Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Furniture shopping - island style

Twice a year the town's refuse company, Seagull Sanitation, does a free large item pickup. On that date residents can put anything big - couches, chairs, tables, dressers, ovens, beds, etc. - out on the the curb and during the day a truck comes by and takes it away for free.  This is a very good thing.  Considering that it usually costs money to dispose of anything at the town dump, plus the hassle and/or expense of just getting it to the dump...like I said, a good thing.

For me, this is a chance to work on clearing out the decades worth of old, broken furniture stuffed into the storage and crawlspace area under the house.  Sometimes it's also a way for me to dispose of furniture left behind by vacating tenants.  This happens more frequently than you'd believe. Seriously. That's what happened two years ago and it looked like this:
  


Yes, that is a sleeper sofa, a desk, a table, chairs, a dresser, a small mattress, and a wardrobe. Sheesh!  All of it carried out to the curb by a couple of strong young lads from a local construction company.  They barely broke a sweat and walked away with a little extra cash in their pockets.

What I put out last night for today's large item pickup was a much smaller haul.  But the fun in putting it out the night before is in seeing what's actually still there in the morning.  Or if one happens to be up early in the morning, one could (theoretically) observe islanders cruising the streets, "shopping" the piles of discarded furniture.  I'm not saying I mind this - in fact, it makes me very happy to see that my trash could be someone else's treasure!  It's a far better result than just adding to the already overflowing city dump. And since many of us zip around town in golf carts - it's kinda fun to see how much or how large an item can be transported!

5 comments:

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Logan said...

That's pretty convenient, and having it all on one day like that. I've been stalking garage sales and craigslist ads like crazy trying to find a bookshelf for cheap.

Sheepish Annie said...

We used to do that in my hometown. Everyone looked forward to Big Trash Day. It was like Christmas Eve waiting to see what was going to happen to all the stuff you put out there.

Anonymous said...

Love cleanup days! Our city used to do them and it was basically an impromptu week long free shopping festival for me. ;) Also, I kind of like that desk that went out with your last year's stuff! LOL.

Harbor Hon said...

Wish the 'big harsh' city had a day like that. I've been trying to get rid of four old heavy metal dining chairs like forever, but we have to pay to have the items removed. Maybe I can talk my landlord into getting them out of here. I like that white cabinet though, could use that for craft stuff if I had the room. :) xxoo