The local
inorganic collection took place a few weekends ago. This is a highlight of the year for some - those who like to have a good clear out and those who like to hunt out treasures in other people's trash.
Every so often, the residents in a particular neighbourhood will be invited by the council to clear out their garages and lofts and undercrofts and put all their unwanted goods on the pavement outside their houses. The arrangement is that the official waste management contractors will gather up all the inorganic waste over the course of the following week.
In the meantime, there's a free-for-all amongst both
rag and bone men and those locals with an eye for reuseable and recyclable cast-offs. These days rag and bone men travel not by horse and cart but by rusty truck and they mainly hunt out old fridges and cookers. It's not unusual to see five of them in one short street. I haven't seen them come to blows yet but I'm sure it happens.
Luckily, the things that caught my eye were not the same things that the scrap merchants were after. But I did pick up some very useful items - a picnic table that will make an excellent potting bench, some interesting blue shelves which will store all those things that might come in handy one day in the shed, a great kitchen unit with six orange cupboards for the same purpose, a pair of smart suitcases - another storage option, and a lovely glass sweet jar which I'll put on our new change table and stuff with cotton wool.
There's no really valuable treasures there that I could re-sell or display with pride on our sideboard (not yet purchased - maybe next time I'll happen across one). But I'm only an amateur skip-surfer and garage-sale-goer at the moment. So for some more inspiration, you could check out some other thrifters-turned-bloggers displaying their magpie finds -
Me and My Shadow,
Happy Homebird,
A Thrifty Mrs and
The White Approach.
