One man's trash...

Tweet

My neighbours are having a clear-out. They bought the house about 4 years ago and it came with a basic greenhouse which they never bothered with. Now they decided they want the space, but it turned out to be half full of firewood. They asked if we had a use for any wood for the fire, so I went to have a look. We ended up spending our lunch time clearing out and wheelbarrowing away at least a dozen wheelbarrows full of nice dry logs, so that will keep us going for several weeks next winter (and also warm us up in this sudden cold spell we are having now!). I persuaded the neighbour to try listing the greenhouse itself on Freegle, and within a few minutes she had some interest, so I hope that will go to a new home and be useful. She also told me to have a look in the skip (dumpster) they have outside, in case I wanted any of the bits of wood they had already tossed in there - they are clearing out their garage too. Well I had a look and I found a couple of boxes of sticks for kindling, but I also found a brand new (still in box) electronic scale, a large pump action vacuum flask, apparently unused (still in box, although very cobwebby), several brand new battery chargers, a nice folding chair, a basic clothes airer, about 3 metres of new copper pipe, several lengths of decorative wood trim, a whole box full of arm/leg weights in different sizes, all still wrapped, wall-mounted shelf supports with some brackets, a door canopy, a large plastic tub (handle broken, but perfect for growing potatoes), lots of bubble wrap, nice wooden curtain rails with rings, a folding junior-size pool table, several brand new lead-acid batteries, a box full of old hand tools, five or six of what appear to be studio-style lights on extending tripods, and a ladies’ bicycle with a bent wheel but a nice frame. Also several items of stationary, a double padded headboard and a mattress-sized piece of thick foam. Unfortunately the headboard and the pool table were too big for me to take away, and then it started pouring down with rain as well, so I guess they were not salvageable, but I took a load of things away with me, and listed them on Freegle as well. Eventually I figured out that the fancy lights, the tripods, the batteries and the leads and chargers each constituted a set, and there were about ten of these, each in its own carry bag! I had no idea whether they worked of course, but I thought someone might like to try them out. Over the next day or so I was inundated with replies! A stream of at least twenty people came over to collect things, and all seemed very pleased with what they took away. The lights did work it turned out; several of them went to a Scout leader who said they would be ideal for evening outdoor activities when camping, and others went to a man who shared them around with his family to use for working on their cars and other such outdoor jobs. The big flask went to a forest school for hot chocolate for the children. The box of apparently useless rusty old tools was very popular, and eventually went to a retired carpenter to refurbish. The bicycle was snapped up in an instant of course. All the other things also went to new homes, and I received lots of lovely messages saying how pleased people were with the things they had! By this time the skip was only about a quarter full! I told our neighbours how popular all their ‘rubbish’ had been so I hope they will be less inclined to throw things away in future. I did notice that the greenhouse is now gone so I hope they had a good first experience with Freegle and will be inspired to do it again! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.