A strange occurrence....

Are you in the right hall?

Have you been making porridge? There isn't a little golden headed girl asleep in your spare room?

Do you have a built-in wardrobe with a high shelf?

A man in Japan a little while ago kept finding that things vanished from his fridge - couldn't think how anyone was getting in to take them.

He set up a camera to watch while he was at work. A young woman was revealed climbing down off a shelf in a built-in cupboard, above eyelevel, helpng herself to food and climbing back up again. She had been living there unnoticed for weeks, sleeping on the shelf and only coming down when the flat was empty.

Did the man who measured up for blinds bring an indoor pair of shoes with him and leave his scruffy outdoor shoes with you?
Or are you a pair of nice new trainers missing and he left you those in exchange?

That happened to someone's lovely winter coat, hung up in a pub/restaurant and a scruffy old coat left in exchange.

A friend of ours lost a Barbour coat, from Church, and was left an old one in it's place.

Someone 'borrowed on permanent loan' my new brolly from my seat in church when I went up for communion.

Look to DH he would be my prime suspect even if he denies all knowledge. ( I don't want to cause any disharmony though), sorry

Is someone living in your attic? If so you can at least comfort yourself that he/she has been house trained and takes off their shoes and puts them in the rack. If you catch them I might be interested in having them round to teach my DSs how to do this.

I have been trying to get in touch with the man who measured the blinds - will probably have to wait until Monday, but I would have thought if he was missing a pair of shoes he would have been trying to find out where he left them. As for Japanese ladies in the wardrobe, I have been saying to DH ever since we moved into this house that I think it is either haunted or there is someone else living here that we don't know about. I quite often wake up early in the morning and it sounds as if the floorboards are creaking. He says it's the plumbing - or it's "settling"! It must have been "settling" since 1998!

There was a case in the paper years ago about a family who found people living in the attic - it was a terraced house and apparently people had moved in next door with several relatives who took over the attic and the neighbour's as well as there was no dividing wall up there

I have never seen a ghost wearing trainers btw

There's a first time for everything!

This post made me smile . I just found a lovely pink summer jacket tucked away in a wardrobe. No ghosts, mystery lodgers or trades people though. Before I retired I bought various things in sales and squirreled them away. This year I have found a few of them and have no memory of buying them.
I don't think a pair of scruffy trainers could be explained that way however! Let us know what you discover. I am intrigued.

I found jumpers in a vacuum bag underneath a pile of bed linen, can't imagine why I would put them in a linen cupboard unless I was hiding the evidence from DH, they are rather nice expensive ones ?

some workman actually have trainers to change into in peoples houses while they do the work and then when finished put their shoes back on.

I found a brand new, still with labels, Le Cruset griddle pan in a box in the garage! No one in the family laid claim to it or knew where it came from!

Only one thing to do, use it!

What strange stories, or do some of you have memory lapses?
You should check out the attic though Greyduster because if those mice wear shoes they must be a helluva size!Keep us posted.

My bet would be a friend of your son's ( trainers) who came to visit, having bought himself new ones on the way.

Did you leave the house unlocked, Greyduster? If so someone might have come in and for some reason put them there.
A long time ago this happened to me, except it was a used cup and a plate on the kitchen table. I didn't think it could have been us - maybe someone had just come in, made a cup of tea, and left.

Don't forget to tell us when you've solved the mystery! We are all intrigued!

I'm beginning to think it could only have been the blind man (IYSWIM), but I don't remember him bringing anything in but a very large case containing his samples and measuring equipment which he was struggling to carry with both hands (I remarked upon it at the time) and he didn't open it up until he got into the conservatory. Neither of us remember picking up an odd pair of shoes and putting them in the shoe rack, but DH might have done it, absently (he swears he didn't!). My son lives an hour's drive away roses and his friends haven't been to us for years! Shame, because they were all lovely chaps.

I have this thing about shoes etc. When driving walking etc, we often see one discarded shoe, why only one? Just watch along roads as you drive, you will see them.

Yes GandT - we do that too! DH once found a brand new trainer, in his size, on the beach at Southport, where my sister lived at the time.We were frequent visitors and he spent years looking out for the other one of the pair - but never found it and sadly threw his found one away eventually.

I've noticed that too GrandT