When You Donate Something You Want Back..

[Ron H]

Ever donated something you soon discovered you could use? I frequently donate stuff and with all the chit I have laying around, I’m amazed I have tons more stuff to get rid of. Couple weeks ago, I took a bunch of stuff to the ‘Restore’, as they’re called in my area, Habitat for Humanity stores. Cool places finding some good stuff crazy cheap. A lot of contractors donate new stuff, over-supply items, still in the packages. Other things like tools, used doors, bath fixtures, lights, furniture, you name it.

On my last donate trip, gave a bunch of stuff I didn’t need from building my garage. Brand new, unopened items. Well, I included a whole bunch of old industrial steel clips for assembling steel shelving I've had for decades. Thought I had no used for them as I have several old HD racks up. Cleaning out the basement, I find more shelves and posts to put up another rack – now minus the clips I need to assemble it. Grrr.

Went back to the Restore last week showing them a clip I still had asking if they might have those yet, and would buy them. Nice lady took it and went into the warehouse to see if she could find them. Meanwhile searched the store in case they might be on display. Found some of the other stuff I donated, no clips. She came back saying sorry, no luck finding them.

Got the idea to go back there today with my old HS buddy in case they might be displayed. Lol, found them, separated into four bags for a buck each. Bought ‘em so a double-donation. Great, now I’m dealing with the jokers, including my wife, about this.

 

[66 Sat]

It's lucky it wasn't your kidney...

 

[Ron H]

It's lucky it wasn't your kidney...

Thanks - my 1st gut-busting laugh today!

 

[GetX'd]

I've been on multiple missions thru the home getting rid of an incredible amount of stuff. Some really good vintage camera and some very high quality sporting goods that I thought I would never use again - scuba gear etc. I never sold anything, everything went to a charity. Keep in mind corporate moves - they take everything from your prior to your current home including the garbage. So I had things from forever ago. My place is now down pat. However I have not even the remotest clue how, why or even when my extremely good fly fishing equipt left the building - including my vest with years worth of fly collection in it. Sure the rod and reel can be replaced - but you fly fishermen know how it is to have a keen set of successful flys - w/o knowing exactly what you had replacing is no simple matter. That's the one I angst over every time it enters my mind...... which is often

 

[68BabyBlue]

I've been on multiple missions thru the home getting rid of an incredible amount of stuff. Some really good vintage camera and some very high quality sporting goods that I thought I would never use again - scuba gear etc. I never sold anything, everything went to a charity. Keep in mind corporate moves - they take everything from your prior to your current home including the garbage. So I had things from forever ago. My place is now down pat. However I have not even the remotest clue how, why or even when my extremely good fly fishing equipt left the building - including my vest with years worth of fly collection in it. Sure the rod and reel can be replaced - but you fly fishermen know how it is to have a keen set of successful flys - w/o knowing exactly what you had replacing is no simple matter. That's the one I angst over every time it enters my mind...... which is often

Kevin, as you know I’m an avid fly fisherman. At this point in my life, I only use two basic patterns. Please don’t sweat this one. I can help you, or anyone on the forum, please let me know.

 

[Ron H]

have not even the remotest clue how, why or even when my extremely good fly fishing equipt left the building

Can’t tell ya how many times I’ve gone searching for stuff and on a few occasions, I’ve found it…months even years later and when I’m not looking for it…long after giving up. Last item was my departed dad’s gold Longines wristwatch he gave me, initially a Christmas gift from my mother from 1953 he wore for over 20 years, engraved on the back.

Last I remembered having it in my truck console to take it for a new band and taking the truck to the shop for unexpected repairs. Some weeks later, remembered the watch and nope, not in the truck, gone. Called every jewelry store in the area, pawn shops, posted an ad with photo in the newspaper with a $500 reward, reported it to the PD so they’d have it on record if it was part of a stolen item confiscation.

I think it was some SEVEN years later, cleaning out a bathroom vanity cabinet, reaching way in the back to pull stuff out I couldn’t see…grabbed my dad’s watch! Shocked. THEN my memory came back. I was smart enough taking it out of the truck when taking it in and around the time we were taking a couple week trip out of the country and last minute stashed some stuff away in case the house was broken into. NO memory of it…until finding it! Only thing I could think of being this dimwitted, was I did the stashing as a quick thought a few minutes before driving to the airport with all the stuff in mind leaving.

Hope you get lucky and locate your fishing vest. Maybe you have looked everywhere, lol, check the most goofy places in the house.

 

[GetX'd]

Kevin, as you know I’m an avid fly fisherman. At this point in my life, I only use two basic patterns. Please don’t sweat this one. I can help you, or anyone on the forum, please let me know.

You're a Prince Adam. I was again reminded of that issue when we spoke the other day and the subject came up. Good to know what you offer. I'm no where near as experienced in fly fishing as in other methods but I still like it and do know that's one of your primary methods. The whole idea of what I did still makes me bang my head against the wall in punishment for the gaffe.

 

[GetX'd]

Can’t tell ya how many times I’ve gone searching for stuff and on a few occasions, I’ve found it…months even years later and when I’m not looking for it…long after giving up. Last item was my departed dad’s gold Longines wristwatch he gave me, initially a Christmas gift from my mother from 1953 he wore for over 20 years, engraved on the back.

