How do I get my family's maids to stop misplacing things and throwing things out that should not be thrown out?

I don’t hire maids myself. My Dad does. I don’t even really want them, despite liking them as people. I don’t feel that they respect other people’s things that much. They certainly don’t seem to care about or place value on other people’s property as much as their own.

This morning, I woke up to one of the maids organizing my things (without my permission). I know that she was trying to be nice, but I did not appreciate it at all.

She noticed me wake up and was nice about it and all, making small talk about sleeping in late. She explained what she was doing. I was not happy about it, but I did not say so… because I knew she was being nice. However, I didn’t thank her either. I wasn’t thankful about it one bit. I immediately looked at her work and noticed the things I was missing right away—my clothes, my cards, my grad hat, etc.

I immediately went looking for everything. I found my clothes. I found my grad hat, but the tassel on it was nowhere to be seen. I have an attachment to that hat because I graduated from a school I have a lot of respect for.

I could not find my Christmas cards anywhere, so I decided they must be in the garbage. I went and found my Dad. I told him that I think the maids threw my stuff out and asked him not to bring the garbage out until I checked them and ended up crying. To him, the maids were just doing their job, and he didn’t see the big deal.

After the maids were gone, he told me to go check and made a joke that he didn’t think I’d find anything. Well, I looked… and looked… and I found what I was looking for. My cards, my tassel, even my toothpaste! I found one of my nieces favourite books in there, a comic book, a magazine, a shoe, one of my favourite socks…..

Why do maids do things like this? Why do they throw things out that are obviously not garbage? How can I make them stop?