04/07/09
Kick It To The Kerb
This is the time of the year when the words “kick it to the kerb” takes on a whole new meaning.
This week is council kerbside collection week in my district and of course over the weekend many of my neighbours, and indeed myself, had a good de-clutter of those big items that are not always easy to be rid of during the rest of the year and I confess to finding myself watching the whole process with fascination.
It starts early in the morning. The scavenger hunt is on, and the parade slowly increases throughout the morning. People in their utilities and cars with trailers are slowly scanning each pile. They are a discerning bunch. Some will pass a few times before returning and committing. While others know exactly what they are after and even come with the right “lifting equipment”. Some choose to rummage until something takes their fancy, while others who are more nervous about the concept will keep looking over their shoulders to see if the owner of the pile will object to them having an opportunist moment.
One trailer went past with no less than eight washing machines on the back. Another was obviously after computer related trash while another seemed to have every kind of garden gadget, pot plant stand, and pots of varying size and colour, and yet another was after odd shapes of timber off-cuts and left over renovation materials
While I always manage to find something else to get rid of (and no I didn’t actually have the biggest pile in the street) in my garden shed (when we took it over) had been left an old green plastic outdoor setting, and a small rusty gas barbecue. The garden setting took 20 minutes to disappear. The barbecue still remains although someone took the iron cooking plate. Our microwave (which may I add had impeccable timing and died 2 weeks earlier) disappeared before I had time to add to the pile. One guy who walked past with his dog, allowed his dog to use my pile for what dogs do best, during which time his owner decided my old mop would be useful (and no, I don’t mean he used it for cleaning up what his best friend did to my pile).
What I truly found interesting however, was that we have had some heavy rainfall, and yet all the old computer monitors on the pile across the road from us, all of which had been subjected to the weather, had also gone. What on earth can a wet computer monitor be good for? Perhaps someone out there can solve this mystery for me.
As I continued on and off through the day to watch the parade, I couldn’t help but wonder about the participants. Whether some of them actually go from one district collection to the next, regularly rummaging? The whole thing started to feel like a form of theatre, carnival or game. I kept catching myself peeping out from behind the shed to see what else had gone, and what else I could put on the pile to tempt people with.
I think it is wonderful that someone’s trash can become another person’s treasure and how these people manage to convert something that would probably have ended up in landfill into something of use again. I wondered how many of them were affiliated with charities and were just good Samaritans, and whether others were perhaps artists or sculptors looking for materials to recycle into wonderful pieces of art that the rest of us would later gaze upon in amazement, perhaps even to the extent where one of these articles would be purchased later for a phenomenal sum.
Unfortunately I am also sure that some of our participants were probably compulsive hoarders who just can’t resist the temptation. I am also sure that some of them would probably later regret their decision and find themselves needing someone like me to come and de-clutter them months or years from now when again some of these items will end up back in the carnival of the kerbside cleanup.
Angela Miller-Davis is a Professional Organiser who helps people to find solutions for an organised lifestyle through her consultancy Less Equal More, Brisbane. http://www.lessequalsmore.com.au
Angela is a member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers).
It starts early in the morning. The scavenger hunt is on, and the parade slowly increases throughout the morning. People in their utilities and cars with trailers are slowly scanning each pile. They are a discerning bunch. Some will pass a few times before returning and committing. While others know exactly what they are after and even come with the right “lifting equipment”. Some choose to rummage until something takes their fancy, while others who are more nervous about the concept will keep looking over their shoulders to see if the owner of the pile will object to them having an opportunist moment.
One trailer went past with no less than eight washing machines on the back. Another was obviously after computer related trash while another seemed to have every kind of garden gadget, pot plant stand, and pots of varying size and colour, and yet another was after odd shapes of timber off-cuts and left over renovation materials
While I always manage to find something else to get rid of (and no I didn’t actually have the biggest pile in the street) in my garden shed (when we took it over) had been left an old green plastic outdoor setting, and a small rusty gas barbecue. The garden setting took 20 minutes to disappear. The barbecue still remains although someone took the iron cooking plate. Our microwave (which may I add had impeccable timing and died 2 weeks earlier) disappeared before I had time to add to the pile. One guy who walked past with his dog, allowed his dog to use my pile for what dogs do best, during which time his owner decided my old mop would be useful (and no, I don’t mean he used it for cleaning up what his best friend did to my pile).
What I truly found interesting however, was that we have had some heavy rainfall, and yet all the old computer monitors on the pile across the road from us, all of which had been subjected to the weather, had also gone. What on earth can a wet computer monitor be good for? Perhaps someone out there can solve this mystery for me.
As I continued on and off through the day to watch the parade, I couldn’t help but wonder about the participants. Whether some of them actually go from one district collection to the next, regularly rummaging? The whole thing started to feel like a form of theatre, carnival or game. I kept catching myself peeping out from behind the shed to see what else had gone, and what else I could put on the pile to tempt people with.
I think it is wonderful that someone’s trash can become another person’s treasure and how these people manage to convert something that would probably have ended up in landfill into something of use again. I wondered how many of them were affiliated with charities and were just good Samaritans, and whether others were perhaps artists or sculptors looking for materials to recycle into wonderful pieces of art that the rest of us would later gaze upon in amazement, perhaps even to the extent where one of these articles would be purchased later for a phenomenal sum.
Unfortunately I am also sure that some of our participants were probably compulsive hoarders who just can’t resist the temptation. I am also sure that some of them would probably later regret their decision and find themselves needing someone like me to come and de-clutter them months or years from now when again some of these items will end up back in the carnival of the kerbside cleanup.
Angela Miller-Davis is a Professional Organiser who helps people to find solutions for an organised lifestyle through her consultancy Less Equal More, Brisbane. http://www.lessequalsmore.com.au
Angela is a member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers).
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