Left Behind

Moving sucks, but when moving to a new apartment or home in Canada we have always been very careful to take all our belongings with us and to leave the place spotlessly clean. Why? We want our security deposit back. It's a good incentive to make people accountable for their own mess when your landlord or the homeowner can charge you for leaving your crap behind. This doesn't seem to be a concern in China.

When we moved into our apartment, we were very greatful for the things that had been left for us. New to the country, and certainly not having the intention to be lifelong residents, we had no interest in spending money on sofas, beds, tables, TVs or anything like that. Our apartment came with most of the furnishings we needed to be comfortable, but we also inherited a number of things that weren't so useful. I'm not sure if these things were left to help us get setup or just simply left behind unwanted by the previous tenant. We've stuffed most of these things in a back room off our kitchen, so if you see anything you like, let us know and it's yours!

Headless Mickey and Minnie coffee mugs with coral stuck on top. There was a piece of coral on Minnie too, but I kind of liked it so I put it out on display in our hallway. These mugs are $10 a piece at HK Disney, by the way. How could someone leave such valuable items behind?

Porcelain snowmen from yesteryear. For some reason it pleased me to know that Christmas had at least once been celebrated in our apartment.

Creepy art time! We were left three pieces of art, proudly displayed in our dining room when we arrived, including the two haunted-looking kittens above. It wasn't long before I took them down and tossed them in the back room. 

Another current resident of the back room, a strangey 60's looking portrait of a cottage in, I'm guessing, not-China.

I left this painting of the three tigers up, on our balcony above the washing machine. They're kind of cool, but maybe screaming for a more modern frame.

This fancy basin is currently being used as a rag water bucket by our maid :)

We also inherited these three cool-looking plants. We really like having plants in our place for us to slowly kill, so we moved them into our living room and bedroom when we first started living here. Too bad a colony of teeny tiny bugs lives in the pots too, so we had to move them back out to the balcony.

A piano is something else that was left behind in our place! Who leaves a piano behind? Anyway, I really like nesting dolls, so I was pretty happy to find a set in the back room. I've put it out in the living room as decoration on top of our piano.

The dolls get kind of creepy the smaller they get.

The aforementioned piano also came with a piano bench which is stuffed full of old music, bills, receipts, and even some ID cards. If anyone wants to slip into a bar underage posing as Wei Wei He, have I got the card for you!

We are fortunate to have bright rooms with big beautiful picture windows in both the living room and master bedroom, which look out onto the water. Not so charming, however, are the 70s khaki pom pom horror curtains that came with. I'd love to replace them, but have no idea where to buy custom curtains in a place like this!

I like this left behind set of two children playing an Othello-looking game. The girl's hand is broken off, but I still sat them out as decoration in our hallway.

Under the children playing Othello is this piece of coral, stolen from the Minnie Mouse mug.

70s clock like something straight from my parents basement! Actually, the taste level in Chinese furniture, clothes, art... almost everything is so dated that I've seen almost identical clocks for sale at the department store near our place.

Two random foam camels found in the back room and currently on display on a shelf in our bedroom.

It took a long time for us to figure out what this is. Taking up an entire cabinet in our kitchen, where we have very little usable cabinet space is this rice dispenser. You fill the top with rice, then press the button for either a 100 gram portion or a 300 gram portion. It dispenses into the tray at the bottom. Chinese do love rice (I don't know if you've heard?) so I can see how this could be useful.

 

My very favorite left behind item is this pair of sandals, which we use for walking on our balcony. They read: "Fighter *Heather Graham*".

So there you have it, the most random of our random left behind items. We're still finding new stuff, too. A few days ago, Mel opened a cabinet in our office and there were 4 shelves full of old books and magazines (in Chinese, of course). If I had a yard, I could have a killer yard sale, don't you think?