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. 😭
It may or.may not be weird depending on the situstion, your neighbor’s personality, your relationship with your neighbor, etc.
But weird != wrong.
You can politely ask them about it. Maybe there’s a good reason they threw it out. Maybe it’s infested, or broken.
The free pile is always available.
That’s how I got almost all of my furniture:-). Granted, I didn’t do it in a “next door neighbor” setting, but rather apartment where it’s more acceptable. Oh well now you know:-).
One man’s garbage is another man person’s good un-garbage.
It wouldn’t be weird, but talk to your neighbour first.
It’s only weird if the person who threw it away makes it weird by getting upset and calling the cops, which is their legal right for some damn reason.
I don’t mind people picking through my trash; just as long as they don’t make a mess throwing garbage out of the can and leaving it all over the place.
Assuming you aren’t a hoarder, and you properly clean it… well, yes, its weird by the modern standards of our consumeristic society, but in actuality no, this is recycling.
Landfills are full of things that, had they not been placed in a landfill, could likely have been repurposed and reused by someone, somewhere.
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.
I’ve put at least 10 pieces of furniture out on the curb in the last 4 months and they’ve all been taken. It makes me glad that someone can use it.
Lmao, not at all. Check it for bugs, but trash is fair game. I live in a college town and there is good furniture out every semester if you like the look of it.
It’s technically illegal, but if cops aren’t pursuing stolen cars, they damn sure won’t care about trash bring stolen.
And, based on your edit, I’m not the only person who agrees.
I did it this morning
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.
We have this still where I live. Was just this weekend gone in my neighbourhood.
Last week it was the rich neighbourhood and the council was there stopping people from taking anything saying that it all belongs to the council.
Dann rich fuckers get extra protection for their rubbish mean while our houses get broken into and cars stolen constantly
There’s a well established tradition of hand-me-down furniture being put out in alleys in East Vancouver. When you move and have no furniture, you can just tour the alleys and come away with a coffee table and a sofa or a couple of chairs. Did it a few times. You gotta know how to check for bed bugs though.
I got a decent table saw this way. I don’t mind picking up something that someone else doesn’t want and I might one day use.
If I have a bulky item to discard, I call 311 or use the My311 app to arrange city pickup, and put it by the curb the day before. It’s my hope that none will still be there by the time the truck arrives. Because that means it’s being used by someone, which is better for everyone. If it’s a neighbor, that’s cool too.
