Safely storing a card collection in the common area of a home with toddler(s) edit: implemented a so

digicat · May 3, 2010 5:58AM

My card collection currently resides in a closet in the guest bedroom. I'm clearing it out soon, and will be relocating it to the 2nd floor common area, which is our daughter's play room, the computer room, and the laundry-folding room.

Some of you guys have shown off your "Man Cave", but that's not really an option for me right now.

I know a bunch of guys here have kids. If you don't have a man-cave or a dedicated closet for your collection, what ways have you found to keep your collection accessible to you, but safe from the kiddos and not aesthetically offensive to the wife?

Jackailius · May 3, 2010 6:37AM

The best option would probably be to send them to me for safe keeping.

In all honesty and coming from a similar situation its tough. If you don't have your own space to put things and store them it becomes tough. Depending on the size of your collection maybe a lockable filing cabinet might work. Wouldn't look bad and give some security from the kids getting in to it. The only problem is if they have anything to drink in there because spills are bound to happen.

Statman · May 3, 2010 9:11PM

Digicat - I have dealt with the same issue. Before the baby, I had the entire downstairs. Then it went to half the room, and now that she's almost two, I am down to sharing a small corner with two cat boxes. And of course, the cats are more important, so eventually I'll lose that space too. I do store a lot of my stuff in a big closet in the basement too. But the stuff I am working on or selling goes in my little corner.

We used baby fencing to section that part of the room of and it's worked great. My daughter doesn't really mess with anything that way, although she is obsessed with an autographed 96/97 Washington Bullets team basketball. I don't think its the Bullets she loves, just the ball.

leadoff4 · May 3, 2010 9:59PM

I have a very similar situation and used the rubbermaid shelving in the computer room/spare bedroom. Started it high enough on the wall that they can't reach the shelves. My kids are 5 and 2 1/2. I trained them early on not to mess with daddy's cards

alnavman · May 4, 2010 1:11AM

I lucked out, there is a room in my basement with a door that locks so when my kids were little everything of importance was stored in that room....there now 16 and 13 so it's not an issue any longer.....although I do keep the cards away from the wife....she's always looking for more storage space for unimportant things like old clothes, books and other miscellaneous stuff I'd have thrown out years ago...boy the sentimentality

larryallen73 · May 4, 2010 1:13AM

My cards are in a room my kids play in. The cards are in a big locked safe and the kids don't know the combination! I feel perfectly comfortable with that set up!

onefasttalon · May 4, 2010 3:55AM

Put all of your cards in a single box.... then place a large spider on top of it. That will keep the kids AND your wife away from them!

Acutally.. I'm in the same boat you're in. I lost my 'card room' to my 2nd child... a fair trade. He'll turn 2 this month, and doesn't use his closet... so I have some cards in there.
I have a large walk-in closet in the master bedroom... I use a great deal of that (on my side of course.) I also have a small shelving unit full of cards out in the game room.. a common area.

I have found the BEST protection is to make sure everything is in boxes with LIDS. My 4-year-old daughter LOVES to look at (play) with cards w/ me.... but she also knows what she can and cannot touch. My (almost 2) son just destroys most of what he comes in contact with, but also knows to stay away from daddy's cards. I've been pretty luck so far, but realize I will come home to find damage sometime in the future.

Box up what you can... use lids! ... and do what you can to teach your kids which cards they can and cannot touch. Let'em play with commons... they'll love it, and it gives them less reason to get into your cards.

Best of luck!

72skywalker · May 4, 2010 4:31AM

Pretty soon you have to worry about when they get old and throw parties when you are away. One of their "friends" will spot the cards and decide to relieve you of a couple of them. Locking drawers are a must.

ChrisStufflestreet · May 4, 2010 6:12AM

I bought a bookshelf with glass doors. The doors have a frosted finish, which really obscures the fact that there are binders inside it.

For the most part, that keeps the collection out of the hands of my youngster.

However, before I got the bookshelf, I learned the hard way about leaving my complete set boxes at mid-calf height when a Lab puppy lives in the house. Fortunately, the sets used to sharpen those teeth were 1986 and 1989 Topps so I only needed 15 bucks to replace them. I don't remember exactly how I punished the pup, but if I hold out a white 800-ct. box for her today (7 years later), she still looks like she's sorry about what she did.

thedutymon · May 4, 2010 7:28AM

<< <i>
I have a large walk-in closet in the master bedroom... I use a great deal of that (on my side of course.) q]

Fell out of my Chair I was laughing so hard. I have a Walk-in closet I "Share" with my lovely better half. "Share" of course being in th Eye of the Beholder. My Share is 10-12 shirts at one corner of the rod, picture about 1/2 of 1 percent of the closet space. My wife has the other 99.95 % of the space and beetches at me, "Do you really need to hang those up, you Never wear them!!"

Yeehah

Neil

calaban7 · May 4, 2010 8:20AM

My wife and I have 5 sons of various ages . Our oldest is now 23 . Many years ago , I came home from work one day and found my $1,600 Bose speakers , torn apart by tiny fingers. My wife had fallen asleep and the rest was history.
It was then that I realized ----- IF THEY CAN REACH IT , ITS FAIR GAME.

My advise is to locate a dry , secure but somewhat accessible spot . If one has early lessons on boundries and enforcement , the lessons get easier later on.

GOOD LUCK !!! --- Sonny

digicat · June 20, 2010 11:08AM

I decided on a solution and put it into play.

I headed over to Ikea last weekend and did some shopping with the wife. We decided to do a little "study" setup in the loft area. The desk is pretty much just for me right now, but our little girl can do her homework there when she goes to school. All this stuff came in at just under $600.

It's got plenty of room for all my stuff, and then some.

The cabinet has a pretty simple child safety lock on it that's high enough to be out of my daughter's reach. That'll do for now.

Safely storing a card collection in the common area of a home with toddler(s) edit: implemented a so

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