Stooping

[Artemis Windsong]

I read an article on MSN about stooping.  Where people set out for free their used couches, chairs, tables, etc. for anyone who could use it.

www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/what-is-stooping-the-money-saving-practice-is-taking-social-media-by-storm/ar-AA11W5KM?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=81b0f0ddd41541858af4707e20ca8c2b&ei=220

We have passed forward two stoves, a couch, an ancient stereo tape player console.  I picked up 4 plastic stack chairs.

Our town has clean up fix up week where items are put on the boulevards to be hauled away free by the city.  It's shopping time.  A person has to be careful not to set something outside close to the street that is not for free as people will haul it away.  This happened to a man who was putting one of those brush catcher bumpers on his pickup when he went to the garage to get bolts.  The bumper was gone.

[NoNamePerson]

I had a friend that I would not go anywhere with on the day of the month of "trash pickup" She could hit brakes after spotting something on curb and almost throw me thru the windshield. Before seat belts in all cars.

But I admit that some years later I found a few things on curb that I liked and picked up and refinished. I love refinishing furniture. My only problem was I had to call my son a few times to come get item since I was driving a little itty bitty car and he had a pickup.

Someone asked me once what my style of decorating was and I replied "Curb side chic" 

Never picked up anything upholstered though. Just anything that could be refinished.

[thyme4change]

We have “big garbage pickup” four times a year. I love when people come and take whatever we put out. I haven’t ever picked anything up. I was considering looking this fall because both my kids are moving into houses and will have a backyard. I thought I could find a little cafe set or something I could refinish it for them. But, my son told me there is a picnic table already and my daughter said her roommates’ Dad is going to give them something. That saves me the hassle of refinishing something. Woo hoo.

[haapai]

One of my earliest memories is being admonished not to leave my Big Wheel on the driveway because tomorrow was trash day.  Someone might believe (or just pretend to believe) that it was being disposed of and scoop it up. 

I've picked up a lot of stuff from the curb over the years, mostly while walking the dog around my neighborhood.  Almost all of it ends up in the garage and I've got a sneaking suspicion that the original owners are going to get a chuckle when they see it again on my curb. 

On the other hand, if you wish to re-home kitchen cabinetry, there is absolutely no reason to post anything about it anywhere.  Even the ugliest kitchen cabinets get pounced on by folks who intend to install them in their garages. 

[Opti]

I like how various things get names as if it is a new idea. I've looked but I don't know if I ever retrieved anything unless I was already out for a Craiglist free P/U or some such. Freecycle in my area is dead and this probably has surged because it takes far less effort to just put it at the curb than post pics of it and communicate with someone for pickup.

ETA - Given the name, it sounds like it was coined by city dwellers. 

[haapai]

May 31, 2023 16:10:37 GMT -5 Opti said:

I like how various things get names as if it is a new idea. I've looked but I don't know if I ever retrieved anything unless I was already out for a Craiglist free P/U or some such. Freecycle in my area is dead and this probably has surged because it takes far less effort to just put it at the curb than post pics of it and communicate with someone for pickup.

ETA - Given the name, it sounds like it was coined by city dwellers. 

Yup, definitely coined by city-dwellers.  But that annoys me far less than some young person believing that they have discovered something new under the sun or think that adding smart-phones or apps or hashtags to the mix changes everything. 

I know that what remains of journalism is poorly paid and skews young, but sometimes their youth (and that of their editors) really shows. 

[Pink Cashmere]

When I went through that serious decluttering phase at my first house, not only were my trash bins overflowing for months, I also put a lot of stuff on the curb with “Free” signs on it, or just put it on the curb without a sign. Everything I put on the curb, with or without a “free” sign disappeared before garbage pickup. The dining room table I put out there, my next door neighbor took to use in her house. Several weeks into my major decluttering phase, one morning I saw a man opening my trash bin on the curb, I guess to see if there was anything else I’d put in the garbage instead of on the curb. I only put things on the curb that still worked and/or could still serve a purpose….. whatever was really trash, I put in my garbage bins.

That house is in the city, garbage pickup was on Tuesdays. I learned somehow that supervisors would drive around on Mondays, making note of the large items that needed to be picked up the next day. So I started putting large items on the curb on Sundays, so that if it was still there Monday, it would be known that a large item at my address needed to be picked up. Nothing I ever put on the curb was still there when the garbage trucks came through on Tuesdays. Not even the box spring and mattress I put out there, which isn’t something I’d want from some random house, but apparently somebody thought it was useful because it disappeared too.

I appreciate the “junk men” that drive through neighborhoods and pick up stuff people have put on the curb to try to reuse or repurpose them. It made me feel good when people took the things I’d put on the curb, I’d rather someone find a new purpose for that kind of stuff, over it landing in a landfill before it’s completely useless.

[Tiny]

I think it took social media by storm a couple of years ago...

I've been "riding along" with "trash pickers" via a bunch of you-tube channels since the pandemic began.


I bet msn.com discovers Magnet Fishing as the "next craze".


I thought it was common practice to put out still good but unwanted stuff on Trash night (or day) that could be taken for free... you could also put out metal stuff (working or not) and the Scrap Metal Man would take it.   I don't remember a time when it wasn't done - and I'm 59....

[TheOtherMe]

This happened when I was in college at the end of the semester and I graduated in 1975.  It happened every semester for all of the years I lived in Boulder CO.  It's not new.

[Tennesseer]

In the past, I put an old used lawn mower and a garage door opener system by the curb.  Both worked and both were snatched up.

[NoNamePerson]

Ok I couldn't resist posting this here so just consider the source and let it be!!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

People do that all the time here.  We've off loaded quite a few things I didn't want to haul to Goodwill or bother to sell like a $100 exercise bike DH never used.  

We got rid of Gwen's used paint canvases that way.   The guy that picked them up says he keeps an eye out for stuff like that on the curb since canvases can be so pricey.  I was glad to know they weren't just going to be tossed away in a landfill.

You have to be fast if you want something around here.  I missed out on a toy I wanted to nab for Abby because I couldn't pull over right away, by the time I got back around it was gone.

The general protocol seems to be if it is right by the edge of the street where garbage cans are set for pick up or they are with the garbage cans for pick-up it's good to go.  If it is farther back in the yard leave it alone or ask.

[toomuchreality]

I was caring for my BF's house once, when pick up day was coming. He had a few things out on his curb. A few days before pick up, his pile suddenly got huge. There were nasty old bikes, couches, mattresses etc. on his pile. It was NASTY. His filthy next door neighbor had nothing in front of his house, even though he had young teenage boys, and that's the kind of stuff they had.
I went over and asked him about it. He replied, "I don't want that stuff in front of MY house!"
I told him I didn't want it in front of DBF house either! And he needed to come get his shi+ and take it back to his curb. He ignored me initially, so I got madder than I had been and started doing it myself.
Pretty soon his sons came out and helped.
What a jerk.

[Artemis Windsong]

I know the freecycle is not new.  Stooping a new name for it.

Old mattresses, pillows and such can be used by farmers with new born animals or animal rescues.

 

[TheOtherMe]

As long as I don't put junk on Freecycle, it gets picked up.  It used to be everyone wanted me to deliver.  I'm done delivering.  They have to come here and do a porch pick up.