Stepkids leaving stuff
Does anyone else have a stepkid who will leave stuff at your house and then never ever reclaim it? We have so many things that are now at our house that belong to skids, but they will act like they aren't theirs when they come back to our home. For example, one skid left a Nike baseball hat in our family/ tv room one weekend. It sat there for almost two months...in the same spot...and he never touched it again. Also, never asked about it. I noticed that DH recently moved it to our laundry room and again, it's just sitting there (and this skid still wets the bed occasionally, so he is acquainted with our laundry room). We have many other items of clothing like that. Sometimes, I put them in their room, but even then, they will usually just sit there without being touched. My skids are only with us EOWE, but they are almost 16...so, you'd think they'd be familiar with their possessions. I just find it odd. I wonder if they also have lots of items sitting unclaimed in the lost and found at school.
Sweep the house and put their
Sweep the house and put their belongings in a bag, tell them to take anything they want otherwise it goes to charity. I wouldn't like a Nike hat in my living room for months!
If it's "not theirs", you can
If it's "not theirs", you can get rid of it. Sounds like spoiled kids with so much stuff they don't even know what they have.
My older son had a bad habit
My older son had a bad habit of leaving an item and not reclaiming it. I finally put a tub in the garage and all left items went into it. When it got full, I'd ask once and if not claimed it either got donated or sold at a garage sale (and I kept the $)
Agree With Everyone
Gather up the stuff....give them notice it's here and to take home....or donating to charity. And follow through. I think I'd even try somehow to document the event (text, witness, etc). If there was anything in that box they wanted and it gets shipped off to Goodwill (or other charity), I'll bet the next time they'll get their stuff.
Choices have consequences.
right, i'd try to donate toys
right, i'd try to donate toys to the women's DV shelter... sometimes women and children literally show up with just the clothes on their backs... no toys, no toiletries, no additional clothes.
A few years ago I got rid of
A few years ago I got rid of a load of the SDs' soft toys that had been left at our house for years. Gave some to a charity shop and binned the rest.
Found a box of OSD's things
Found a box of OSD's things DH stashed in the storage area the other day. Giving a bunch of it to the thrift store...I kept the gloves for myself tho.
was he stashing it as
was he stashing it as momentos, or just to get it out of the house?
Get it out of the house. The
Get it out of the house. The memento box I don't touch.
I think that's just a typical
I think that's just a typical lazy/entitled kid thing. They don't value their things and it shows by how little they care for them. I agree with tossing them in a box and then giving a last warning before you donate/toss it. Your home is not their closet.
I've already donated or
I've already donated or regifted a lot of the stuff that is now too small or hasn't been touched (we had an unopened Amazon echo that was requested as a Christmas gift and then received as said gift from MIL that was never claimed or missed in over a year). I could easily just give it all away and then claim I didn't know where it was because they would never know if they left something at our house or not. One skid left a $50 bill that he was given as a gift sitting in our living room...for that one I was nice and said something to DH when really, I should have just kept it...SS (already a teen at that point) didn't even notice it was gone and didn't even ask about it. When he came back two weeks later, DH gave it to him and said he had to get better about keeping track of his money.