Borrowing crap plus the PCS vulturing vent

[ohyouknow]

I realize I’m salty right now, so bear with me. :-)

We are getting geared up to move from Germany to the DC area in July. Last summer we had a big turnover in our on-base neighborhood. I got burnout from lending things only to get them back in crappy condition and/or dirty and/or having to ask for stuff back repeatedly. This year I haven’t loaned much even when directly asked. I’ve also realized some people’s entire method of life involves not buying their own stuff. Mowers, carpet cleaners, drills, etc. Yes we are overseas but it’s not my job to provide you a mower for 3 years. I’m tired of getting things back wet, dirty, and out of gas or not at all. I’m mostly just venting about this because our next door neighbors that are moving went down to 1 car on Friday and they’ve already asked to borrow our car twice. They don’t leave for 2 more months. Another neighbor has been here 10 months and is “saving money” by being a one car household even when her and her husband work on separate bases. Her method might save her money but not the rest of us that she is always asking for rides to/from work.
:-( Anyway.
The other thing that has me aggravated lately are the PCS vultures. There is nothing quite like having people knock on your door or send a text to ask if they can have your curtains, furniture, grill, bikes, etc when you leave. Seriously. When/if I want to get rid of it I’ll let you know. It also makes me feel like I can’t try and sell the stuff because it’s been “claimed” by neighbors. I feel like a carcass with people swirling above trying to get the leftovers.

[NomadicMama]

I can understand why you are feeling salty—it sounds as though you live among a group of people who are constantly looking for something for nothing. Continue to set your boundaries and keep firm. It’s not your responsibility to provide things for your neighbors.

I can’t get over the folks who are claiming items in your home. This sounds similar to people trying to claim household goods of an elderly family member. Can you mention that you plan to try to sell as much as you can? Tell them you plan to list things on Booku (or whatever is popular at your base) and to keep you eye out come June (or whatever month).

Best of luck with your move back. We moved back to the DC area three years ago and I still miss living in Germany so much!

[ohyouknow]

Apr 30, 2018 9:53:27 GMT -5 NomadicMama said:

I can understand why you are feeling salty—it sounds as though you live among a group of people who are constantly looking for something for nothing. Continue to set your boundaries and keep firm. It’s not your responsibility to provide things for your neighbors.

I can’t get over the folks who are claiming items in your home. This sounds similar to people trying to claim household goods of an elderly family member. Can you mention that you plan to try to sell as much as you can? Tell them you plan to list things on Booku (or whatever is popular at your base) and to keep you eye out come June (or whatever month).

Best of luck with your move back. We moved back to the DC area three years ago and I still miss living in Germany so much!

I will miss it SO much here! I absolutely love it. The vulturing is so weird. The first couple times I blew it off but this last time had me irritated. The two women that were over started literally pointing at items and claiming them. “If you don’t take that with you it’s mine!” Which some of the stuff is borderline sell/give away. I don’t mind giving away some of these items but it wouldn’t be to a O-5 family. It would be to an E-4 family and these are all FGO households.

[Aquatica]

Wow, that would annoy me so much!! I'm surprised at the gall of some people asking for items multiple times to where it's obvious they need to buy it. Same with being vultures.

I'm on the flipside of PCS and tired of low ball offers on stuff I'm trying to sell. Example, like new bassinet used rarely and goes for $60 new and I'm selling it for $25. I get offers of "will you take $10". Come on now. Or constant no-shows. I'm just going to donate what we don't need.

Hope your PCS goes well!

[G22]

Yikes that sounds awful! I've not experienced that here, but would get irritated quickly. Maybe it's because we live off base, that we haven't had this issue.

We are PCSing back to the states in July as well. Good luck to you, I hope it's a smooth process!

[dcn]

Yikes!! Offer to sell it to them and then when they say no thanks donate it haha. People are so weird.

Hope your move goes smoothly!

[Deleted]

That’s awful! I mean, I understand wanting to be neighborly and lend things/borrow things occasionally, like a pressure washer once or twice a year, or a mower while waiting for HHGs to show up, but if you need to use something more than once or twice you need to buy your own shit!!!!

We didn’t have any “vultures” but we also didn’t live in base or around other Americans. We did use Facebook an Bookoo to get rid of stuff we no longer needed.

[NomadicMama]

Apr 30, 2018 13:45:09 GMT -5 G22 said:

Yikes that sounds awful! I've not experienced that here, but would get irritated quickly. Maybe it's because we live off base, that we haven't had this issue.

We are PCSing back to the states in July as well. Good luck to you, I hope it's a smooth process!

We lived off post, too. One of our neighbors was a soldier, too, but he brought sooooo much stuff with him, even a gas powered lawn mower. (The first time he fired that thing up was on a Sunday afternoon. My husband nearly launched himself over the garden fence to get his attention to turn it off!). Otherwise, we were too far away for folks to want to borrow things.

Good luck to you both on your return to the States. Life will get more convenient, but, if your experience was anything like mine, Germany will remain in your heart for years to come!

[G22]

May 5, 2018 9:19:47 GMT -5 NomadicMama said:

Apr 30, 2018 13:45:09 GMT -5 G22 said:

Yikes that sounds awful! I've not experienced that here, but would get irritated quickly. Maybe it's because we live off base, that we haven't had this issue.

We are PCSing back to the states in July as well. Good luck to you, I hope it's a smooth process!

We lived off post, too. One of our neighbors was a soldier, too, but he brought sooooo much stuff with him, even a gas powered lawn mower. (The first time he fired that thing up was on a Sunday afternoon. My husband nearly launched himself over the garden fence to get his attention to turn it off!). Otherwise, we were too far away for folks to want to borrow things.

Good luck to you both on your return to the States. Life will get more convenient, but, if your experience was anything like mine, Germany will remain in your heart for years to come!

We have loved our time here and are sad to leave. Career wise at this point, the job opportunities are better for H back in the US. But we'd love to come back again someday if it was an option!

I feel like it was just yesterday I was asking you for advice on moving here! Time definitely flew by! And LOL to the mowing. Despite being here for nearly 3 years, we still forget about the Sunday rules on rare occasions. Whoops!