My ex wants his stuff back after 5 years, but it’s more complicated than that and idk what to do
So I was 18-22 and he was 21-25 when we were together.
My mom left our country to live in Shanghai and he moved in with me in my childhood home. He paid no rent or utilities. I had 1000€ allowance from my mom and I literally split it with him. He had 200€ a month that he would rarely split with me. He basically lived for free for four years and I would buy him anything he wanted, which was mostly books and clothes.
I honestly regret everything about that relationship. I was young and in love for no reason. I was paying for everything. My family is not rich either, so it’s not like it was a given or anything. He was a shit boyfriend too. He would lie about his whereabouts and I’d find from my uni colleagues that he was out partying. His friends didn’t give a shit about me and would call me “chick”, not my name. He was also so fucking bad in bed, lasting like 5 minutes maximum and very boring. I spent my college years cooking and fighting with him because he just did not respect me at all. We didn’t have fun, we didn’t go out much, we didn’t have sex and I was paying for everything while also being there for him like a girlfriend and a MOM. Actually, he used to say that I am so motherly and he loves that. Ew.
Anyway. We broke up. He asked for his stuff back a month or so after the break up. I put everything in my building’s hallway and waited for him to pick them up. He had the chance the to remind me of anything I might forgotten then.
Six months later, we link up and become friends. We met many times during that time period and would talk almost every day. He had so many chances to remind me of any forgotten items, but he didn’t.
In 2023 I got a boyfriend. I was still friend with this idiot though. He was attached to my cat and I let him pet sit her when I was on a city trip. I let him pet sit once when I was on a weekend trip with my boyfriend some hundred kilometers away and he… took a box worth of books from my home and just sent me a picture while I was there. He says this is not stealing, and he was being generous by not taking everything and blocking me. Lol. We had a fight then.
Oh and in 2023 so long after we broke up, he asked ME to come help him clean out his apartment because he was about to move. And I fucking did. Like there are is not enough time to explain how much I worked for this lame ass idiot who had to try three times in order to pass the baccalaureate.
But now he finally got a girlfriend and I guess that comes with a boost of testosterone, because he is DEMANDING I give him everything back, including things I had no idea were in my possession. It’s been 5 years since our break up. Why the fuck would I go all the way to my mom’s home and search for his dumb items just because he suddenly wants me to?
And he keeps saying that everything I did for him was my choice, including a one month holiday in Shanghai that he didn’t pay for at all. And fun fact, I earned another 1000 € that month and split it in half with him so he’d have money there, and he wanted to keep his 200€ for himself lol. Like that’s the kind of entitlement and egoism I had to put up with. And he also insists that my story is fake, that he is the one to buy himself his things. That is so not true. I even gave him money to buy me gifts on my birthday.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t need his items, I don’t care for them. But I also don’t want to stomp on my integrity just because he asks me to. And I frankly don’t have the time or energy to even lift a finger for him. It’s too late. But I also just want to get over it and block him for good.
Posted Feb 28, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC