it would house Roomy's She-Ra and MOTU collection.  We're calling it the Geek Cave.

A small part of Roomy's She-Ra collection

Roomy setting up her brand new Crystal Castle

The room is still 90% Ponies, however.  I definitely have the larger collection of the two.  Although Roomy is expecting to add a giant castle to her collection in November...we may have to negotiate on space at that point...:P

"What do you mean negotiate?"

Seriously though, negotiation is an important part of any collector's life.  If you live with another collector, you have to figure out how your two (or more) collections are going to share space.  Who gets the prime display space?  Do you rotate what's on display or does everybody get their own little piece of real estate?  Setting down the "rules" early on will be key to avoiding disagreements later.

If you live with a non-collector, negotiation becomes even more important.  People generally like to hear a little bit about something you're passionate about - they don't necessarily want to hear a 3 hour discussion on the minute details of Pony variants.  This is even more true of living with your collection.  A non-collector might be supportive, but they won't necessarily want to see Ponies in every room of the house, every day, in every little nook and cranny.  Keeping the goodwill of your non-collector cohabitant by having frank discussions about space and expectations (on both sides) and sticking to those decisions will keep the three of you (collector, non-collector, and collection) living happily together for years to come.

Elf