"Darrin" wrote in message
...
I need a bit of advice. I recently moved into a new house with a big
garage that I've made into my workshop. My next door neighbor is a really
good guy and comes over to shoot the bull every now and again and I show
him some of the new things I've made (adirondack chairs and tile inlay
tables). While he's there I'm sure he scopes out what I have and after a
while comes to ask if he can borrow my tools for a project he's working on.
I always get the "I'll bring it back in a couple of hours" statement, but
it's usually the next couple of days. I've never lived anywhere where a
neighbor needed any of my tools, so this loaning out of tools is new to me
and I want to be neighborly. But now he has my level, palm sander, one
of my two pipe clamps, and an extension cord that has now been strung
across his backyard for a week in the rain. He brought back my ladder a
few days ago that sat in a snow storm overnight.

I just got a new cabinet saw and dust collector. Now that Christmas is
over and my kids birthdays out of the way, I'm going to be working pretty
hard getting my chairs made for spring-summer time, therefore, the loaning
is going to come to a stop.

Here's my question, is there a way to tell him I can't loan out my tools
now that I'm going to be using them more without ****ing off a neighbor?
I'm already going to have to ask for my other tools back since I need them
now, not when he decides he can bring them back. It gets to me a bit
that he always wants to borrow my tools since he works at Home Depot.
I figure that some of you guys out there have gone through this. How do
you keep it under control? I know I can say "no" everytime he wants
to borrow something, but won't that make for bad blood?

Thanks for any advice.

I had a friend do this once. He did not really intend to steal the tools.
He just "forgot".

So I waited until he had company. Went to his house, and in front of his
friends, threw a fit. I yelled about how my wife got upset with me for
lending tools. This was true. Then I went into hyperbole mode. I talked
about calling the cops, small claims court and having to hide my gun from
the wife. This was pure theatrics.

But it worked. All tools were immediately gathered together and delivered to
my place in a matter of minutes. And his wife forbade me from borrowing any
more tools again.

So that turned out well. I must admit that a couple of other cases did not
turn out so well. It just depends on who it is.

I have a nice neighbor now who I found out recently is a high ranking member
of the local police force. She does ask to borrow things from time to time.
The tools are returned within the hour except once. And that was returned
the next day. Can't complain about that. You can't ask for a better
neighbor.