I've got a mattress and box spring I can't get rid of cause the Home Depot mobile isn't working so I can't haul them off.

I have an ugly 72 Ford pickup I've given away at least 4 times, in the past nine months. It's still in the driveway, no one ever comes back to get it. I guess I could drive it down the street and abandon it. Hey, I could abandon it with the mattress in it.

Have you tried Freecycle? They have had a lot of posts around here for people taking water heaters etc. for scrap metal. www.freecycle.com

I like your idea of dumping the pickup truck. Too bad they'd probably be able to find out where it came from.

Good site, Lis. Maybe I'll have to see if I can't get rid of some of my friends' junk that way...

Selling scrap is a big business around here. If you put anything metal out on the curb, itÂs usually gone within 24 hours. I think I heard aluminum is going for $.75 lb. now. As far as all the other junk goes, our city will cart away almost anything you put out there for free  furniture, appliances even dead squirrels. Well, you canÂt put the dead squirrels out on the curb. You have to call them ahead of time and then they come and pick it up  usually the same day.

It's my DH's hobby, hunting down and finding random crap from others and bringing it home to his shop.
Someone, the other day, convinced him he needed these FOUR gigantic speakers, from the 70's, big as end tables..
I just had to walk away from the new random crap.

Anyone have anything that's driving them crazy that they can't get rid of?

My old man....?

I forget where I heard it, wether it was in an email or from someone I know, but they were trying to get rid of an old fridge and put it out on the curb with a free sign on it. No one took it with in a week so they put a sign on it for $50 and it stolen that night.

I like the idea, enzenewby.

Must be a man thing, CJ. They collect massive amounts of crap and turn into three-year olds when you try and get rid of it.

My packratting is completely irrelevant, though. ;)

Hey CJ we can sit them on the curb with a pay you to take em sign ? :) G

No, no one will take him even for money, Gin. Need to approach it slightly differently; like hang a sign around his neck saying something like "For Sale $100"

That way, somebody might think he's worth something and steal him and I won't have to pay them anything. It works on the same principle as when, back around 1970, we had a garbage strike in NYC during December. People were gift-wrapping their garbage and leaving it in the backseat of an unlocked car. The boxes were stolen almost as soon as the car was parked. Gift-wrap will sucker them all the time! So will a $100 price tag, I hope.

(the garbage story is true)

Okay, one word:

Craigslist.

I just traded the ugly pickup for repair work on the Home Depot mobile that needs a new fuel pump, which happens to be in the gas tank so no one wants to fix it just to be nice. Regardless of how practiced I am at batting my eyelashes.

I also just got rid of several hundred pounds of scrap metal (Judy your DH has nothing on my ex) which included lots of aluminum, stainless and some copper so these guys have beer money for at least a week (based on the beer bellies, they go through a lot). They actually have to make a second trip to get the rest of it. Naturally bubba hit on me, like that's gonna happen.

And bubba might buy some expensive tool storage boxes I've been trying to sell for 9 months (must have been a lot of aluminum lying around here).

And I sold a saddle, for what it was worth.

Not a bad days work, all before noon.

Congratulations!

I just LOVE getting rid of stuff. Seriously. It's so freeing! There must be a word for that kind of person.

I tried listing some mini-blinds on one of those local, free ad boards. Twenty bucks for three aluminum blinds that were probably over a hundred bucks each new. Some lady calls and asks a bunch of questions and kind of sounds interested. Then she asks if installation is included. Whaaaa? I said of course not. She said she'd call back. I yanked the ad. Maybe I'll try C'slist.

My brother in law's old trailer. He used to live in it out behind the barn but he moved five years ago. It's been sitting there, looking very 'white trashy' ever since. He just bought a new house and I told him the other night that if he doesn't get it out of here soon, I'm going to have someone haul it over to his new place (at his expense) to decorate his yard. He actually had the audacity to get mad over my remark. He seems to think that because we have ten acres, he's entitled to use it as his personal storage yard. It took me four years of bit@&ing for him to move all of his crap out of my barn - and then he complained because the barn cats annointed his stuff with their perfume. I had to remind him that HIS stuff was in THEIR barn and they felt the need to claim it as their own.

Anyone interested in a great old treadle sewing machine in a cat pee soaked oak cabinet? I'm sure he'll let it go for cheap.................

I love getting rid of stuff too. I kind of do that to a fault though. It never fails, about a week after I toss something or give it away, I need it. Still doesn't stop me.

My sister is just the opposite. She keeps everything and has one room in her house packed floor to ceiling with stuff. She doesn't even know what's in there anymore. She complains about it, but won't even attempt to sort it all out. I would love to tackle that job. Give me a dumpster and about 2 days and she would have an empty room again. I've offered, but she keeps says "What if I need those things some day?"

K

The answer to "What if I need those things some day?" is "Go out and get new ones." At least that's what I told myself. It made a big difference!

There is an item of random crap sitting on the kitchen floor. How do i know? I stood on it at 3 this morning.
What is it? It is some sort of paper that had been soaked in coffee and left there to dry. Why. Heaven knows!!!
Then there is the garage. A total disaster. What's in there, apart from roaches.
Bits of timber that might come in handy one day. I plead guilty.
My daughter in laws stuff that she saved up prior to getting married. Boxes and boxes of it.
The stuff that was in the house prior to the carpet getting replaced.
Useful stuff like the ladder, the lawnmover and my golf clubs they are in the last empty spot near the door. No way that the car will fit in so it sits out in the weather going to rack and ruin.

There are several morals to this story and the stories above. Never let relos store anything on your premises. Be very wary of someone saying that they want to take up art. Apart from possibility being mad. all artists accumulate all sorts of strange crap.

The problem is she has "those things" in duplicate many times over. There is so much crap stuck in that room in bags she doesn't know what she has. Sometimes she remembers buying something and sticking it in the room, but she can't find it. She goes out and buys it again.

Those duplicates are the kikcer. I was in my dad's shop when he was overseas for something, pulled out a drawer where I thought it might be, and found over 200 random casters from old office chairs, whatever, in there!

I've been helping my friend with organizing his files and that sort of thing, and I've found he has an emotional attachment to copies of cancelled checks and receipts. One need not keep a gas receipt when your credit card statement says 'CONOCO-GAS ONLY' on it. Yargh.