Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask relative to clear their items out of my garage after 2.5 years...

23 replies

BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 15:27

AIBU to have given them until a date in mid Feb to clear all of it, or I will depose of it? Its taking up around 1/3rd of my garage.

On another note...this is the second person I have given storage space in my garage too...and the other person only moved their things after 2.5 years when they finally needed the items again.

Anyone else have any 'storage wars' story's? I am NEVER letting ANYONE store items in my garage again.

OP posts:
Comtesse · 14/01/2020 15:28

Yanbu. They are lucky the stuff isn’t down the tip already! Never let anyone put anything in your garage/ shed/ attic again.....

Aquamarine1029 · 14/01/2020 15:30

Don't ask them to move out their things, TELL them. Give them a date, and be very, very clear that if they fail to retrieve them by that date, everything will be thrown out the very next day, regardless what it is. Cheeky, lazy fuckers. As you said, never again.

Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 15:37

Sorry, slipped back into my usual language...I did not ask this time, I did TELL them :) I had to keep rewriting the message to make sure it told them and not asked them! I'm v laid back generally. But they have managed to piss me off now.

OP posts:
monkeymonkey2010 · 14/01/2020 18:21

it's your own fault for giving them free storage for years on end....how about next time you give them a time limit and stick to it?

Leeds2 · 14/01/2020 18:36

YANBU at all!

Have they responded?

Celticrose · 14/01/2020 18:42

Yanbu in any way shape or form. If I leave anything in my Dm's house I get reminded take it home or at my next visit it will be sitting out in a prominent place to make I don't forget to take it.

SuperMeerkat · 14/01/2020 18:58

Definitely agree. They are taking the piss. I also think that middle of Feb is too generous but as you’ve said it now, that’s the date. Be strong and make sure you follow through on it. You can guarantee that the day you chuck it will be the day that they ‘were going to collect it’ Er yeah right 🤦‍♀️

Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 22:08

Its my sister, hence being extra extra extra lenient. She's good at manipulating me with emotional blackmail.

Yes she has responded. She is not happy about it. I distinctly get the feeling that she thinks I am being very unreasonable. Apparently she will struggle with the logistics of time and money to get it moved. I do know she has the time and money as she posts every day out, meal out, night out, weekend away on FB. She appears to find both time and money for those things. I'm also getting a big dose of her 'big sisteritus'. I confirmed it is ALL to be moved by that date. I have ignored her snippy/patronising reply. This is a person who is keen on good manners, apparently.

The Feb date was me making sure I was being more than reasonable as I knew she would throw out the time card at me.

OP posts:
Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 22:12

I should also say I'm talking tough here (for me) but I'm actually quailing in my boots at standing up to her. Her response is the reason I don't generally stand up to her, at all, ever really. I don't see her much so I tend to take the easier path. So this time is particularly tough.

OP posts:
echt · 14/01/2020 22:15

Good luck with standing up to your sister. YANBU.

An aspect of this thread made me laugh as I have friends whose children are in their 40 s and still haven't moved out stuff stored from their 20s. And tenaciously hang on to it.

cheesenpickles · 14/01/2020 22:17

Op are you me?! Grin I had my big sister's roof box in my garage for close to four years. Said we could borrow it but a) didn't fit our car and b) didn't give us the keys. Put my foot down and it caused tension for a bit but whaddya know?! It DID fit in their loft. Sadly didn't fit their new (three years they had the bloody thing) car so they sold it. Hmm

Sillyscrabblegames · 14/01/2020 22:18

I have a big house and am constantly being approached by friends and relatives who want to store their rubbish here because they don't want it in their own house. I fell for it a few times and then I realised that my house is not a storage container, and got rid of it all for them. No one has asked for anything back several years later!

Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 22:28

@echt guess how old she is and where she moved it from when they moved to a retirement home...Strawberry Shortcake anyone? With pet. In a sealed plastic bag. In a plastic box. With ALL of her friends.

@cheesenpickles I wish I was you then it would have gone 'POOF' and all be gone by now! That is all bloody annoying...esp not fitting 'new' car :-O

@Sillyscrabblegames I feel for you. I always felt I was unreasonable to say no. However given the way I have been treated by those who have used my garage, I will say yes from now on, its £50/£100 a week and if payment is late your items will be sold/skipped...wonder if I will get many takers?

OP posts:
Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 22:30

Reread your's sillyscrabblegames, proud of you just getting rid! People are just so fecking cheeky...

OP posts:
OhWellThatsJustGreat · 14/01/2020 22:34

My parents put some of my uncles stuff in the attic in the late 90s, it came down last year when they sold the house... Everyone had forgotten they had it, him and my dad took it all to the tip 😂

Original poster
BloodyWifi · 14/01/2020 23:10

@Ohwellthatsjustgreat I love that story...and also the point...does the person dumping their stuff actually REALLY want it still? Or do they just not want to have to deal with it?

OP posts:
seltaeb · 14/01/2020 23:15

If she really wants the stuff she can pay for it to be stored in a storage unit. Give her a Marie Kondo book for her next birthday.

Davespecifico · 14/01/2020 23:16

My relative has left the entire contents of his old flat in his friend’s loft for about the last 20 plus years. He casually mentioned to me recently that he might pop there to pick up one or two things.
I think some people really don’t have the ability to consider the effect of their behaviour on others, but are incredibly sensitive to how others respond to them.
Nowt so weird as folk.

EL8888 · 14/01/2020 23:50

You aren’t unreasonable but your sister is a CF. Her response to you asking her move her stuff makes a more persistent CF. It’s your garage and you have been more than generous

Original poster
BloodyWifi · 15/01/2020 00:38

@Davespecifico :-O

@El8888 I think because I am her little sister and I have a house with a garage, and she does not (lives with partner) that she has rights to my garage. She's not said it. But from the way she has behaved, its like she has a right to store her things in my garage. I never had her down as a CF.

OP posts:
EL8888 · 15/01/2020 00:51

She has no “rights”. Being brutal but if she wants a garage then she either needs to rent / buy a house with a garage or rent / buy a garage. She can’t just have something because you have it

Blahblahblah12345 · 15/01/2020 01:00

What have you said to her and what was the reply?

Need to learn for myself.

echt · 15/01/2020 03:46

I think because I am her little sister and I have a house with a garage, and she does not (lives with partner) that she has rights to my garage. She's not said it. But from the way she has behaved, its like she has a right to store her things in my garage

In the nicest possible way, your post has "I think...she'd not said it....from the way she has behaved" means you've spoken about this in the past and nor has she. No doubt she relied on the unspoken and unequal contract. Good that you've put it in writing and given a date. YANBU. Don't get drawn into speaking with her about it. I see you don't see her very often. Win win.

You've got rid of one chancer's detritus, you can do this with your DS.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page