<p>Here in Vermont many of us still take our trash to the dump personally. (It’s also where our local representatives do their campaigning during election season - drop off your garbage and get to voice your opinion on local politics all in one trip). In our household spring cleaning is a losing proposition though, as H has a tendency to bring back more than he dropped off.</p>
<p>H has a tendency to bring back more than he dropped off.</p>
<p>I can’t let H walk the dog when its garage sale season because the neighbors see him coming :eek:</p>
<p>Our sanitation workers won’t pick up anything that isn’t in the garbage can with the lid on.
We also have to recycle and they wont pick up the garbage if too much recycling is in it.
We are also going to have to start composting food wastes- so then will only be allowed to throw out what isn’t recyclable or compostable.
<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003792483_recycling17m.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003792483_recycling17m.html</a>
To make things even more challenging, the grocery store is no longer going to offer plastic bags but you will have to bring your own.
I asked, what about those of us who use the bags for dogs?</p>
<p>BTW flatlander- I assume you are a Butch Hancock fan? I saw him a few years ago at a Woody Guthrie tribute- it was great</p>
<p>emeraldkity, I chose ‘flatlander’ because I grew up in Vermont, but now live in New Jersey. ‘Flatlander’ is the pejorative term for Garden Staters who swarm Vermont in the fall. (See also ‘leaf peepers’.) I never, ever thought I’d live in NJ, but now I fully embrace the state motto: “New Jersey - It’s Not as Bad as You Think”</p>
<p>Sigh… I still dream about moving back some day!</p>
<p>Flatlander, maybe you haven’t lived here long enough to know our motto is “The Garden State.” And it truly is. Unless you live along the NJ Turnpike. My town, ten miles west of Manhattan, is loaded with gardens, trees, parks, brooks… A short ride to beaches & forrests & mountains. Sure, the taxes and car insurance and political corruption will kill you. But our state is quite beautiful.</p>
<p>I love getting stuff free (curbside, or hand-me-downs)
or cheap (yardsales), and then refinishing/repairing/etc,
using it for a few years, and then selling it at consignment
or a yard sale, or giving it away as a hand-me-down.
I like taking good care of stuff and making it last,
and I also like the stuff changing hands every few years.
It’s subversive - a massive underground
economy based on the simple idea of sharing, and
only owning objects as long as you’re using them.</p>
<p>Sorry, StickerShock - I did not mean to offend. In my part of the state it’s hard to find gardens, parks and trees because of massive sprawl. All the farms have gone under pavement and concrete, and it breaks my heart.</p>
<p>emeraldkity, I chose ‘flatlander’ because I grew up in Vermont</p>
<p>I admit I am disappointed- there are so many of us on CC from the coasts- I was hoping you were from Oklahoma or West Texas ;)</p>
<p>To illustrate- I am one of those people who’ll say " I don’t like country --but, I adore musicians like [Jimmy</a> LaFave](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y70AV9t9e8M]Jimmy”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y70AV9t9e8M) and Butch Hancock"</p>
<p>Maybe because I grew up within sight of Mt Rainier and the Olympics as well as the Cascade ranges- I expect mountains to have snow on them year round ;)</p>
<p>I do also admit that I love putting stuff out on my parking strip marked “free” and watching people haul it away for me.</p>
<p>I even got to my husband, he had accepted a compressor from the neighbor that didn’t even work, and after 6 months of tripping over it in the garage, put it on the parking strip.
It was gone in one day!</p>
<p>my brother, seller name ‘landrians’ on ebay either finds stuff on the streets of Manhattan or in the goodwill and salvation army store to resell. he’s made alot of $$. He has stuff for sale now</p>
<p>Please heed ncmentor’s advice about bedbugs!
These are a big problem in the Boston neighborhoods many students live in.
From this week’s Allston-Brighton neighborhood (this is the BU and BC neighborhood) newspaper:
September first is a huge moving day in the neighborhood and plenty of bedbug infested furniture will be placed on the streets presenting a big risk of new infestations! The Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation is seeking volunteers to work with staff from Boston Inspectional Services Department, Boston Public Health Commission, and the CDC to patrol Allston Brighton streets to identify used furniture, place warning stickers on it and call for an immediate pick up</p>
<pre><code> My building spent a year ridding itself of bedbugs, very awful. The bugs hid in picture frames, lamp shades, anything. We had seven apartments worth of stuff we left for garbage during the course of the year and were horrified initially to see people picking it up. Fortunately, with info from the above groups, we learned to deface , cut up, tag and in any way we could ruin the stuff that might look appealing.
