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archershipsI had a bunch of mostly useless (to me) stuff, so I made a trip to the American Way Thrift Store on Capital Boulevard. As I was unloading behind the store, I noticed that they had a giant "trash compactor" style dumpster. I looked inside, and it was stuffed to the gills with stuff. I couldn't tell what much of it was, as it was dark, and the crushing panel obscured most of it, but I could see a number of books in good condition.
It doesn't bother me that they throw a lot of stuff away--after all, they have a limited amount of space, and they have to prioritize what goes on the shelf. But it makes me angry that they use a crushing dumpster. Such dumpsters prevent anyone from dumpster diving and perhaps rescuing some perfectly good stuff that's just going to go to a landfill somewhere. (If you dumpster dive for any length of time, you realize how incredibly wasteful people are. If you're patient and willing to dumpster dive, you need never buy clothes, blankets, kitchen implements (toasters, silverware, cups, bowls), furniture (beds, couches, chairs, bookcases), baby stuff (stroller, car seats, cribs), and most anything else you can imagine (dog crates, air conditioners, vacuums). I think a lot of people give to thrift stores because they expect that someone else will find use for it--I doubt they expect that most of it will end up in a trash compactor.
If you want to see your old stuff put to good use (and a lower probability that it will end up in a dumpster), freecycling is probably a better bet.
---
After the thrift store, I wandered over the nearby pawn shop. A typical pawn shop -- lot's of tools, musical instruments, guns, electronics. The manager was yelling a young black woman and some other guy; they appeared to be his clerks.
"If you already know the answer to the question, don't ask me. It wastes my time." He then proceeded to mock them by pantomiming them. Jerk. And the prices were terrible. $549 for a 24 Volt Makita cordless drill? Granted, it came with two batteries, but I doubt the new price was that high.
---
The Flea Market Mall was nearby, so I wandered about the stalls. I bought a very nice office chair for $5.00. As I was wandering, I overheard a guy telling one of the merchants "...you've got to come over. There's tons of stuff, beanie babies, records, etc. Her house was packed. It's just down the street."
So I asked the guy for directions, and I went to the house.
Good god.
You know those stories about people who pack their house so full of crap that they move through it by creating tunnels through the trash? Like the Collyer brothers, the "hermit hoarders of Harlem".
This was one of those houses.
A huge pile of black trash bags, 20 ft x 20 ft. covered a third of the lawn. And a team of Mexican laborers was still bringing stuff out of the house.
Jumbled over the rest of the lawn was the world's largest yard sale. A Craftsman leaf blower. Boxes of bright yellow yarn. Several crock pots. Bookshelves filled of books, many of them science-fiction/fantasy. Phillip K. Dick. Ray Bradbury. A whole bookshelf of vegetarian cookbooks.
I went into the house.
"Anything in there, except the stuff in the front room is for sale."
Immediately, the stench of mold hit me in the face.
The woman who had lived there, hadn't been there for several years. And no maintenance had been done. So the roof had partially rotted away. The kitchen, and one of the bedrooms was badly water damaged. Huge black splotches of mold grew across the floor of the living room and kitchen.
I went down the hallway. The laborers were busy bagging up trash and junk in one of the bedrooms It contained a queen-sized bed, and several dressers that appeared to be antiques.
Across the hallway was another bedroom. They had not yet begun to clean it out. I peeked in. Trash and knickknacks filled the room (about 10 x 13) three quarters of the way to the ceiling. Toward the end, she must've just been throwing things into the room.
"Who lived here? How did they collect so much stuff?"
"Some lady did. I bought the house from her."
"Did she die?"
"No, she's still pretty young--born in 1951. She's living up near Greensboro now, I think."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't really know. Based on some of the stuff we found though, I suspect that she 'experimented' a lot during the seventies."
This guy, M.D., bought the house for $75 K in cash. "Most people never see a wad of cash that big." He held his fingers three inches apart. He said that he had been in the landscaping business, but that it fluctuated too much. "I also got ripped off. Did a job, didn't get paid. I was out $50 K. So I sold my tools, took a year off, and studied real estate." Now he buys dilapidated houses, fixes them up, and sells them. "I expect that it will take a crew of 3-4 guys working fulltime for about a month to get this place into shape. Then I can flip it for about $135 K." He subcontracts out the plumbing, HVAC, electrical work, and other specialized work.
Despite the volume of stuff, not much of it appealed to me. Only the books, and the bookshelves. I bought four of the bookshelves and all of the vegetarian cookbooks for $50.00 Score. Oh, and the beanie baby story was a lie. There were beanie babies, but they weren't selling them there -- they're going on Ebay.
