Council Collection

Do you have these in your neighbourhood? Where you put out large items that you don't want anymore and want to through out? The council sends a letter to let you know when their next collection is and a few days before the whole neighbourhood has their 'junk' out on the kerb?

Well I was driving home from the Brisbane Organic Growers Fair on Sunday and I kept driving past piles and piles of stuff' on the kerb that people were just throwing out. Perfectly good stuff, but stuff they obviously didn't want. Hadn't these people heard of Freecycle?

Well who could pass up such a good opportunity as this?! As soon as I told Lyndon we were in the car driving around the neighbourhood, slowing past every pile of 'stuff' to see if there were any goodies! We scrounged at a frantic pace and before we knew it we had collected and brought home 4 car-loads of those goodies! (I only have a tiny Holden Barina so it may sound more than it actually is!)

Now I don't know what you're view on this might be, but I don't have that big a problem with it. My biggest worry is "oh god what do those peple think of me?" talking about the people on their verandahs watching us rifle through their junk.

So what did we end up with:

• 4 perfect camping chairs (we only need two but will give the other 2 to my sister and her husband for Xmas)
• 3 bikes that Lyndon has been able to get working (he's a bike collector, these bring his total to 10)
• a push mower in perfect condition
• a full length mirror that I will put in my sewing room
• 2 worn 1950's style chairs (to go with our 50's style house when we fix 'em up giving me some sewing practise!)
• a rug that we will use under the house
• some beautiful retro material off an old mattress (I will find material anywhere to practise my sewing on!)
• stereo system for under the house
• a working breadmaker (my find of the day!)
• and lots of other stuff I can't even remember now

It's funny, when we were on our scavenge we discovered there is a whole community of people that do the same thing, there's even professionals!

I know it may seem a little scabby to be digging through someone else's junk but just think about it. Every item we collected is now 1 less thing going to landfill and it is 1 less thing that I am going to spend money on saving me money.

I'm pretty happy with that.