It doesn’t take long to figure out that lending and regret are closely related. Even the best intentioned borrower almost never returns things in the condition they received them. I did a little informal surveying to find out what things people had the hardest time lending out. Here’s a list of twelve objects that kept coming up.
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Umbrellas
Once you lend an umbrella, prepare for bent ribs, a broken handle, or the fabric pulled and out of shape. People jam them into car doors, let them flip inside out in the wind, then return them looking like a wounded bird. Even if it still works, it never opens or closes the same way again.
Nonstick frying pans
If you lend one of your frying pans, get ready for scratches and a peeling coating. Borrowers use metal spoons, turn the heat too high, or just forget to clean it gently. When it’s returned to you, it’s no longer that smooth, easy-to-cook-on surface you once had, and food sticks right away.
Headphones
Headphones are one of those things that always come back with a frayed cord, one dead ear or greasy padding. People jam them in bags, yank them out of sockets, or stretch the headband much wider than it’s meant to go. Even if they look fine, you’ll often realize they just don’t sound the same anymore.
Books with soft covers
When you lend a paperback, you’re really just giving someone the clean corners. They will return to you with a creased spine, folded page corners, coffee rings and perhaps an acquired odor. People put them in backpacks, read them in the bath, or use them as a footstool in their car. It is never quite the same book you loved before.
Camping gear
Tents, sleeping bags, and portable stoves always come back in a dirtier and rougher condition than they were before. The zippers get stuck, the fabric tears, the poles get bent or it smells like a smokehouse. Borrowers also never repack it in the same manner as you had it and the signs of wear and tear show immediately.
Phone chargers
If you lend someone a charger, it always comes back twisted and bent, kinked at the plug or dangerously close to breaking at the point where the cord meets the adapter. Borrowers coil them up too tight, rip them out of the socket, or even bend the cord at strange angles. You know the cord is now more fragile and will likely give out soon, even if it still works.
Hair tools
Straighteners, curling irons, or even hair dryers have a nasty habit of coming back smelling of burning, or covered in scratches and product build-up. They’re grabbed with little care and tugged on, left plugged in, or used roughly in other ways that you never think of. They never come back with that freshly-cleaned shine that they had when you let them go.
Board games
Games sound like one of the safest things to lend someone. But they come back with cards missing, the board bent, or pieces with icky grease fingerprints. Lenders often find board games returned with mixed-up pieces as borrowers place them carelessly into the storage box and occasionally combine them with pieces from different games. And when the set is incomplete, it’s ruined for you.
Kitchen knives
A good knife is a personal thing and once it’s been lent out, it almost always comes back dull or nicked on the blade. People use them on stone or glass, throw them in the sink or scrape them across hard surfaces. Even if they wash it, the edge is never the same.
Sunglasses
Borrowers drop them, throw them in bags without a case, or perch them on top of their heads. You get them back and there’s a haze on the lenses that’s beyond repair that makes you want to go buy a new pair.
Thermos flasks
Travel mugs or thermos flasks return to you dented, with stained interiors or smells of coffee and milk that can never quite be fully removed. Despite all of the scrubbing you do to them, they always come out looking older and worse for wear.
Backpacks
A backpack looks rugged and solid, but after someone borrows it you find that zippers are stuck, straps are frayed, or that it has a new and suspicious set of stains. Borrowers overload them, drag them along the ground, or leave them out in the rain. It still works, but it’s never quite your bag again.
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