The title says it all. I have some across-the-street neighbors who are rather – shall we say – have a general redness in the neck regions. Constantly drunk, never employed, new-drama-every-day, and now this.
We were talking the other day, and I casually mentioned that I’m going to be getting rid of the extra fridge in the garage. They promptly piped up and said, “We’ll take it!” “We get some of our best stuff from your trash”.
Then then run through the laundry list of items that I’ve thrown out that they have helped themselves to. It was staggering the crap that they took from me. One man’s trash, I guess…
This completely creeped me out, and I don’t like it. My already-low opinion of them has sunk to … well … lower. I am actually sort of worried about break-ins now. The stuff I have in my house is WAY cooler than what I throw out.
This is just disgusting. And to admit to it to your victim is doubly so. Get me the hell out of Florida.
Knowing that someone was going through my trash regularly, I’d make sure to shred or blackout any sensitive info (receipts with credit card info, stuff like that). I’m not saying your neighbors will try to rob you but someone else might…
They’re taking stuff that you’ve announced to the whole world you are casting aside. You don’t want it. You want it to be gone. Why are you a victim because they take it instead of the trash truck?
I can understand your concern over break-ins, but from your description of them I think I’d worry about that whether they were taking your refuse or not. Still, unless and until they do so you haven’t really been victimized.
ETA: And don’t blame Florida; people like that are everywhere.
I just knew that I’d get a whole slew of dopers coming in here and saying just that. It’s easy to do when it’s not you who have neighbors pawing through your trash.
You do admit that this behavior is disgusting, right?
**Please **tell me that if your neighbors came up to you and said the same things, that you wouldn’t be the slightest bit squicked out about it?
I never said that it was “perfectly good stuff” – there’s a reason it was thrown out in the first place. I’m ranting because it’s just gross to root through other peoples trash. When does that EVER get cool?
With them digging through your trash at least you won’t attract bag ladies.
I had trash digging people that were a nuisance. I made sure everything was smashed completely. The digging stopped after it was clear everything was useless every time to even the most persistent of pack rats.
Throwing out a cassette tape that is bad? Make it clear it’s bad. Cut up the tape. If they think it may be usable they will dig, even if it’s not. That pan that cooked food sticks to after 10 years of use, needs to be hit with a hammer a few times.
Dad used to make some monster tricycles, toy tractors and toy trucks from when he went to the dump and found them lying in plain site. There are still toys around the house from that.
Hey, I think you’re right in that the thought of your neighbors are going through your trash is unsettling. I don’t really have a problem with people getting things from trash or people throwing out unused filet mignons, for that matter, but the knowing part…eeesh!
Not necessarily. If they were ringing your bell and asking if you had anything you didn’t want anymore, that might be beyond the pale, but I don’t see much of a problem with their looking through stuff you’ve thrown out to see if any of it would be useful to them.
There’s a guy across the street from me who makes a good living but he just loves free stuff and bargains. He’s constantly going to thrift stores looking for bargains and if we’ve thrown out something he’d find useful he’ll come ring the bell and ask if we’d mind if he took it. He’s become a good friend and he and his wife have had me over several times for good food and wine and has bought me gifts (booze, mostly ;)) that far outweigh in price the value of anything that he ever got from us. He’s not a cheapskate, he just loves to find uselful things at a bargain.
There are lots of people who’ll put “Free” signs on stuff they’ve thrown out if it’s still in working order just so someone who could use it would know that it still works. That would be cool, as is the way my neighbor approaches it. Granted, it would be more polite if they were to ring your bell and ask if you’d mind, but from the way you appear to regard them (and I’m not saying it’s without good reason) I’d imagine that, given your 'druthers, you’d just as soon not have them ringing your bell.
I can understand you thinking it’s not cool. I gave a couple of examples above where it is cool, but under the circumstances (low-life rednecks, troublesome, etc.) I can see where you might not agree. Still, you aren’t a “victim”, and that’s the point of contention where I’m concerned. I suspect you just don’t like them (and Florida, to boot) and are using this situation with them to magnify and justify those dislikes.