</code></pre>
<p>Our town has an annual spring cleaning day where anything can be put out on the curb. I call it free shopping day, as you could furnish an entire house from the stuff people throw out. Lots of people are out in trucks collecting all the furniture, but the best stuff comes from picking through boxes. I’ve brought home 3 old “banana seat” bikes and resold them for $$$, but my daughter found a jewelry box full of old costume jewelry, and inside was a 1940’s chronograph watch in perfect condition that we had appraised at $2000. Our “Antique’s Roadshow” moment…</p>
<p>Whenever I move I put some things out to the curb with a “Free” sign. Most stuff is gone by morning. Better than hauling it to the dump.</p>
<p>^^^LOL.
H and I put out an organ. Sat in the house for almost 10 years and was never played. It was a good organ, too, but have you ever tried to sell, or even give away, an organ???</p>
<p>So we put a sign on it, saying “FREE- TAKE ME”.</p>
<p>It sat there while we chewed our nails wondering if it would rain one night, for a day and night. Finally the next day we looked outside and it was gone.</p>
<p>If we have something that might be usable but isn’t quite nice enough to be worth it for a charity, we set it at the curb the afternoon before trash pick-up. It’s nearly always gone before the truck shows up. Old patio furniture, beat up bikes… if it’s still there in the morning I haul it back in to the garage before work and try again. Effortless recycling, and someone gets the thrill of the hunt.</p>
<p>^ That’s what we do with some things - stick them out before trash day. I had the recent pleasure of ‘seeing off’ an old TV my husband bought in the 70’s. Stuck the dinky little thing out on the curb and watch the neighbor’s landscaper grab it.</p>
<p>Living in a college town, we have a date for curb shopping, August 15th, when the leases turn over in the rental property. Streets are lined with great treasures as well as horrible junk. Years ago, a friend described it as the great potlatch. Recently it was described in the paper as ‘hippie Christmas’ I’ve found a papasan chair-bought a new cushion, and once, a violin. Old, not the greatest instrument, but a friend fixed it up to playable condition, and was ok for a camping violin. My favorite is a usual walking route through a wealthy area, where I pick up thinnings from garden beds to take home and add to my perennials.</p>
<p>Hopper Shopper 
We put out old autoracing magazines and watched the refuse collectors take them all from the toter and put them in their truck. At least someone will get enjoyment from them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I just spoke to DS (the one who is studying to be a professional trash picker?); he flew back to Boston yesterday and is in a suite this yr with 7 other boys. And although the suite is furnished, he and the new roomies came across an abandoned couch yesterday and decided they HAD to have it. Even though his school specifically sent notices to all students this summer saying that they could not bring their own beds, mattresses, couches or chairs into student dorms because of the BED BUG problem this year!! I was surprised they were actually able to get it into the building…</p>
<p>When I go to an airport, I never buy a newspaper- I look into the recycle newspaper bin. An off duty pilot asked me for the parts of the paper I wasn’t reading.</p>
<p>The best thing we found was a radio flyer wagon. 25 years ago. It had a broken handle that we fixed with one screw. we have used it to mix cement, haul plants, as floats in elementary school, etc. Oh, yeah, we’ve used it to haul kids around the block, also.</p>
<p>I love the end of the year here at school…seems like a lot of the student body is so well off that they don’t want to bother putting things in storage over the summer or fixing things that are barely broken. I got one of those padded circular dorm room chairs last year with the school logo on it, practically brand new. It needed some new screws to hold the fold-out legs to the frame. They’re $50 at the bookstore…and it was mine for only 25 cents (the price of two new screws).</p>
<p>I also love the lost-and-found pile at the summer camp that I work at. If it’s the end of the summer, there’s no name in it, and it’s your size, it’s yours. I’ve gotten a bunch of new towels and T-shirts that way.</p>