Underwear, Wedding Dresses & Banjos: The Weirdest Items Welsh Leave Behind When Moving Home

We all had a “Lost Belongings” box at school – the equally sad yet intriguing collection of random items that were always a bit of a question mark. The most intriguing part of all was thinking about how people managed to lose just the one sock or who on earth could make use of sunglasses with just one lens

Spinning one of the least fun aspects of selling and buying a new home (moving, of course!), leading home buying company WeBuyAnyHome asked the nation about their knack for leaving things behind. Not stopping there, they’ve also asked the Welsh to reveal the most common and weirdest items they’ve been greeted with when arriving at their new home.

WHO’S THE MOST FORGETFUL OR WASTEFUL OF THEM ALL?

Whilst 24% of the country have revealed that they have forgotten something behind in a
move before, when posed the question of how many have left something behind intentionally, another 23% admitted to purposefully ditching their unwanted items on poor unsuspecting new residents. That’s almost half of the country, either forgetting or ditching their belongings behind. Millennials have been revealed as the most wasteful, with 43% of those admitting to leaving things behind intentionally, being aged 25-44.

Splitting survey results by county, the study has revealed the most to least forgetful and wasteful in Wales. Swansea wins the title of “Most Forgetful” and the “Most Wasteful”, whilst Newport has been revealed as the “Least Forgetful” and those living in Powys are the “Least Wasteful”.

THE ITEMS MOST COMMONLY ‘LEFT BEHIND’

Polling 2,000 adults on the most common items found left behind when moving in, an
overwhelming majority have declared ‘Greenery’ as the most discardable item in a home
move, with over a ⅓ of the Welsh discovering abandoned Plants when arriving at their new
‘digs’.

1. Plants 35%
2. Message on Walls 23%
3. Clothing & Costumes 17%
4. Rotten Food 11%
5. Money 9%
6. Secret Doors 5%

Other common items left behind include secret compartments/passages, old clothing, rotten food, money and most interestingly of all, 23% of those moving houses in Wales have discovered messages on the walls of their new place.

Moving onto the weird (good) stuff, WeBuyAnyHome asked the Welsh to reveal everything and anything they found strange, weird or illicit when moving into a new home and the answers did not disappoint. Among the strangest things revealed were a wedding dress, a banjo and china dolls.

Arguably, some of us may need to improve on recycling our unwanted belongings and keeping track of our stuff when moving home, but who can blame you when moving is easily one of the most stressful situations you’ll face in life.

On the bright side, whether these ‘lost belongings’ are being left behind intentionally or not, leaving that random item or two behind can either turn into a really good story to tell or give your unwanted belongings a second life – but please don’t leave your underwear behind, no one should be re-using that.