Skip Raiding

Has anyone on here taken anything from skips in the past?

I know the subject is a bit iffy in legal terms but us gardeners like to give things a second life, right? I hate to see perfectly good things thrown away just because somebody doesn't want it anymore.

I recently pulled these two from a skip down the road. They needed a bit of TLC and new (white) seat covers but they are good as new now.

 

I wouldn't go looking on purpose but if I saw something like that I'd be having it!!! Good one JJ!!!

 

Like you I am a bit of a Skip-diver and can't see good stuff just thrown away. If the skip is outside a house, I generally knock at the door and ask - I have never had a negative response, usually something like " Oh, I'm so glad its of use, I didn't want to get rid of it but we are" moving to a smaller place etc.,..."

 

I remember my parents telling me about the chaise longue they were given for a big local bonfire one November. They got it recovered and polished! Lol. We had it for years but it eventually got sold.

Its very common in the area I live for people to leave stuff outside their house if its to be taken. It's kind of a unspoken code for take this if you want it. I have loads of stuff which people have left out to be reused. I left out a kids trike last weekend and someone took it. So much better than the tip! And my kids have a plastic kitchen I found outside a house. Oh and our camping sink is from outside a house. People even leave crockery out and I have a few bowl and pots.

Kate

 

Kate, what a nice friendly area you live in. - On the 'getting rid of' theme, I would like to remind folk that in almost all areas now there is a branch of 'Freegle or 'Freecycle' or similar groups - you can post on a local website anything that may be of use to others.

Links: http://ilovefreegle.org/ and
http://www.freecycle.org/

a-a

 

I often have a look around our local tip/recycle centre when ever I take stuff to dump

most of my garden tools were bought there (a pound an item, and includes spades, forks, rakes, shears etc)

the best item I got from the tip which I kept was a pair of Chartwell BBC LS3/5A speakers which are in perfect condition .... I paid £8 at the tip and these are worth between £800- £1000 on ebay

the best items I got from the tip that I sold were 2 folding bicycles called 'Bike Friday' .... paid £30 for the pair ... the first one sold on ebay for over £600 and the second one fetched over £500

2 weeks ago I got an old Hayter Harrier 56 lawnmower with grass box when I went to tip garden waste ... paid £10 .... engine looks in good order .... tried to start it and it spluttered but nearly started ....

so during winter, I will service it myself for under £20 (spark plug, oil, airfilter, and carburetter gasket and possibly buy a new blade for a few pounds or sharpen the old one .... will then keep it as a spare

when I used to trade on ebay, I used to go to at least 4 auctions a week .... many times I bought joblots of stuff just to acquire one or 2 hidden treasures (such as black forest cuckoo clocks, or a rare antique piece of pottery, or a slate mantle clock etc)

after a few months I had loads of junk that was not worth selling on ebay, so hired a skip and filled it up with broken mantle clocks, pottery, brick a brack etc

every night, you could hear the neighbours raiding the skip like rats with their torchlights ... never bothered me as it was all junk, but all they had to do was ask during and they could have a proper look during the day and take whatever they wanted

I know a guy who drives around and digs in skips ... he removes the metal and sells it as scrap .... he also gets all sorts of stuff that he sells at carboots .... he seems to be doing OK whenever I see him selling at the local carboot sale, and always has loads of stuff

 

I had a new "shed" built for me, the old one, and all its contents went in a skip, along with any other "junk" I had. I ended up writing on an old piece of flat wood on a stick "if you see it take it"
One bloke even took a short bit of cable for the old electrical sockets. I know a bit here and a bit there adds up, but at that rate you would have great grand children.

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As for leaving other stuff outside, we do it all the time round here. Nothing ever stays more than 2 days.
The quickest was our old 3 piece suite, for a laugh I put a note "take me" on it. Only got the first chair out, and a bloke pulled up and asked would we keep it, as he is going out but will collect on his way back, 3 hours later (when he said) sure enough he took it away.

It never ceases to amaze me what they take.

 

Well, Watergarden.

Here is a true tale,

A local chap wanted to get rid of an old washing machine, so he called the council and arranges a collection. They told him if he left it outside his house near the front door they would collect within 7 days. Well two weeks went by, and the washer still not collected. Our man called the council - Oh, yes sir, sorry, well'come next week - they didn't. Our friend then put a notice on the garden gate - Washing Machine £50.00 - within an hour it disappeared !!

 

We seem to have the same code round here. I once dragged my knackered cooker out onto the front drive, with the intention of taking it to the tip the following weekend unless the local scrap man saw it and asked for it first. He saw it, but didn't ask. I put it out at about 9PM one night, it was gone by the time I got up for work the next morning.

When we were leaving our last house in Sheffield, the wife decided she didn't want to bring her old, knackered mountain bike. I'd bought her a new one because the old one just needed to much doing to put it right. So we left it out in the street overnight. It was still there in the morning (despite the area having an unfair bad reputation). So I stuck a sign on it saying "If you can fix it, you can have it. If its still here when I get back its going to the tip". I left it out the front again, took a van load of stuff to my new house, and by the time I got back it had gone.

 

Thank you alex-adam I use freecycle regularly (in fact I just got a really nice brand new Divan bed base! can you believe that) but I'd never heard of freegle! just registered for my local group:D

 

I am not fundamentally opposed to picking things that people throw away if they are in very good condition for example because they are replaced with a new item, but I just wouldn't have the courage to do that in the street!

 

I find that our local freecycle group is just full of people wanting stuff rather than getting away. I've posted several wanted ads on there but had had no luck. Reckon not many people go on freecycle to check if anybody wants something before they throw it out.

It's nice to know that there are other gardeners out there who do the same thing. I was starting to get worried that I had developed kleptomania or something.

 

I've got such a reputation for skip diving that people let me know when they're getting a skip so I get first dibs. People have even offered me their 'rubbish' as I've been walking past., some of it has been useful stuff, but I still take it even if I don't need it and it goes to the recycling/reuse centre on my next visit.