Someone’s been in my bedroom

I suppose the cat could’ve come in. That would explain the bed and desk (world’s cheapest dressing table!). But unless I have an extremely clever cat it wouldn’t explain the drawers.

My cats used to sleep in my drawers. If they weren’t open they’d open them themselves, cupboards too. So it wouldn’t be too unusual if yours could!

DH has a method of marking doors.

he jams the tiniest bit of paper into the bottom of the hinge side so that he can just about see it. It falls out when the door is opened. (We had some tenants that moved out but during our clean for the next tenants we couldn’t understand things moving, disappearing etc, turns out she’d moved on and he had nowhere to live, they had another set of keys cut and he was sleeping there on the floor, having a shower and leaving early in the morning, a neighbour put us onto it).

keep your bedroom door shut and mark it, personally I think I’d get a camera instead.

Christ. What a way to make someone terrified!

Confront your Mum. Watch tell tale signs of lies. They are always there.

If you draw a blank, its the neighbour.

Write her a note saying the arrangement is now finished.

This happened to us. Also thought someone had broken into the house. It turned out that it was my mum who had quietly made copies of my keys phoning up relatives and telling them to come stay whenever she knew we were away. My sister accidentally let the cat out of the bag a long time later, so they were all in on it and thought it was hilarious. Before the days of ring doorbells or I would have got one then and there.

People can make copies of keys, I would change the locks or get a bedroom lock at the very least.

Wiltshire, England. Have you heard of the mysterious Skinwalker and Wendigo creatures?

I was going to say this.
I'm guessing she sent one if the kids to do it

I was suggesting a way forward for the OP to see if someone had been going through her things in the future. Plus tell others it is there as a deterrent, hence the safety comment. If you suspect someone has been in you play back the recording.

Plenty of people with dogs have similar systems for when they are out at work.

If she's a good neighbour I would simply ask your neighbour if she was only person in the house to feed the cat? When she asks why, simply say that some things in your room have been moved and while it's human nature to be a bit curious, you'd rather people didn't explore.

Phrogging ... I had to Google it as it's another stupid word nobody understands! ... is someone living in someone home without their knowledge or permission.

I asked a friend to pick up post etc when we were away some time ago. She told me that she had brought her husband up and showed him round my house. She obviously thought it was fine.

I regularly feed my neighbours cats. I walk through their utility room to the kitchen, feed the cats and then leave. I wouldn't even go into their sitting room.

When you gave your neighbour the key to your house, did it not occur to you that she might go snooping around? Presumably the doors don't lock?
I think if it had been me, I would have left some sort of booby trap, such as a mouse trap in the drawer.

A Blink camera costs £20 and can be placed discretely behind some books or on the top of a wardrobe etc. It's not a lot of money, I'd opt for this. At worst you record unnecessarily, at best you catch the culprit.

My mum was tasked with feeding the neighbours cat around 5 years ago and she said she couldn't find it so went upstairs one day and the drawers in the bedroom were open so she closed them and just assumed it was the neighbours cleaners who had also been in whilst she was away. When the neighbour came back she mentioned it to the neighbour and the neighbour basically said 'the cleaners don't go in my bedroom' and made out that my mum had been the one up there and that something was missing. Neighbour recently asked mum to go and do feeds again, mum had to say no, sorry you'll have to pay petpals or someone as I felt like I'd been accused of things I hadn't done.

Ugh. This happened to me once. Neighbour alleged that she'd sent her teen daughter over to feed the cat, daughter had mislaid the key in the house then panicked and searched through all the drawers looking for another spare before she found the mislaid key in her pocket. Hmm.
Didn't ask her to cat sit again.

It seems a bit like overkill to have cctv!
I know you're a neat and organised person OP - so am I! However, we do occasionally err, especially in the stress of going away on holiday. There's been no harm done, I wouldn't fret about it.

Virtually nobody needs an internal CCTV system "for safety". And unless someone is watching the CCTV at all times how does it keep you safe?

First thought for me also was neighbours husband

If they are friends I would say to the wife .

I'm impressed you know someone has been through your drawers. Mine aren't tidy enough for that.

My partner's neighbour feeds his cat when he's away. She lets her children go upstairs and into the bedrooms (one time he closed all the bedroom doors and when he got home they were open). Very annoying/nosey. Far worse for adults to do it though- they should know better.

This

Ask your mum if she popped round while you were away.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/3484225-Savernake-forest

Just Googled.. some scary stuff 😳