Last I remembered having it in my truck console to take it for a new band and taking the truck to the shop for unexpected repairs. Some weeks later, remembered the watch and nope, not in the truck, gone. Called every jewelry store in the area, pawn shops, posted an ad with photo in the newspaper with a $500 reward, reported it to the PD so they’d have it on record if it was part of a stolen item confiscation.

I think it was some SEVEN years later, cleaning out a bathroom vanity cabinet, reaching way in the back to pull stuff out I couldn’t see…grabbed my dad’s watch! Shocked. THEN my memory came back. I was smart enough taking it out of the truck when taking it in and around the time we were taking a couple week trip out of the country and last minute stashed some stuff away in case the house was broken into. NO memory of it…until finding it! Only thing I could think of being this dimwitted, was I did the stashing as a quick thought a few minutes before driving to the airport with all the stuff in mind leaving.

Hope you get lucky and locate your fishing vest. Maybe you have looked everywhere, lol, check the most goofy places in the house.

Thanks Ron - I love your story and have done similar a few times - once remembering the disappearance of my college ring. I wanted to always keep it as a remembrance of the unlikely event of my graduation ...lol. Looked absolutely everywhere and finally ordered a new replacement from Jostens in Owattana, MN who had made the original. I was going to be driving from my then Colorado home to Mpls for some holiday and was to pick it up along the way. I was also getting prepared to move into my newly built home - moving a dresser ... What's this buried in the "shag" carpet? OMG - My ring! This was years after I'd lost it. Quickly called Jostens to beg off the order that I believe was done and waiting my pu. I still remember how understanding they were.

But I guarantee I've been thru every inch of everywhere of this place inside, including the garage. Some lucky guy is fishing a stream as we speak with my gear - flys and all. It's gone....

 

[YY1]

I donated a Western Electric nixie tube frequency counter to the local Vocational Tech school.

It was big and difficult to store but now I miss it.

I wonder if I can ask for visitation.

 

[gkent]

My wife piled up a bunch of clothing she no longer wears to take to the local Value Village BUT she stacked it right on top of a brand new pair of jeans she had just bought. So a few days later she's in the Value Village and finds the "new jeans" and bought them back - at a price which I thought was MUCH more reasonable than what she'd paid for them the first time !!!

 

[Dennis H]

This. At 15k including shipping, it was a gift.

 

[Detective D]

Can’t tell ya how many times I’ve gone searching for stuff and on a few occasions, I’ve found it…months even years later and when I’m not looking for it…long after giving up. Last item was my departed dad’s gold Longines wristwatch he gave me, initially a Christmas gift from my mother from 1953 he wore for over 20 years, engraved on the back.

Last I remembered having it in my truck console to take it for a new band and taking the truck to the shop for unexpected repairs. Some weeks later, remembered the watch and nope, not in the truck, gone. Called every jewelry store in the area, pawn shops, posted an ad with photo in the newspaper with a $500 reward, reported it to the PD so they’d have it on record if it was part of a stolen item confiscation.

I think it was some SEVEN years later, cleaning out a bathroom vanity cabinet, reaching way in the back to pull stuff out I couldn’t see…grabbed my dad’s watch! Shocked. THEN my memory came back. I was smart enough taking it out of the truck when taking it in and around the time we were taking a couple week trip out of the country and last minute stashed some stuff away in case the house was broken into. NO memory of it…until finding it! Only thing I could think of being this dimwitted, was I did the stashing as a quick thought a few minutes before driving to the airport with all the stuff in mind leaving.

Hope you get lucky and locate your fishing vest. Maybe you have looked everywhere, lol, check the most goofy places in the house.

I just had this happen to me.
22 years ago I moved into current home. At the time I had an absolute thrashed 1970 Mustang with a 351C and a top loader in it. Needed a rebuild on the hurst shifter, didn't come out of reverse right. Bought a kit, right before we moved.
Couple years after moving, decide to sell the car. Gave the guy everything to go with it, front spoiler, grill with no busted pieces, few other things.... but not the shifter rebuild kit. I could not find it. I spent a week looking. Gave up, told the guy what it needed.

Couple weeks ago. Pull in a big TV box from the shop, time to dust off the Mustang die cast, get some pictures and put them up for sale(haven't yet) as I haven't looked at them in 22 years.
Guess what is at the bottom of the box under 2 dozen die cast car boxes?


I haven't personally donated anything I regretted. Some immediate family donated some old things from the home farm without asking the rest of the family, but that is a bit different.

 

[Ron H]

family donated some old things from the home farm without asking the rest of the family,

Same thing with my folks cleaning house…my old-old comic books and baseball cards trashed. My dad sold an antique set of pristine hickory-shaft golf clubs I had got from a buddy’s dad, setting those out at a rummage sale. Lol, my mother wasn’t happy when he took her grandmother’s set of dinnerware to Goodwill.

