If the seller of your home left behind stuff on accident...

[cookies]

would you try to send it to them?

We moved a few months ago and I have been obsessing over the fact that we left about $100 worth of cloth diapers in the dryer. I didn't realize it until we finished unpacking and all of our "good" diapers and one of the wet bags were missing.  I didn't want to be the person who reached out to our buyer to offer her money to ship them to us.  Plus she's a single lady and was probably all WTF, GROSS when she saw what was in the dryer. And clearly we didn't mean to leave them for her. At the same time, I'm a little bummed that she didn't reach out through our realtors to offer to get them to us.  I know that's what I would have done. Probably. Ha.

[ssmjlm]

Yeah, something like that I probably would.

Now the idiots we bought our house from that left the shed full of shit like fertilizer that was bad, paint, etc. Hells no. They're lucky we didn't ask for money to dispose of the stuff.

[rfs13]

definitely. I remember an important piece of mail came for the previous owner and I got in touch with the realtor and they helped me get it over to her.

[Susie]

You see it as having left $100 behind, but if she doesn't have kids (or hasn't had them recently), she probably didn't see it that way. If the dryer in my new house was full of clean/dry cloth diapers, I wouldn't know what they were worth. I'd probably donate them or something. Going through realtors would seem like a big hassle to me for not-obvious value.

But then, we didn't have a super easy time with our sellers, and closed weeks late because of them, so I was not feeling many warm fuzzies.

[hz80408]

I would at least try to contact them.

[ddi741]

Honestly if it's been a few months, they are probably gone.either donated or in the trash.
If it had been a couple days later, maybe but if she hasn't tried to get in touch with you by now, then my guess is she no longer has them.

[sunshineluv]

I wouldn't have reached out to the people we bought our house from, unless I thought it was a precious heirloom or something. They were horrible to us at the end, so nope.

[Deleted]

Honestly, probably not. Though your example makes me unsure, since I would have assumed it was a mistake that it was left since it was in the dryer. Anything sitting out/laying around I would assume they left on purpose since they should have walked through the house, opened cabinets and closets, etc before they left.

[lime]

Honestly, no.

I would have no idea how much they cost. Even if I did, 100$ is *trivial* compared to the price of a home, the cost of your move, the cost of your realtor fee, etc...

So this wouldn't even be on my radar.

[soozy87]

I would guess she probably tossed them or donated them.

[wannabe]

Yeah, I would've tossed it all immediately. Sorry.

[froggy76]

Yes, I would have called my realtor to get in touch with the sellers and let them know they can swing by at a certain time if they want to pick up their stuff. It's not that hard.

[MadamePresident]

I almost left the last load in the dryer when I moved last month. I would hope the buyer would have reached out to me, but if not I wouldn't have thought twice about contacting them. After a couple months you could still try, but I would be less hopeful.

[CallingAllAngels]

Our sellers left behind an attic full of stuff. It was ridiculous. We called them (they still live in our town and had left their phone number in case we had any questions about the house) and told them to come get it by X day or we were going to get rid of it. He came and got it. My H moved the stuff from the attic to our foyer, which was more than I would have done.

I don't know what I would have done with a dryer full of cloth diapers. Knowing what I know now, I would probably contact them. When I was single? I would probably assume they were rags or something and toss them.

[Deleted]

I'm a mom of 3.5 kids so I know the cost even though I am a disposables fan. I would because of my knowledge on the subject, otherwise probably not.

[moolarkey]

If she doesn't have kids she doesn't know the $value and probably kept them to use as dust cloths.

[jerseyjaybird]

Aug 15, 2013 10:50:28 GMT -5 Susie said:

You see it as having left $100 behind, but if she doesn't have kids (or hasn't had them recently), she probably didn't see it that way. If the dryer in my new house was full of clean/dry cloth diapers, I wouldn't know what they were worth. I'd probably donate them or something.  

I had a great relationship with my sellers, so I probably would have reached out, but I can understand this perspective, too.

[LoveTrains]

So after I bought my house, I found a brand new in box, unopened light fixture in a closet in the bedroom.

I returned it to Home Depot for $150 in store credit. And I don't feel bad about it at all.

So yeah, no, I wouldn't contact the seller about items they left in the house.

He also left behind a cast iron griddle in the drawer underneath the stove and I use that puppy all.the.time.

