I've been married umpteen years. I am pretty blessed too. We both love thrifting, yard-saleing, all that stuff. Just last week, we drove the Lincoln Buy-Way sale for 350 miles, slept in the back of our van (equipped with a port-a-pot), heh. How many wives would do that? Heck, it was her idea (but she knew I'd be all about it)! We can be a pretty hard-core team when we need to be. Of course, we stopped in West Virginia at Homer Laughlin China so she could shop in the outlet store. We didn't even find much to buy in all those miles. But we had a great time exploring the old lincoln highway and just being together enjoying each other's company and feeding our passion for old junk. But that is something we have always both liked to do, shop for whatever we happen to be into; and roadtrips!
Over the years her collections have changed, china, dolls, toys, etc. Mine have changed, video games, computer stuff, stereo stuff, etc. But we always enjoy shopping together, but we also shop FOR each other if we find a good sale while we are apart. We will just buy something if we know the other is looking for it. Otherwise, we might call each other- "hey I found such-and-such, you want it?". But you have to LISTEN to her about her hobbies to know what to look for. I mean, as a man, I am a little embarrassed that I can tell a Barbie from a Francie or a Midge, but she's tickled to death when I find one for her. Just like she knows the kind of equipment I am into, brands, etc. She knows what is fixable and what isn't.
Does any of that knowledge do us any good on our own? Not really. But does it kill ya to take an intrerest, and devote some of our infinite memory to her hobbies? Look at the gains you can make by being just a tad less selfish.
I guess what I am saying is, find a way to merge your wife's hobbies/collections with yours, so you can enjoy, at least the hunt, together. That being said, there are some things that should NOT be together. Such as our junk piles are separate. She has a room, and I have a room. We have an unwritten rule that the main areas of the house have to be uncluttered, but our "junk rooms" are our own to decide.
Even when we lived in a small trailer, she made a deal with me. I could have whatever equipment I wanted, as long as it was out of sight. So I built a 7ft rack in the hall closet, and ran speaker wires to all of the bedrooms, modulated TV signals for the media player system, camera system, etc. But other than one set of floor speakers, you couldn't see ANY of it with the closet door shut. She's happy because it looks neat, I'm happy because it was an awesome setup. And guess what? SHE showed it off more whan I did! "Look what my husband did to this closet! It does stuff all over the house, look!.."
Compromise, when it is actually a true compromise (BOTH sides giving a little), is a good thing.
I guess the point of this long-winded bologna post is, you can make it work. Just be honest, willing to compromise, and show an appropriate amount of interest in her hobbies to make a balance. Life is not that hard. Just treat others how you want to be treated, and don't use labels as an excuse for bad conduct.