 

[Cranky]

Donated a 1 ton truck years back and kinda wish I hadn't....should have dropped in a 5.9 diesel and kept on driving it lol. And as far as 'losing' stuff in my shop....man, I'm looking for a box of .22's that I just bought and moved them to a spot that wasn't in plain sight and well, it's now out of sight from me too! And there's stuff in here that's been lost for years!

 

[Ron H]

'losing' stuff in my shop....man

Tools! Yeah, a repetitive hassle. My daughters borrowed some from me and then I forget about them until wondering where that wrench, hammer, drill, etc. is. And then when I’ve done work at their houses, end up leaving tools there. One lives 35 miles away, but the other 220. I have to periodically call them to ask if this or that tool is there. Lol, then one usually can’t remember and not sure cuz her tool knowledge is limited. I’ve got many duplicates of a lot of tools, then there’s some I don’t.

Lol, memories growing up with the tool wars btw my dad, brother, and me. “HEY, did you take my 3/8’s drive socket wrench? Had to be YOU cuz it doesn’t have legs!” My elder brother was a mechanic for some time and envied his extreme nit-picking about his tools, EVERY tool had its place and went back in the box CLEAN. If he'd come across a greasy socket, he wouldn't forget to accuse me of using it. It was easier to apply for a passport than it was borrowing a tool from him.

 

[GetX'd]

Eight sibling heirs to my parents estate when my mom passed. Oldest brother is executor. We don’t speak. He sets up a deal where everyone is to pick numbers and go around the homestead and make their choice of what they’d like to have for themselves. Not a bad idea but fraught with temperament in a family like mine. I didn’t really want to be one of the vultures and said so in a nicer way. They encouraged me to participate. So my sister draws the #1 pick and chooses a nice keepsake. I had drawn #2 and there was only one thing I wanted (for a reason) So I choose my parents long time silverware set in a very nice wooden box that I happened to see maybe for the first time just a couple days earlier in the basement rec room off my old bedroom where I stay when up in MN. Sister #1 goes absolutely out of her mind at my choice. Furiously spewing her mind and ruined the whole thing. There were a few other things I would have like from my parents - but at that point I relinquished my # 2 spot going forward to whomever wanted to pick the carcasses. The whole thing sickened me. I did not back off the silverware however. My sister stomped around for a few days, sent sibling emissaries to ask me to give this to her. I said no. A day or two later I left to fly back home - and left the silverware where it sat. My entitled sister now owns it never having said another word to about it. So I rec’d nothing personal from my parents estate - sad. But what my greedy sister didn’t know was my primary desire to have that set was to one day not far off give it to my favorite nephew and his wife as a gift - probably the only real meaningful thing I could ever give them besides my mentorship and friendship when he was growing up w/o a father. That nephew is her son…….

 

[Detective D]

A shame that happened. Nothing new sadly, hearing this from many. Had an aunt that had left her MS ridden husband in a VA hospital and just disappeared. My mother’s brother. No notification which broke my mother’s heart as they were very close growing up. The POS showed up a decade later asking for forgiveness after my uncle had passed. Ugly story. My mom was a forgiving sort to a fault, despite the fact she had spent mega-thousands caring for her brother over the years and frequent long trips to go visit him. Others in the family, including her daughter, wanted nothing to do with her. Being close with my mom, I got sucked into accepting her back and gave that rancid POS a lot of help. She despised many in the family and long before she took off. LONG story.

Aunt Dolores had quite a history during her absence. She married a guy having tons of money living in Hawaii. Abusive marriage; but to her good fortune, the guy croaked and she got all his money and his house. She made it known about her wealth and promised she would reimburse my mother for all the thousands she spent taking care of the disabled husband she dumped. Then my aunt says she’s leaving all her money to me. I made the mistake of telling her I wouldn’t feel right about it, wanting to disperse it among my cousins and brother. NOT what she wanted to hear. My mother bent over backwards appeasing the bee-itch hoping she would leave it with me. It became obvious that preserving any relationship with that whacko wasn’t possible. Told my mom she’s going to turn on us, hating our guts and after a few things that friggin outraged me, was going to tell her what she can do with herself and end any further association with her. My mom talked me out of it.

She hired a couple of ladies to care for her and her home and zero doubt, they saw a golden opportunity in the making. Less than 48 hours before she croaked, she changed her will erasing me and giving it all to her housekeepers. My mother got squat. My aunt was quite ill and if anyone wanted to do her in, it wouldn’t be difficult. Just my suspicion with those ‘ladies’. Again, longer tale.

I wasn’t upset other than the fifty grand my mom spent making her brother’s existence a little better.

Her wish was to have her ashes scattered over water. Lol, with those ladies she gave it all to, wouldn’t be surprised if they flushed her ashes down the toilet. Hard to believe they would spend the cash to take her remains to the ocean. And toilet water is – water.

I am glad my family is not disfunctional. What a blessing.

 

[Ron H]

I am glad my family is not disfunctional. What a blessing.

I’m glad my deranged aunt was not BLOOD relation. Have to say when it came time to disperse my mother’s belongings to my brother’s family and mine, NO bad feelings, heck, some of the stuff I was hoping they would take was left! So I had to deal with it. Grrr. She had some nice stuff worth some money, at least it had cost good money; but the millennial gen kids had no interest in it.