So we moved into this new apartment in the beginning of November 2025. I was prepared for the usual: forgotten pasta pieces in the back of a cabinet, kids sticker somewhere, maybe one mysterious spice jar from 2014. And a lot of dust. Frankly, there was no dust, but the windows are really dirty and I haven’t cleaned them yet!
Instead, when we opened the cupboards after arriving, there was a LOT of stuff left behind. (the letting agency warned us that the previous tenant had not cleaned the place properly). There was at least three different anti-psychotic medicine, plus sleeping meds. Obviously, we returned them to the pharmacist. We checked, there was no way to use them for our own benefit. I would not dare. There were multiple pots and pans, we threw most of them, but for example one very expensive iron pot, it’s a designer thing, bright retro red! So of course we kept it. There was a pink waffle iron (omg! 🤩) and a shelf full of plastic water bottles. (I threw them, disgusting.)
Along with those drinking bottles was a 0,75 litre, metallic drinking bottle in this wonderfully retro yellow colour! It was just sitting there, like quietly waiting, behind the hideous plastic ones, like it had been waiting for me! I love yellow, its a phase I am having now! (I had light green, orange and well, I guess the pink is still going … ) The bottle is by a brand called Retro Colors 5five. I googled, I cannot find the brand anywhere. Its supposed to be French, but I cannot locate it. Have you heard of this brand? I have a memory that I might have seen them somewhere but now I can’ tell where.
It is a little bit dented, but still OK looking and sleek, metallic, a thermos type of a thing. The one I could never afford to buy because I am always too cheap! LOL. (this is what my husband says)
Someone else’s bottle, my problem now
The disgusting fact, someone who used a lot of questionable meds (no, it doesn’t make them less of a person but they were obviously not feeling so well) owned this bottle, used it, forgot it, moved out. Normal people would throw it, right? But as I said … I am cheap.
My brain, of course, is imagining heaps of things. Was the previous tenant running a lot, or taking their kiddo to daycare and packing the bottle with the kid to take with them? There are clear signs that a younger child has lived here before. We also found soap bubbles (it’s a full jar!) and there were toys in the pictures we got from the landlord, before moving in. My style of exercise would be to invest some nice gadgets and gear, use them twice and then forget the “new hobby”. hahah.. Did she forget the bottle just because she (yes, the tenant was a she, I found her car registration papers as well) did that too?
I have this weird sense of responsibility for abandoned things. If someone abandons used clothing or shoes, or a… plate, I can let it go. But a bottle (let alone a handbag!) feels personal. And my god, don’t get me started on abandoned houses. (How on earth can you people do that?! ) So here I am with my yellow steel bottle. I washed it, kept it, and I started using it. I think my husband doesn’t approve.
But I have two of them!
Actually, nothing about my life changed because of this yellow 0,75‑liter Retro Colors 5five bottle. In practice, I suddenly enjoy my extremely cold water, because the metal gets really cold in the fridge. It sits next to my keyboard, like all the time. Even now. But of course I am alternating between the steel one and the OTHER YELLOW ONE I have since we lived in Italy. I bought it there and it was an equally happy moment. So yeah, I now have not only one but two yellow drinking bottles.
I think I like to imagine the history
I like things that have a history. Somehow this bottle is even better when I don’t know the background and I can just invent my own. Maybe the previous owner bought this bottle in a hurry at some discount store when they were trying to be that hip person who always has water with them. I mean this is what I would do! The wannabe in me! Surprisingly, being actually a person who drinks a lot of water, I rarely have a bottle with me because I always leave the house in a rush.
When I see it in the fridge, I think this is an item that was left behind but I decided to adopt it. Finding this bottle made me very content. I found this one, and I bought the other one. Now someone should give me one.
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