and this is why my MIL is over 3,000 miles away. we get along better. :)

Girliegirl...I have two thoughts on this.
If she is babysitting and puts the child on the bus at noon, does she still need to be at your house?
Why hasn't your DH told HIS mother that there are boundaries and she us not to cross them?!

let everything else go, its not worth the stroke, but you must find out about any paperwork dealing with banking/taxes things like that!
and, pls, make sure hubs knows in plain english no one NO ONE is to go thru your stuff ever again unless you're dead and buried. Let him know it would be a terrible inconvienence and expense to him if you have to buy a handful of lockboxes at the bank in which you store everything on paper you value.

the computer - get a laptop and take it or lock it up in a safe when you leave for any amt of time. I usually take mine with me, hubs takes his - we don't ever use each others computers unless its some kind of emergency. I cannot imagine someone else going thru my personal files on my computer! sharet

(Things are only things, stuff is stuff, and your stuff is yours to do with as you wish. I've given away as much as I bought or got over my life. The key is this , its your choice. When others step in and start doing the deciding of what you value as a bit of stuff then you are out of the picture, as if you dont exist.)

If your house is like ours - it's not all that easy to create an area that can be locked.

It sounds like having MIL take care of child was not completely (or at all) your idea - and this has not improved things one bit.

you poor thing. My family knows not to touch the sewing stuff, no matter how messy it looks. and it gets really messy. good luck on finding them.

Could you just put up a permanent sign saying 'NO TRESPASSING!'

have you tried to sit down and talk with her and explain that even though she may think she is helping, It is an intrusion on your privacy when she does things like that. Maybe she doesnt realize (hard to believe but possible) that you resent her doing this.

Have you ever thought of putting up a sign "Off Limits" on your sewing room

I guess I have to be glad about my DMIL, the messy hoarder, who would never dream of cleaning up my sewing room because shes so busy straightening up the mess in her house. LOL I laugh because she comes to my house and thinks I am too neat and controlling of her son's acquisitions. Both she and my DFIL were furious at my DH for helping me clean the kitchen one night after we had invited them for dinner. Oh blessed messy MIL. I will never be ungrateful for her again!

Have you tried asking her where she might have put them? Maybe she will remember and save you some work.