Cleanup Frustration

[raw456]

Every 3 months the local council has a curb side cleanup. For those of you unfamiliar with these, basically you can put out all the stuff that cant go in your regular bins and the council will pick it up and dispose of it for you. Things like broken furniture, wood, mattresses, electrical appliances, etc…..

There are however guidelines of what can and cant be put out. Fridges are a no-no cause kiddies can get trapped in them. Things like paint and chemicals are also banned for obvious reasons. Also, they only allow you to put out so many square footage of stuff (i forget the actual amount, somthing like 1 cubic meters or something) – this is obviously so they have room in the trucks for other things.

Clothing is also a no-no. They ask that clothing be donated to a local thrift store rather than binned.

In the last few days I have observed the following:

People who put entire households’ worth of crap on their footpath blatantly ignoring the size requests. What is worse is that they did the same thing 3 months ago and 3 months before that! How much stuff to these people have???

People who put all their crap outside a neighbour’s house or (as the popular choice in my neighbourhood) place it in the curb at the park or a vacant block. Are they ashamed of what they are throwing out?

This one however, takes the cake. Whilst walking our dog yesterday I came across at least 11 large garbage bags dumped at the park. Most had not been sealed and out of them spewed at least 3 wardrobes worth of perfectly good kid’s clothes. The funny thing was, just another 100mts down the street is a clothing donation bin. I was actually tempted to carry a few bags down to deposit, unfortunately heavy rains the night before and soaked the clothes and they would have to be washed and dried before being put in the bin. (I did consider doing this but wasn’t sure how I would handle wet heavy bags of clothes AND the dog and get it all home without losing one or the other)

What I don’t get about this is = someone went to the trouble of packing the clothes into bags and driving to the park to dump them. You couldn’t go half a block further and put them in the bin???

What a waste

[Magpie]

I've seen furniture that was good before it got rained on. I consider particle board to be fine, until it's wet. The really painful part is that I've even seen this right down the road from the thrift store. I mean, I know that without a car it's a pain, but did you even try?

I've actually seen a nice, solid-wood hutch out at the garbage. You could probably get decent money for that. You know, maybe enough to cover renting a truck to take it somewhere. Living in a university town, the best way to acquire household supplies is to take a walk in certain neighbourhoods at the end of terms.

[protege]

Quoth Magpie

I've actually seen a nice, solid-wood hutch out at the garbage. You could probably get decent money for that. You know, maybe enough to cover renting a truck to take it somewhere. Living in a university town, the best way to acquire household supplies is to take a walk in certain neighbourhoods at the end of terms.

Sounds like where I live--many people will put out perfectly good furniture, simply because its either "out of date" or they no longer want it. Both of my model cabinets were originally part of someone's trash--the metal curio cabinet was found along my paper route; the large (4x8) one came from the college. Once they were cleaned up and repainted, they were ideal for housing my collection of sports cars

Best roadside find to date...has to be the 1959 Radio-Flyer wagon that I use for yard work. It looks like shit, but the floor is solid and the tires still have decent tread on them. Other than its somewhat battered appearance, there's nothing wrong with it.

[AnaKhouri]

My grandfather built bicycles for all six of his kids by picking up parts people had put on the curb for the garbage men.

There are people who make fun of those who cruise before trash day, picking up discarded stuff. But I am all for recycling, and have picked up an end table or two myself this way.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm all for people who pick up things that other people have thrown aside to use for themselves.

As long as they're not the sucky types who grab stuff, find out it's not what they wanted only to dump it somewhere else, usually inappropriate.

^-.-^

[Food Lady]

I've been poor my whole life (joke among friends is that I come from hillbilly stock--which is true) and a big fan of yard sales and curb-picking. I have a cafe table in my living room and on my balcony a side table that used to be a chair. They were both found items.

[Eric the Grey]

Hehe, my couch and what used to be my love-seat (given to my niece when we moved from the house into the apartment that it would not fit into) came from the spring cleanup in our old neighborhood.

My brother-in-law found a fully-functional aluminum boat one year. To date, I've never actually found anything (sister and brother-in-law found the couch and love-seat) myself, but I always cruise during the weeks of cleanup for useful stuff. This year, I'm going to be looking for bookshelves/DVD racks. You never know...


Eric the Grey

[protege]

Quoth Andara Bledin

As long as they're not the sucky types who grab stuff, find out it's not what they wanted only to dump it somewhere else, usually inappropriate.

People like that, I can't stand. In fact, that was why I smashed up one of the broken chairs I had out for the trash. The last time I put out a damaged item, someone not only took it...but brought it *back* later that night Bastards. To thwart that, I took my fence maul, and bashed the (resin) chair to bits.

[blas]

I'd really be careful about grabbing stuff by dumpsters or on people's lawns.

You never know how long that's been there, who has sat on it (naked after just pooping or having sex) or what has been spilled or puked or shat on it before.

[HYHYBT]

Sometimes people who have put out still-good items do so precisely *because* they know that somebody will come along who wants it.