If you were given a box full of every item you've ever lost, what would you look for first?

[Eeepsh]

Mine would be a stuffed toy that was lost in a house move when I was 9. (I don't need a psychologist to tell me it represented more than an actual toy!)

My engagement ring. It isn't lost though. I gave it to my DiL several years ago so that she could use the diamonds to repair her engagement ring, which had lost a stone. She's never used it, but I can't really ask for it back.

My mums beautiful satin oriental dressing gown. She dies when I was 2. My dad threw it away when I was 12, after giving it to me. All her work shoes too, that I remember playing dress up in. They went too.

The bracelet that fell off my wrist somewhere in Manchester Airport years ago. It had been given to me by my ex fiance and even though we had broken up before we got married, I still loved the bracelet. I checked lost property but it wasn't there, someone must have found it and kept it. I actually ended up getting engaged to DH on that holiday, so maybe losing it was a symbolic ending!

On a less sentimental note, the receipt for a top I bought from Tesco last week that doesn't fit. I have a feeling it was left in the bottom of a carrier bag that has since been filled with dirty cat litter and thrown out.

I wouldn't open the box.

A black, Whistles sun dress.

My university graduation certificate and a beautiful necklace of my grandmother's, both of which were given to my DM for safekeeping after the post-grad ceremony meal before I went clubbing with my pals. I suspect she left them in a taxi.

My charm bracelet I had as a nipper that got stolen.

My DS's favourite coaster which has disappeared so comprehensively that the whole house is still going 'where is it?', despite us noticing almost straight away and searching house/emptying bins, etc.

My DD's small fox beanie boo. Lost after a new year's weekend and party, possibly accidentally thrown away.
She's 14 now and couldn't care less but back then we searched for him for weeks.
It still makes me sad thinking about it but I am sentimental about soft toys.

A pair of gold earrings my DH bought me.
Followed by all the single earrings I have lost throughout the years, and the Victorian garnet necklace (no value) I lost at least 30 years ago.

Deanelderberry - if they accounted for PAYE tax as they should have done, you can do a subject access request from H M Revenue & Customs for their records of your pay.

(DH had a salary 2003-2012 that was over the Lower Earnings Limit, but too low for NIC to be payable. There was no record of a pension credit on his state pension account but there should have been, so I did a SAR and the details of his pay arrived quite quickly. I've written to the pensions office with the details, and am waiting for them to reply.)

I miss my diamond ring - it was Victorian with rose cut diamonds. Pretty and easy to wear. It just disappeared, like so many things on this thread.

I claimed on the insurance and now have a very nice replacement, with far whiter and more sparkly diamonds, but it's not the same.

A black velvet vintage blazer that I'd bought on Carnaby street when I was about 15 and stupidly chucked in a pile of coats in a bar when I was about 28, never to be seen again.

I think about it often.

I can't really remember losing anything unless being burgled counts.

The very nice and very expensive canteen of cutlery that mysteriously went missing when we moved house 27 yrs ago . We moved in with my mum for a few months and the boxes were stored between MIL and BIL and the cutlery and a kettle were the only things we didn’t get back and they wouldn’t have been in a box alone as they were large packing boxes .

my tabby cat who wandered off and was lost about 20 years ago

This thread has reminded me about a book a read. A lovely read.

My dog
My daughter and her friend lost him while they were watching him when I took my mother some place over the weekend.

A ring my best friends clubbed together to buy when I turned 18yo. It was beautiful and I loved it, one day I just could t find the ring and I've been looking for it for about 10 years now.

Oh no - and you never found him?

I've had things disappear like this too - it's so strange.

My pearl earring

An opal ring that my mother, who was on a low income in retirement,had bought me as a special gift. I took it off in a restroom to wash my hands and walked out without it. Only had it for a week.

A photo taken of me and DP when we were a couple in our teens.

We went our separate ways for uni and met again in our late 20's.

Would love for our kids to see this picture of us. I still hope its at my parents somewhere but I think I may have binned it in a fit of pique after we split up.

It was such a beautiful picture, I can still see it in my minds eye.

My heart ( a starship trooper has it)

so many single earrings. The annoying thing is that you never loose ordinary /non favourite earrings, you always lose th eones you really like and mind losing.

dh wedding ring, lost in the snow because his hands were cold.

and a necklace with a little enamel owl on it that was my favourite all through my teens, and was stolen in my bag when our car was broken into when we were travelling round europe in uni summer holidays.

You are so right about earrings!