To not be grateful to my inlaws!!!!

[Ishouldprobablywax]

I have just spent 3hours clearing out rubbish that my in laws have dumped here. It's like the home bargains skip!
So far- a million plastic carrier bags

1 iron with cord broken

1 dish strainer (we have one)

9 battery operates led kitchen lights

5 tins of paint that are rusted stale and only 1/8 full. In different colours

1 bag of compost (no garden)

1 dustpan and brush

32 vinyl faded floor tiles
gaaah
then THEN when they visit on our understairs cupboard being a bloody tip!

I should add that we've only lived in this house 4 WEEKs
argh!

LOL my DH's Nanna was always trying to offload stuff on us including all her out of date food - she treated me like a human dustbin (despite my nickname I draw the line somewhere!). Just chuck it (or recycle). So satisfying. I hate the phrase "they mean well" but they have obviously gained some satisfaction from passing on their crap heirlooms. Doesn't mean you have to keep it!

The absolute best thing about XMIL not speaking to me, is I dont have to have any crap from her!
One Xmas, I got a teddy nightie (suitable for a teen girl), in a size 20, I'm big but a 16 not a 20, and a book on crocheting

The teddy nighties have to be one of the worst things in these 'gift' catalogues, lol. I don't mind a bit of crochet mind - but it aint everyones cup of tea.

YANBU - OMG!!!

I've had similar, but not as bad from my IL's. It's stopped now. I recommend giving it back. My MIL even gave me some of her old clothes once (to be fair in excellent condition, but still...). They even started passing along SIL's old junk to me, that stopped when I sorted it out into what was good enough for the charity shop and what wasn't and cleaned what was. Then gave it back.

My own parents do similar with actual presents, so I cannot return those (buy me ornaments when I loathe them, buy me clothes in the wrong size)...at least that is only twice a year. A full twenty years now I have been trying to drop the while present buying thing.

I've also been offered:

old blinds for our brand new house windows, (ungrateful wretches that we are we said no).

Old dishwasher that would not have fit under our worksurface and would have increased our electricity bills. They were quite annoyed that we turned this one down.

And my favourite, when I returned from having dd, there was a new dryer sat on top of my worksurface because I just couldn't do without one when I had a new baby.

The problem is they then get upset when we get rid of things. The dryer doesn't fit in the new house. It's one of those with a pipe in the front and needs to be next to a window/door. MIL has suggested I put it in our sitting room , and called us ungrateful. I could do with a dryer, but would have liked to buy one myself to make sure it was appropriate for the house. Instead I had one forced on me and then got aggro when I said I was going to get rid of it.

Ooh yes, I can heartily recommend the tactic of boxing it up and returning it saying "It was so kind of you to lend/give this to us but we have had a huge clear up. We found these and realised we didn't use them anymore so have brought them back for you so they don't go to waste".
We did have a huge clear up and we did find umpteen bags of crap lovely gifts that IL's had given us. To say they weren't too impressed at getting them back would be a slight understatement ("well we thought you might find them useful but OBVIOUSLY we were wrong" :o ) but we we haven't been offered much stuff since then and we always cut in with "That's really kind of you but we have been making a real effort since our clear out not to take things that we are unlikely to use". They seem to have got the message now as they haven't found us any useful stuff lately.
The thing that amuses me the most is that MIL complains about her mother doing the same thing.

My MILs favourite shops for birthday/christmas presents are Robert Dyas & TK Maxx

When we open said gifts she then proudly tells us "I got that for 3 pounds, isn't it a bargain?" WTF?!

I wouldn't mind except when we ask her what she wants as a pressie (I'm old fashioned - I believe in giving gifts that people actually want) she says things like "ooh I'd love a new digital camera"!!!

You know the ones - little or no change from 150 quid

all her tat goes to charity, thankfully she can never remember what she gave us :o :o