To remind you that black sacks are best used for rubbish?

[CatThiefKeith]

I've spent the day trying to sort out an elderly lady left with virtually no clothes to wear because due to an unfortunate series of events her clean washed clothes ended up in a bin lorry.

And while sorting her out I've come across 4 more people that have lost precious items in similar circumstances.

Can anyone top 3/4 of their clothing being thrown out with the rubbish? It might make her feel better if she knows she's not the only one!

I know someone who threw away an envelope containing 3 uncut emeralds.

Beat that!

I use charity bags for rubbish. Why waste free plastic bags to go out and buy more in a different colour?

Then again I've never had a mix up.

Yes I chucked two bin bags away that had clothes in and not rubbish. I'd been sorting out my bedroom, one of the bin bags had every piece of underwear I owned in it...

Was it you MrsTP? You'd never forgive yourself would you?

How would this happen? I can't think of any time in my life where I've put 3/4 of my clothes into bin bags and accidentally left them outside to be mistaken for a collection!

At least she's not the only one then Shelaugh

She's partially sighted and uses a wheelchair outside the home too so not easy to take her out to get more.

It wasn't me. And it was karma.

I gave the wrong black bag full of soft toys to the charity shop and put the charity shop bag in the loft thinking they were the sentimental must keep for ever teddies. Luckily the mistake was spotted quickly and I was able to buy all but one of the precious teddies back from the charity shop.

DHs phone got knocked into the bin and was the first time in an age he'd emptied it when we realised.
Not very exciting but lots of lovely photos lost.

I also threw away a carrier bag with a brand new sat nav in it. When I asked at the tip of anyone might have found it and handed it in, the man laughed his socks off I took that to mean no!

I can't think of a time in my life when I've had 3 uncut emeralds to lose!

Her washing machine is broken. Her dil is away for 3 weeks so had washed all her everyday clothes, plus her summer ones, ironed them and bought them back in black sacks.

There was some confusion between the cupboard where she keeps her rubbish outside the front door and the one where she keeps her ironing board just inside.

And now she has a weeks worth of rubbish and no clean clothes.

She's blaming the carers but who knows. She's 90 and gets a bit confused.

Once we had charity collection bags for a cancer charity through the letterbox to be collected the same day as bin day. The bags were white with a big pink box on the front.

Me and a few neighbours put out the white charity bags very separate from our black bin bags so they wouldn't be collected by the binmen.

When I got home all the charity bags were dumped on the piles with the rubbish bags waiting for the wagon to come around. I got most of them out but one, which was crammed full of lovely looking stuff, was buried underneath a black rubbish bag that had split and a few dog turd bags that dog walkers had put on the pile as they'd walked along. I couldn't bring myself to get it out and I felt so guilty.

I complained to the council

A single struggling mother who had carefully counted out her money to pay her bills. Just. Her toddler wanted to help Mummy so he tidied up the paper on the table throwing it on the fire.

An old lady round here had her old couch collected by the local refuse team. Who then found 6k hidden inside it that she forgot about...

Thankfully they were very honest and took it back to her!

I was sorting a keep and a throw pile of stuff after we got new bedroom furniture. Once we had chucked the black bags down the bin chute of our apartment block I realised some of my "keep" stuff was missing. DH had mistaken i for rubbish and slung it. I was gutted as it contained a 14ct necklace he bought me as his first ever gift. Never did find it even though I got the consierge to help me retrive the bag from the big bins

Poor old lady - where have her clothes ended up? If they've gone to the local tip recycling centre, perhaps you can get them back. Otherwise, I'm guessing a facebook appeal for replacement clothes wouldn't go amiss.

Woody and Buzz taught me this!

We moved house about 3 months ago and I'm sure I'm missing some clothes... They were in bin bags as we run out of boxes...

I'm 25 weeks pg and they were all size 8-10 skinny jeans and bodycon dresses that wouldn't go round a leg at the moment so it's not too bad.

Oh and DP was literally on the edge of searching the communal bins (for 20 floors of flats) for my car keys when I found them... In my jacket pocket. Tbf I'd not actually worn the jacket in a few days.

DH once binned a whole shop of nice food I'd bought for a holiday (wine, nibbles, better quality treat food we wouldn't usually buy). We used to use shopping bags as rubbish bins and I left the shopping outside the front door. He thought it was rubbish.

Oh, my god, dermot. How awful.

I haven't had your experience, OP, but I used to volunteer in the Oxfam shop, and we regularly got kind donations of people's rubbish - or donations where someone in the household had clearly got mixed up as to which black sack was for us and which for the bin. The ones with dirty nappies were the worst!

I accidently threw away a small expensive bag I bought DS for his birthday with the rubbish.

Fortunately they hadn't been, but I spent yesterday empyting the wheeley bin looking for it. Unfortunately it was warm, the bins are due to be collected and there were maggots in there.

I found the bag, in its packaging - thank goodness. I have disinfectant and the Karcher at the ready for tomorrow when the bin gets emptied.

uggh

Oh poor woman. I can quite see how that happens. It's good that she has you to help.