It doesn't bother me that they throw a lot of stuff away--after all, they have a limited amount of space, and they have to prioritize what goes on the shelf. But it makes me angry that they use a crushing dumpster. Such dumpsters prevent anyone from dumpster diving and perhaps rescuing some perfectly good stuff that's just going to go to a landfill somewhere. (If you dumpster dive for any length of time, you realize how incredibly wasteful people are. If you're patient and willing to dumpster dive, you need never buy clothes, blankets, kitchen implements (toasters, silverware, cups, bowls), furniture (beds, couches, chairs, bookcases), baby stuff (stroller, car seats, cribs), and most anything else you can imagine (dog crates, air conditioners, vacuums). I think a lot of people give to thrift stores because they expect that someone else will find use for it--I doubt they expect that most of it will end up in a trash compactor.
If you want to see your old stuff put to good use (and a lower probability that it will end up in a dumpster), freecycling is probably a better bet.
---
After the thrift store, I wandered over the nearby pawn shop. A typical pawn shop -- lot's of tools, musical instruments, guns, electronics. The manager was yelling a young black woman and some other guy; they appeared to be his clerks.
"If you already know the answer to the question, don't ask me. It wastes my time." He then proceeded to mock them by pantomiming them. Jerk. And the prices were terrible. $549 for a 24 Volt Makita cordless drill? Granted, it came with two batteries, but I doubt the new price was that high.
---
The Flea Market Mall was nearby, so I wandered about the stalls. I bought a very nice office chair for $5.00. As I was wandering, I overheard a guy telling one of the merchants "...you've got to come over. There's tons of stuff, beanie babies, records, etc. Her house was packed. It's just down the street."
So I asked the guy for directions, and I went to the house.
Good god.
You know those stories about people who pack their house so full of crap that they move through it by creating tunnels through the trash? Like the Collyer brothers, the "hermit hoarders of Harlem".
This was one of those houses.
A huge pile of black trash bags, 20 ft x 20 ft. covered a third of the lawn. And a team of Mexican laborers was still bringing stuff out of the house.
Jumbled over the rest of the lawn was the world's largest yard sale. A Craftsman leaf blower. Boxes of bright yellow yarn. Several crock pots. Bookshelves filled of books, many of them science-fiction/fantasy. Phillip K. Dick. Ray Bradbury. A whole bookshelf of vegetarian cookbooks.
I went into the house.
"Anything in there, except the stuff in the front room is for sale."
Immediately, the stench of mold hit me in the face.
The woman who had lived there, hadn't been there for several years. And no maintenance had been done. So the roof had partially rotted away. The kitchen, and one of the bedrooms was badly water damaged. Huge black splotches of mold grew across the floor of the living room and kitchen.
I went down the hallway. The laborers were busy bagging up trash and junk in one of the bedrooms It contained a queen-sized bed, and several dressers that appeared to be antiques.
Across the hallway was another bedroom. They had not yet begun to clean it out. I peeked in. Trash and knickknacks filled the room (about 10 x 13) three quarters of the way to the ceiling. Toward the end, she must've just been throwing things into the room.
"Who lived here? How did they collect so much stuff?"
"Some lady did. I bought the house from her."
"Did she die?"
"No, she's still pretty young--born in 1951. She's living up near Greensboro now, I think."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't really know. Based on some of the stuff we found though, I suspect that she 'experimented' a lot during the seventies."
This guy, M.D., bought the house for $75 K in cash. "Most people never see a wad of cash that big." He held his fingers three inches apart. He said that he had been in the landscaping business, but that it fluctuated too much. "I also got ripped off. Did a job, didn't get paid. I was out $50 K. So I sold my tools, took a year off, and studied real estate." Now he buys dilapidated houses, fixes them up, and sells them. "I expect that it will take a crew of 3-4 guys working fulltime for about a month to get this place into shape. Then I can flip it for about $135 K." He subcontracts out the plumbing, HVAC, electrical work, and other specialized work.
Despite the volume of stuff, not much of it appealed to me. Only the books, and the bookshelves. I bought four of the bookshelves and all of the vegetarian cookbooks for $50.00 Score. Oh, and the beanie baby story was a lie. There were beanie babies, but they weren't selling them there -- they're going on Ebay.
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Date: 2004-06-06 07:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-04 06:12 am (UTC)Wanna chat sometime?
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Date: 2004-07-04 03:12 pm (UTC)