[ECB]

This is interesting because w/ both the buyer of our old house and the sellers of our new house - we actually exchanged emails w/ all of them for the "just in cases". AND we didn't have a good relationship w/ the sellers and never actually met them! But still had all their contact info (they left their new address too).

Honestly, if I didn't have this info, no, I wouldn't have reached out to my realtor. I would have held onto the item(s) for a period of time and waited for the sellers to contact me. My logic being if it was something important to them, they'll reach out. If it's not important, well then, I'm not going to go through any hassle.

[whitemerlot]

I would have called my realtor about that.

We just bought a house and have contacted the former owner about something.

[my4girls]

I sent several things to the lady we bought the house from- mail, things like that, nothing that she left, though I would have been happy to do it if she had asked. She was a super sweet lady and I was happy to do it.

[my4girls]

dup.

[lishie]

Aug 15, 2013 10:44:40 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Yeah, something like that I probably would.

Now the idiots we bought our house from that left the shed full of shit like fertilizer that was bad, paint, etc. Hells no. They're lucky we didn't ask for money to dispose of the stuff.

+1 here. Our sellers asked for extra time to move stuff out of the basement and garage and we gave it to them. Even with that, they left a garage and basement full of random construction materials, doors, etc. It was all DH could do to keep me from going back to the realtor and asking for some money back from the sale to pay to get rid of the stuff. It ended up staying there for 5 years until we finally started redoing the house and had a huge dumpster to throw the stuff into.

If I were young and single I may have just said "I don't want to touch these diapers and keep them in my house." And I'd have no clue how expensive they were.

In my current married mom of two state, I'd know they're expensive and reach out.

[wildfloweragain]

No. She probably thought the diapers were cleaning rags. Our family used cloth diapers for tons of things after us kids were out of them. On fact, I don't even know if my mom used them as CDs.

At this point, you'll have to get new. If you thought of it right away, like that day or the next, I'd contact them.

[bryantpark]

Aug 15, 2013 10:44:40 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Yeah, something like that I probably would.

Now the idiots we bought our house from that left the shed full of shit like fertilizer that was bad, paint, etc. Hells no. They're lucky we didn't ask for money to dispose of the stuff.

We had to deal with this too.  What a PITA.  They also left us a can of gas, INSIDE the basement.  Awesome.  They had already packed up and moved to another state and our realtor didn't seem to really want to push the issue.  It was so annoying to dispose of everthing.

[y4m]

I'd be using those for cleaning rags, if I held on to them at all. Sorry, but months later is too late.

[Deleted]

As someone without kids and no idea how much cloth diapers cost I would have tossed them or donated them. If it was something that was obviously valuable I would reach out but diapers...no way.

[cookies]

I figured it's too late to reach out and I chalked it up to my mistake and didn't want to bother her anyway. But I'm still obsessing that she didn't reach out to us and am bummed I left the diapers there in the first place. I've got to let it go.

On the plus side, she never cashed the check we wrote her so she could change the locks on the doors. Maybe that was her way of making amends.

[lolc]

When we moved into our first house, the sellers left a lot of stuff in the garage. As we were cleaning out the junk, we noticed a box full of wedding memorabilia! The couple is still married. It was sentimental things too - photos, the wine glasses from their first toast, etc. I don't remember all that was in the box, but I remember thinking that as much as I hated them (long story short the house was a money pit!) I could NOT just throw out that box. I would be devastated if someone threw out my sentimental wedding things without trying to contact me. I would never leave something like that behind!  I attempted to contact them through their forwarding address and gave my phone number. 

2 years later I get a random phone call from the former owner (who never contacted me after she had gotten the letter!). She asked if she could come by in 10 minutes (they had moved out of state, so I assume they were down for vacation or something). I said no, sorry, I need a little more time than that, but please call back and we can set something up or arrange for me to mail it (and yes, I was crazy/nice enough to hang onto the box for that long! It just stayed in the attic). 

She never called. (She was a strange woman). I guess it wasn't so sentimental to her. 

[changedname]

Would depend on the seller and my experience with them. My first house, even if they had left a bag of money, I would have seriously debated telling them. They left the house so filthy and stink that I had to get new carpets.

Second house - I would have for sure told them.

I do agree with PP that before GBCN, I had no idea what cloth diapers were and would have thought it was a bunch of old rags that you couldn't be bothered to chuck.m