When is the best time to go garbage picking?

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I always hear about people finding nice things put out to the curb. When is the best time to do this? The night before garbage day or 7am the morning of?
 
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My MIL does it near the end of the school year at college campuses. Mass trash pick up days in wealthier neighborhoods. ect. She has apparently found some good stuff. As a kid I would go canning because 5 cents a can or bottle in california!
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Depends on what day the trash truck comes by. In my area streets that go north and south are picked up on thursdays. E/W streets are mondays


Monday and Thursday. Thursday is heavy trash day.
 
The day or evening before garbage pickup is best depending on the neighborhood. Good luck though, in my area the fulltime scrappers follow the collection schedule. I've literally had a guy stop his truck and take an old aluminum chair right out of my hands before I could set it down.
 
Originally Posted By: TheKracken
My MIL does it near the end of the school year at college campuses. Mass trash pick up days in wealthier neighborhoods. ect. She has apparently found some good stuff. As a kid I would go canning because 5 cents a can or bottle in california!



It's funny that you mention college campuses....a few years ago I was picking my daughter up at the end of the school year at her high priced university (she received a full MERIT scholarship or else she wouldn't have attended there).

Some students had thrown textbooks in the garbage and I took them out and walked a couple of hundred yards and got $60 for them from the campus buyback program.....I guess it's nice when daddy has so much money that the kids can throw it away....
 
I never have to worry about setting anything out that someone might want. I just offer it to the guys who cut my lawn and its gone.
 
NZ has always had a yearly inorganic collection...stuff sits in the streets for a week or two and gets picked over. As kids we dragged home more than Dad threw out. As an adult it was also a gold mine of choice pickings. One of my kids still has a painting on her wall we found on an evening scavenge. The last few years has seen professional scavengers cruising the streets, they go from town to town. They are after scrap metal and take everything so all that is left is mattresses and plastic lawn chairs, and everything scattered everywhere...sometimes fights break out between them. So, the council has had enough, one of the perks of running an inorganic is that they sell the scrap metal - so now there is no yearly collection, if we want to get rid of stuff, we put it out and then give them a ring to come and pick it up.
 
From a landlord perspective, the best time is probably at the end of the month when people have to move out to a different apartment. Around here, there's one part of town called Allston that has lots of college students and it's sometime called the Allston Christmas when all the college students move in and out on Sept 1st. Only thing to beware is the bedbugs which can be lurking in anything.
 
Originally Posted By: TheKracken
My MIL does it near the end of the school year at college campuses. Mass trash pick up days in wealthier neighborhoods. ect. She has apparently found some good stuff. As a kid I would go canning because 5 cents a can or bottle in california!


What cans or bottles are 5 cents in California?
 
Waiting on CKN to comment on this thread...
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Originally Posted By: user52165
Originally Posted By: TheKracken
My MIL does it near the end of the school year at college campuses. Mass trash pick up days in wealthier neighborhoods. ect. She has apparently found some good stuff. As a kid I would go canning because 5 cents a can or bottle in california!


What cans or bottles are 5 cents in California?


They still do that around here. People pick up cans/bottles and take it to a recycling center to get back 5 cents per can/bottle. Some homeless feel that it's beneath them and won't do it. If you just recycle your own cans/bottles and just have a few, you don't want to get stuck behind someone with a couple black garbage bags filled with cans/bottles.
 
Chinese New Year here. Trad clearout time. Seen quite a bit of nice "old fashioned" hardwood furniture but didn't have anywhere to put it.
 
The morning before the garbage truck comes around has been the best time for me to go "shopping at the curb". Most people tend to put off hauling out their junk until nearly the last minute. However, Saturday afternoon is also good because garage clean-outs are often tossed onto the curb in the hopes someone will come along and take it away. I once stopped to pick up a discarded garden cart. A man ran out of his garage and put it into my truck for me.
 
Not keen on picking up stuff outside houses, but we still have rural dumps, and I TRY to make more deposits than withdrawals.

Saturday, I found a Racor LFS 60 at my feet.
 
The night before pick-up, but of course you're in there with all the other pickers. Keep an eye out for stuff set curbside early.

Last week, while walking the dog Monday evening, I spotted a pressure washer curbside. It was still there Tuesday evening. I was thinking about it. Friday is trash pick up, so I knew it would be gone Thursday evening. I stopped by Wednesday after work, knocked on the door and asked if the owner was trying to get rid of the pressure washer. He just smiled and extended his hand as though to say "congratulations, new owner". We chatted a bit. He got an electric powered pressure washer six years ago and hasn't touched the gas powered pressure washer since.

The pull start is jammed, so it needs some work, a winter time project.

Yeah, I dabble in "curbside shopping".
 
I put my garbage out in the early evening on the eve of the next pickup.

Please, come on down and take it all. The garbage truck fellows will be grateful for one less pickup.
 
Last time I lived in an area with municipal garbage pickup, our street's day was Monday and most people put their stuff out on Sunday afternoon. I preferred to take it out as I left for work on Monday just to minimize spillage as well as scattering by animals.
I was out mowing on a hot Sunday and noticed that lots of crummy cars were prowling our neighborhood looking to pick junk. A guy I barely knew several houses down was also mowing and really seemed to be suffering in the heat, and suddenly he stopped his mower by the apron of his driveway and went inside his house. About two minutes later, one of the prowling cars stopped and two guys jumped out and grabbed the mower...I started hollering once I figured out what they were doing, but they hustled that thing in their trunk like a flash and jumped back in. I started running after them, but they peeled out and were gone in no time at all.
My neighbor came out in a minute or two and I have to give him the bad news, wasn't even able to give him a plate for the cops. I think it turned out he had another mower to finish up his job with, but we both learned a lesson about leaving things laying around on picker's day. I'm sure the thieves noticed the mower was hot and had just been in use, but they had a perfect cover for their little crime if they had happened to get caught...they were just trash pickers, right?
 
We have multiple trash companies in my subdivision, so there are 2 different pick-up days. The evening prior, there are 2 groups of guys in pickup trucks prowling for goodies, and a guy in a horrible old Cavalier who just stacks stuff on the roof and trunklid. I need to flag one of those guys down this week and see if they want the aluminum patio furniture on my deck...hopefully THEY can carry it to the curb and save me the trouble.

Last time I put stuff at the curb, neighbors took the shelving and racks before the trash pickers got to it...
 
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