Oh I am sooo embarrassed.

It is cleanup week here and the garbage men will take all your junk that has magically appeared over the winter. We just sorted the shed, the garage and outback on the huge compost area we have. Gosh what a lot of stuff, fence blew down and fell apart over the winter. Old scruffy rug in shed, old pots broken and lots more. We put it at end of drive when it was nearly dark but they aren't coming til Saturday. I will die when the neighbours go by.

Bren, don't be embarrassed, sit back and watch how many of them stop and go through your junk! Remember, one person's junk is anothers treasure!!!!! sue

I've done that before. LOL Had some good steals. birdhouses, old tables.

Bren..your cleanup story reminds me..a young couple just bought a house around the road from me. An elderly hermit lived there and he was a packrat, so you can imagine what the house was like. Properties are very hot and quick-selling here so people just buy them as-is. Well, this new couple bought the house with the junk and THEY went around to the neighbors apologizing about having to put out so much trash in cleaning out the house! Well, the last 2 weeks, you'd think there was an acre flea mart..people stopping with trucks and cars just taking stuff..lol. Lots was real junk but other things were a real find.
Trish

We used to have a little local dump - now under Interstate 86 - when I was a kid. The old guy who tended it for the township knew my mother like old things, and if anything good came in, he'd set it aside for her. One time it was a hundred year old clock with a beautiful painting on the glass front. Mostly it was things like a Club aluminum 8 qt. pan that someone had burned something awful. I use it for spaghetti sauce still! There's a tradition of waching the papers for spring cleanup in the towns and cities around here - lots of pick-up trucks head in and "help" the sanitations departments with the hauling!

Spring clean-up is when I wish I was a garbage man! Imagine all the goodies you'd find!

Bren
Dont feel too bad. That happens to us about once a month. I dont know where everything comes from ( it couldnt be because my husband cant resist things he sees in front of peoples houses for the trash :) )

Bren....is that you???? Have missed you since the old chat closed.....Try www.canadiangarden.com some time also..you will find a lot of us there,,Hoping to run into you soon.....ele

I got rid of so much stuff over the years by putting it in trash dumpsters at the apartments I would live in. At first I felt terrible putting perfectly good things in there that I just had no use for. Then I realized that it never stayed there. One time I put an old TV out there that would spark real bad everytime I turned it on. I went back to put something else out there a few minutes later and it was gone. I felt bad for not putting a note on it that it was dangerous but oh well. The real kicker was when I was unloading a bunch of stuff in the apartment dumpster and someone dared to ask me if I had a vaccuum in my apartment I wanted to throw away (and she was totally serious!) You should have seen everyone around the dumpster that day. It litterally looked like a garage sale. The lady who asked for the vaccuum actually went home to get her truck!

don't feel bad bren, it's good to air out once in a while, it'll make you think twice about buying that weird looking chair at the garage sale because it was well weird. i'm getting ready to do spring cleaning myself this house will be so wonderful once it's aired out. more space for plants!!
also we have this space at the co-op around the corner from my house called the "free box". that's where i take all the good stuff that i can't use some one always finds a use for it or may need it. i've taken some stuff out of there myself. last summer this lady left some leeks and carrot and cabbage seedlings she had left over. now i'm wondering to do with 10 pounds worth of leeks. it's one of the greatest ways to reuse stuff.

setting it out a while before the trashmen come is a great idea. that way people have a chance to take the 'good' stuff and much less goes into the trash. don't apologize or feet too bad, say you're welcome to all those who found treasures in you 'junk'.

quynh

Several years ago when I was living in L.A. we had a sofa and chair set that were in really great condition but did not fit in our small living room. I set it out on the curb with a sign saying take me I'm FREE. 2 days later it was still there so I put a sign on it saying 4=Sale $150.00
I walked back inside and in 10 minutes it was gone! No money of course but seems that a price tag made it worth taking! Funny thing is that the next week we threw away som really beat up bunkbeds the kids had pretty much destroyed and they were taken out of the trash dumpster within an hour!