Stuff at work gets borrowed and moved around a lot and it’s a combination of donated (which, more or less, is fair game to anyone) and purchased specifically for one section/purpose (which is not), so it makes sense to write your name or at least your section on those things that are yours to control.
For me, it’s mostly because some of the things I value highly don’t look like highly valuable things. I like them for my own reasons (easy to handle, fits in my pocket, good for doing things close up) which are not necessarily things that make them high-quality or interesting to anyone else.
I should write my name on more stuff, actually, because a lot of my things get “borrowed” for events and never returned. But on the other hand- the failure to return them has nothing to do with not remembering where they came from. It’s just how the people who do events operate, so I straight-up tell them they’re not allowed to take certain items and keep the most high-value items (ties, bow ties, flower crowns, hats, and certain scarves, the good toys) tucked away.
I wrote my name on my water bottle because I’m always leaving it at places, but most of the places where I leave it have a lost and found. If my name is on it, it’s harder for someone who wants a water bottle, just any water bottle, to claim it.
However, the name has pretty much worn off.
It’s not that it’s the world’s greatest water bottle. It’s that I’m tired of buying new ones. It’s annoying.
I do on old, vintage Tupperware that we use to take food to get togethers. That shit lasts forever and is getting super hard to find. Especially in the classic 70’s colors.
Dad wrote or engraved his name and SSN on almost everything; if room enough, he added date of purchase too. I’ve mostly been a sluggard since forever. I wrote or stamped my name on books at school or office so the theft victim (me!) would be known. Otherwise, no. I’m not that anal-compulsive.
I frequently put my name on stuff I take to work. I have a theory that people will “borrow” things in the workplace with every intention of returning it but in reality, the thing never gets returned. On the other hand, if said item is clearly labeled “River Hippie” it is much more likely to be returned. Every time the borrower looks at it, there’s my name, “River Hippie” and eventually they will decide that maybe they should but it back in my desk where they found it. I’ve had quite a few tape measures at work. I labeled them with the department I work in but they would always disappear, never to be seen again. The one I have now is marked with my name and I’ve had the same one for a couple years now. Stealing from some nameless, faceless being vs. stealing from good ol’ River Hippie.
I was a Boy Scout when I was young, and a Scout leader as an adult. I went to Scout camp as a leader with my son for over a decade as he was growing up. Anyway, as we were leaving camp every year, my son and I would always do a final sweep for left-behind items. We’d usually find enough stuff (towels, shirts, bathing suits, clotheslines, etc.) to fill a couple of large garbage bags. And it was always a hassle getting everything back to the proper owner…which is why I always told the boys and their parents to label everything, even underwear.
Speaking of underwear, it doesn’t happen today, but when I was a kid it was a “fun” prank for the older kids to steal the younger kids’ underwear, soak them in water, and tie them tightly in knots. :rolleyes: So you might both lose your underwear and get it mixed up with others, which is why it’s good to have your name on it.
[ul]
[li]company-owned items which may inexplicably grow a pair of feet and walk away … soon as my back is turned. [e.g. stapler, china-bone, ruler, loupe, etc.][/li]
[li]another tactic for other company-owned items. [i.e. serial# for mouses 'n monitors 'n cpus 'n printer, etc.][/li]
[li]personal items are stowed in a locker. [abus 10-pin tumber w/hardened shackle][/li][/ul]
as for the poll … i decidedly chose “something else” … since, the “only certain things” option conveys the wrong impression.
Rarely. Only when I have to. The yoga studio I belong to requires that you write your name prominently on any equipment ( mostly mats and bags ) that you store on their premises.
A couple of times at parties I was asked to write my name on the Solo cup I was using.
And one time I was at some sort of multi-day workshop. We were asked to leave our shoes outside the main room. Two other attendees had the exact same flip-flops as me ( brand, color, size ). So after some confusion in which I accidentally “stole” someone’s shoes - I grabbed a marker and wrote my name on mine.
I put my driver’s license number on tools and electronics. Not so much about identifying what’s been loaned out, but to recover in case of theft. A friend of mine’s house was once robbed, and the police had no idea who did it. Months later they busted a guy a few cities away for a burglary and they were able to connect him to my friend’s burglary as there were a few items there with his ID # still on them.
I do not. If someone wants my stuff so badly that they need to steal it, then they can have it. Otherwise, I keep track of my stuff when it accompanies me on outings from my home.
My ex wife’s boyfriend wrote his name on the waistband of his underpants. That added some levity to an otherwise dark event.
I’ve put my name on a few things I often take outside the home that are expensive and would be a hassle to replace. For example, I have a portable music stand that I frequently take to rehearsals and performances, and I’ve already lost it once; I got it back because it was labeled with my name and contact information. However, I’ve never bothered to label commonplace items like water bottles, umbrellas, and travel coffee mugs, and I’ve lost more of those than I can count.
I don’t bother labeling anything I loan out; if I loan something, I’m assuming I’ll never see it again, and I’m usually right about that. One time I did write “Please return to <name>, <phone number>” in big letters on a play script I loaned to somebody. It didn’t do any good—I never got it back. If I want to hold on to something, I don’t loan it. I never say, “I won’t loan you that”—instead, I’ll make up some phony excuse like “I don’t know where it is.”
I was issued a hymnbook when I joined church choir in the early 1990s, and promptly wrote “Property of Spoons” in big letters on the first page. When I retired from choir in the late 1990s, the church let me keep it. I still have it.
Our company gave out stainless steel water bottles, so now quite a few people are putting their names on them. Otherwise it’s just a whole bunch of identical company water bottles.
I used to write my name on my textbooks in college. At least for the ones I intended to keep. The non-major ones I kept pristine to enhance resale value. (I still have most of my CS/Math/Physics books from college.)
I would sometimes write my name on my texts and such as a prof. Often only when loaning them out to a student I wasn’t so sure would voluntarily return it.
Sometimes we would put a name on something that a kid would take to school for a project. So my glue gun has FtGkid2’s name on it.
But those were infrequent with no real reason to do it in recent years.