They put out this shelf and I want it, but I don’t want to seem strange? It would make a nice plant shelf, but it’s not something I can scurry away with, so people would see me while I carried it. Is that a bad thing to do?
EDIT: Never mind. Someone beat me to it. 😭
I do that all the time. A thing is a thing, and it can be your thing now. I only try to ask myself two things:
- Do I really need that?
- Is it in a good condition? I have a lot of used stuff at home, so if I took something half-broken, it would look like a dumpster already.
Sidenote: I live in Denmark, where people overconsume, and then get rid of stuff which is still in good condition.
I think that it is weird that you ask us and not your neighbour
At least he posted on the right community.
This is totally kosher where I am and I’ve done it before, but if I think I’ll be observed I’ll ask my neighbor. They’ve always responded with some variation of “oh of course, I consider it trash” and sometimes explain reasons they’re getting rid of it that dissuaded me from taking it that weren’t immediately obvious.
If I put something by the road, instead of in the bin, it is because I want someone to take it. Yes take it. If you are unsure, go up and let them know you want it,I can say with absolute confidence, they will say to take it.
Once I was moving house and we set an old couch out on the sidewalk. It was very large and heavy so we were concerned that no one would take it. But we lived in a poorer area where most everything got taken, and sure enough it did disappear.
A few more days went by and we continued packing to move. The big day finally arrived and I went out that morning to greet the mover truck and found that whoever took the couch had come back and returned it during the night! I was like “you can’t do that!” LOL
Brb, dropping the kids off
One man’s garbage is another man person’s good un-garbage.
When I lived in a college town, the last week of May was the best time to get used furniture.
College kids everywhere abandoning all kinds of shit on the greenbelt that they had no way of bringing home.
I’m sure there is furniture in my current home that came from some stranger college kid.
The town I grew up in had a college and a university! I don’t think my parents bought us kids any new furniture until my dad built his own woodworking shop. I was a teenager by then!
We always got new mattresses, because NO FUCKING WAY was mom letting us sleep on a used, adult’s, student mattress. (I never knew you could stain them, that way, in those amounts…)
My sister still has a beautiful solid oak desk…
Yeah mattresses, gross. Even a couch.
But coffee tables, TV stands, bed side tables… Bed frames computer desks… So much good shit.
As a kid in the 80s I lived in a burb where once or twice in the summer they had a day where they could put out big clunky stuff for trash pickup that normally wasn’t allowed. So stuff like furniture, mattresses, old tires, etc. You’d routinely see cars driving past to see if there was anything they wanted to take. Our church friends, a family with 6 kids, would have a few ride off on their bikes and scout for useful stuff and call dibs. Then one brother went back home to get someone to bring the station wagon around while the others kept guard over the claim.
It was a good system for giving a second life to stuff that was still good (or fixable) but that you didn’t want or weren’t able to lug to the flea market or something.
this is quite literally how I get all of my furniture, extending the lifespan of consumer goods is a good thing.
now you know for next time!
If you’re sure they don’t want it, take it.
If you aren’t sure, ask, if if they are there, and if they aren’t there, take it and ask later if they wanted it (return it if they did).
There’s no shame in re-using good or even repairable stuff: indeed, be proud.
its very normal to to do this in southeast asia
It wouldn’t be weird, but talk to your neighbour first.
In my neighborhood taking stuff left at the curb is the norm. Sometimes we‘ll leave a sign to clarify something is free. There have been times when I’ve taken something, used it for a while, then put it back out in the curb for someone else to enjoy.
People around me put things out early with the expectation and hope someone will come and take it.
Where I live, there are people who make a decent amount of cash by grabbing whatever metal they can find out of the trash and taking it to scrapyards. There are a couple of trucks that swing past my house a few times the night before and the day of trash pickup. And myself, I grabbed two bikes by just knocking on the door and asking.
We have scheduled bulk item pickups in pur city. The night before you will usually see at least a couple trucks driving around tossing any scrap metal they find in the bed.
Got a scooter, bike, and eliptical from a neighbor the same way.
Next time just go take it. No one will care. They might even help you lol
