On the model train set and oddball conjugation.

As we know, Lynn loves one thing even more than having Elly wail about being old before her time: having Elly moan and caterwaul about no one appreciates what little she brings to the table as a wife, mother and housekeeper. This is why Lynn's need to exaggerate things for comic effect turns "toy within Elly's field of vision instead of packed away where it doesn't drive her crazy because of her lunatic misapprehension that the motherhood police will burst down the door and execute her for incompetence because there's a toy where people can see it" into "crap like we've never seen before all over everywhere." It's why she has John and the kids not get that ineptly done chores are supposed to be backbreaking work instead of cause for getting someone to show her how not to kill herself tidying the house. It's why she has Elly moan about how they only notice or care what she does when she ain't there. Now that John has a model train set, it's why we have him make stupid comments about her kitchen and laundry room going to waste because he can't care about them.

The reason that I mention this is that one of the things that makes Elly's life worse is her crazy-quilt thinking about what belongs in her house. She can't wait to get rid of toys because she doesn't want people to think that children live in her tidy home but saves old wrapping paper that she never uses because she swears that one day, it'll come in handy. This is because she has an oddball way of conjugating the verb "to own": "I own valuable things, you collect old junk no one needs, he lives in a damned junk yard, the idiot."

This means that the only reason she isn't actively trying to throw away John's 'toys' in order that her identity not be overpowered by her family's is her fear of directly confronting anyone who can fight back.