Every once in a while folks in our neighborhood offer up curbside freebies. Yesterday there was a near new, sealed burner stove on one sidewalk, while another neighbor's driveway had a rather large pile of free dirt. Past offerings have included an oak desk, pedestal sink, ceramic stepping stones . . . It all seems like quality merchandise, especially for the price, and most items last a day at best. Plus it's a win/win, helping neighbors while saving oneself a disposal fee. Still, I have a few questions - Is this customary where you live? Have you ever left freebies on your curbside? Have you ever picked up a freebie from a curbside?
Whenever we have a yard sale, we leave a significant bit of what doesn't sell out on the sidewalk. It's usually gone by trash day.
There's nothing official, but people are always putting old furniture and stuff out with a "free!" sign on it. Saw some end tables yesterday, in fact.
Yeah, you have to put the "free" sign on it, because otherwise people tend to think you are just placing it there temporarily, ultimately to go back inside. No, we don't want this crap! Take it!
People in my neighborhood do this all the time. I've put items on my curb and had them disappear within a few hours.
Yep, same where I live. As long as it's not obvious trash, if you want to get rid of an old chair or something, just set in on the curb. It'll be gone in hours.
Yeah, curbside freebies seem to be common. Some people even post what they're giving away on Craig's List's free section. Stuff like moving boxes, pallets, couches, TVs, firewood, etc.
Check out your area's freecycle mailing list. Although at least in this area you have to do the 30 item digest unless you check your mail every second, people are constantly posting stuff. I am still mad at Anne for passing up on the hottub while I was gone. It totally would fit on our patio right now.
We once put an old loveseat out on the curb, and an hour later a pickup truck screeched to a halt, two guys jumped out, threw it in the back, and peeled out like they were stealing it.
When we were cleaning out my wife's grandmother's house, we had a big dumpster (so much of what she had was just garbage) but also put a lot of things out by the curb that we didn't want but were certainly useful. By mid-day, there was a line of trucks parked up and down the street with about a dozen people milling about the front yard.
Twice a year, the city does "large item" and brush collection. If you've got big pieces of furniture or big piles of lumber or other leftovers from home projects, you can put it on the curb and city trucks will come around and collect it. This also brings around the "scavengers" who pick over the piles for useful items and scap metal. This usually goes pretty smoothly, but the last round really pissed me off. We had recently replaced all the mattresses in our house and we put the old ones on the curb. At some point, some scrap metal scavengers had come by, stripped all the cloth and padding off the mattresses and left it all in my yard, taking just the metal parts of the mattresses. It was a huge mess. If I would've caught them doing it, I think I would've held a gun on them until they picked up the mess they made. Well, probably not, but that's how pissed I was. Prior to this collection period, we had also replaced the toilets in our house. At one point, some scavengers took the toilets...and then returned them to the curb.
DAMN I wish my county had free junk pickup. The next county over does. In my county you have to pay a fee to usethe dump, and they have limited hours, etc. etc. BTW about this exchange - let's say I set my wife out on the curb....nahhh, I'm sure there are limitations on this process.
My mother has to drive her crap to the local dump too. Surprised the hell out of me when I heard about it, after a lifetime of suburban garbage pickup.
Seriously? Free dirt? What a deal! I've seen it happen in my area frequently. Couches, desks, other oddities. I've never left anything out though. Donated e-waste a few weeks ago curbside (and HDTV, flatscreen monitor, and printer) and was surprised no one helped themselves before the e-waste truck came at 3pm.
Right?! Seriously though, we had some trees removed awhile back, and some dirt would help even out the rough spots. Besides it's free land!
