What’s Inside Scotland’s ‘Lost Belongings’ Box?

We’ve questioned Scots on their knack for leaving things behind, revealing the most common and weirdest items they’ve been greeted with when arriving at their new home.

Remember the “Lost Belongings” box at school? The equally sad yet intriguing collection of random items that were always a bit of a question mark. How does one manage to lose just the one sock? 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 (we’re talking about the actual moving part, of course!), we’ve asked the nation about their knack for leaving things behind. We haven’t just stopped there though, we’ve also asked Scots to reveal the most common and weirdest items they’ve been greeted with when arriving at their new home.

Moving… not so tedious after all…

FORGETFUL OR WASTEFUL?

Whilst 25% 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, 27% admitted to purposefully ditching their unwanted items on poor unsuspecting new residents. That’s more than half of Scotland, either forgetting or ditching their belongings behind when moving home!

Splitting survey results by country and county/region (view Wales here and England here), we discovered the most to least forgetful and wasteful in Scotland. Inverclyde wins “Least Forgetful” and “Least Wasteful”, those in North Ayrshire are the most forgetful and in Moray you’ll find the most wasteful, being most guilty of ditching their unwanted possessions.

THE ITEMS MOST COMMONLY ‘LEFT BEHIND’

Quizzing Scotland on the most common items found left behind when moving in, the majority have declared fellow Scots making a habit of creeping out new residents’, with 36% of those moving home discovering messages on walls when arriving at their new ‘digs’.

Other common items left behind include plants in 2nd most common, followed by old clothing, rotten food and most interestingly of all, 7% of movers in Scotland have discovered secret passages or compartments when settling in to their new place. This reveals Scotland as the sneakiest UK country above England and Wales, having the highest percentage of people finding hidden passages or compartments when moving into new homes.

Moving onto the weird (good) stuff, we asked Scots 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 wedding rings, crutches, a gimp suit and a ‘50 Shades of Grey’ style room with chains on the walls. The most common ‘stranger things’ left behind by Scots when moving home are their ‘steivel’. Compared to England and Wales, the Scottish are the most likely to leave their old underwear behind.

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.