Eh, we had some people a couple of blocks from us who always, always had a garage sale.
When we threw out usable junk, or even some we considered not particularly usable, it would turn up a couple of days later in their “garage” sale.
Whenever we threw out something that seemed possibly useful, we set it on top of the dumpster, to make it easier. That way, they didn’t have to root around in the dumpster.
Honestly?
It completely depends on what it is you’re throwing out that they’re taking.
If they’re bragging about the time they opened your kitchen trash and scored a half loaf of perfectly good bread that was just a bit moldy and a bunch of kleenex that were only slightly used, then yeah, I’m with you, that’s gross.
But that table with the broken leg? If you have some wood glue and clamps and know how to use 'em, it IS perfectly good. Maybe as a kid’s work table in the playroom. The stereo amplifier with the balky switch is good as new in the hands of someone with a soldering iron. Same for the toaster that doesn’t toast anymore.
Around here people trash pick for fixable, reusable stuff. This is well known enough that most people will put out potentially pickable items the evening before trash day in the hopes that someone will take it. We’ve done so, with old furniture and stuff over the years, and I’ve seen it taken. If not, it goes to the dump where it sits and rots. (This isn’t some junky rundown neighborhood either, by the way; this is upper-middle class suburbia.)
My mother picked a pair of comfy (though very '80s) chairs from a neighbor (who’d redecorated) and used them in her school counseling office. Sweetie has trashpicked electronics before, but some of his better finds have been desks or shelves that he’s demolished for parts and rebuilt for custom built equipment racks. Better to recycle, he feels, than to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a new piece from China that isn’t exactly what he needs anyway.
I’m not sure I’d rattle off a list of stuff to the neighbors I’d taken it from, but I wouldn’t feel odd about taking it. I also don’t think you have anything to worry about break ins from these people. For a lot of people,“finders keepers” is a big part of the point of looking, and the idea of robbery is far away from that principle.
Yeah it’s a bit disgusting but who cares. They need/want the stuff and you’ve thrown it away. I imagine this would have been a lot less of a problem if they never mentioned they were digging through the trash.
When I lived in Amsterdam years ago the people would leave the reusable rubbish separate from the trash and there was a whole industry of people going around on a Thursday night picking up things. If the plug had been cut off that indicated the item was not working - but obviously a part or two might solve the problem and someone will always be willing to try. Maybe you could try something like this to keep them from rooting through the real trash which I agree is creepy.
Where I now live you can chuck it out safe in the knowledge that there are people down at the dump waiting to grab that stuff and refurbish it.
I’ve taken things from other people’s trash in the past. Not from rooting through it, but because it’s right out in the open. Sometimes, if I can find them, I’ll ask if they mind if I take the item, but if they’re not around, I just take it. One time a neighbor put half a dozen really nice, large, potted plants out at the curb for the trash. I asked him about it and he said an ex left them behind, refused to come get them, and he doesn’t “do” plants. He helped me drag them into my house!
If you don’t want your neighbors digging through your garbage, why not just ask them if they want something before you throw it in the trash? They might be really grateful.
They do that here, too. Anything I don’t need that someone might still want - furniture, electronics, clothing, kitchenware - I leave on the sidewalk in front of the trash area. It’s usually gone within the hour.
And hey, what goes around comes around. I’ve got some perfectly decent shelves I picked up off the street; some good books, too.
Behind my house is the magic alley. Anything you put back there disappears. If I think anything is even marginally interesting to anyone, I leave it in the M.A. before putting it in the bin.
I’ve also heard, though I don’t know it for a fact, that there is pretty good money to made by going around the night/morning before trash PU and scavenging metal to sell to recyclers.
Its disgusting to open up trash bags and root through them to see if there’s anything there. But if people taking a perfectly good chair or lamp or table sitting by the curb are disgusting, then damn, let them eat cake, eh?
The bottom has dropped out of the scrap metal market. The local county recycling program hasn’t been selling it’s scrap for months in the hopes they’ll get better prices. I’m betting on them having to sell before that happens, because they run out of room.