Folk are soooo wasteful

Sarahsaver

Once when I went to glastonbury, people were leaving their whole tent behind. I also stayed on an extra 3 days living entirely off food I found. THanks to the food stalls and the yuppie happy campers who left whole carrier bags of unopened stuff...
Came home with a pair of converse all stars boots, a new sleeping bag, a new camping mat and two ENORMOUS cabbages, one red one white:)

At T in the park with sis we found beer, wine, VERY posh expensive candles, a whole inflatable suite of furniture! A posh sleeping bag, but COuldn't manage the buggy someone abandoned.

If people were to visualise money, say that leaving the buggy would mean them throwing away £100, they may not do it. But most people don't think like that.

Queen.Bess

My sister in law and her husband were very wasteful and when having a clear out a couple of years ago were throwing away clothes, ornaments and basically anything that wasn't tied down that they didn't want anymore! Theire excuse was that they wouldn't be able to get to the charity shop and they were too busy to ebay it all!

They're a bit better now as they're hugely in debt and are in an IVA at the moment, but there are times when they would rather buy clothes and DVDs than food!!

I try not to throw much out at all, unless it's broken. We're lucky in having charity bags come round quite often and so some more stuff will go out this Thursday!

tra_2

I've moved seven times and I always clear the house totally. I think it is a bit rude to leave a mess for the new owners. I used to give unwanted items to the charity shop but now i ebay everything since I gave up work.

lynsayjane

when i moved into this house the white goods were a total mess, the place had been empty a year and before that let to students. i went into a charity shop (for the homeless iirc) and was given the number of a charity (instant neighbour) dunno if it's local or national, anyway they got the cooker and fridge. they have folk who repair them then they are put into housing/shelters. they couldnt take the washer tho so that went to the council tip.

my old three seater sofa was carried down the road (amid much hysterics) to a friends flat where it stayed for a couple months before being picked up by my stepdad for my lil sis' new flat. where it went after that is a mystery, tho my stepdad teased my sis by saying it was in the tay (big river!)..i seriously hope it was teasing anyway!

tootles_2

We often clean flats for my stepson after tenants have moved out, the stuff they leave behind is truely staggering......when we moved into this house we found two lovely mirrors, both of which are now hung.....a canvas drawer storage unit which minus the drawers is in the garage....a garage full of stuff, two stroller pushchairs, childrens toys etc.... we recycled the toys through charity shops. we got a skip and emptied the garage into it, its was amazing what disappeared out of that skip, we put the old cooker in the garage, came back one day to find it has disappeared....oh well it saved us getting rid of it, a broken TV was put out for the local council to collect, it went too.........my OH is a skip hunter, he will happily root through a skip and remove stuff that can be used at the allotment etc..... I sometimes have to remind him that he will never use all of it up in his lifetime.....as you say its amazing what people will throw out because they are too lazy to do anything else.............

MORPH3US

It makes me sad every time I go to the tip to see all of the stuff people throw away :mad:

Like the container for all the old tv's and fridges etc. Ok so I don't know whats wrong with any of them, but I am sure that most of them shouldn't be in there and could easily be repaired.

Then there is all the old furniture, tools etc that is just dumped because people got new stuff.

Luckily the local council seem to be very good at recycling most stuff but thats not the point, everyone knows its REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, throw in the tip

I just don't think people realise that THAT is the order they should be processed in!

M

kittiwoz

We've got a fully working Technics mini system left by previous tenants. I guess they must have been an international student. I can understand why people leave things when they move because they are going somewhere they won't have the storage space or they have difficuty moving everything.
I don't think it's necessarily wasteful to leave things though. It's better that throwing them away. since whether they go to waste depends what the next occupant does with them doesn't it? If they just skip them then they're wasted but they might keep them or sell them or give them away. I have three dining chairs given me by my parents which they acquired from the previous owner of their house when they moved in in 1975. They are probably 20s and lasting quite well. I may well leave them for the other tenants here when I move out.

GardenMillie

I think we're terribly wasteful now. When I was a young girl (not that many years ago) everything was re-cycled, old jumpers and cardigans were ripped out and the wool re-used to knit new jumpers, buttons and zips were taken off old clothes to re-use. There weren't as many charity shops but there were loads of jumble sales and sales of work where you could buy good second hand stuff. Also families and friends were always handing down clothes or shoes to others - it was a real treat to get something brand new! Probably sounds old fashioned but more people lived within their means.:T

Smashing

This is actually quite painful to read

I suggested freecycle to someone not so long ago, who was having her kitchen and bathroom refitted.
She just shrugged abd saud "It's on its way to a landfill somewhere - I am paying these people, the least they can do is get rid of the old stuff.' :rolleyes:

......12 miles later I finally caught up with the removal lorry

recovering_spendaholic

GardenMillie wrote:

I think we're terribly wasteful now. When I was a young girl (not that many years ago) everything was re-cycled, old jumpers and cardigans were ripped out and the wool re-used to knit new jumpers, buttons and zips were taken off old clothes to re-use. There weren't as many charity shops but there were loads of jumble sales and sales of work where you could buy good second hand stuff. Also families and friends were always handing down clothes or shoes to others - it was a real treat to get something brand new! Probably sounds old fashioned but more people lived within their means.:T

I agree with you totally - my Mum reused or recycled everything! She often used to unpick jumpers and reknit them in a bigger size using a bit of extra wool to make stripes or patterns. I grew up (in the 70's) wearing home made and hand knitted clothes and they were always lovely. I tell my DD's how my school blazer always doubled as my coat and was worn everywhere. Imagine if you told todays youngsters to wear their school blazer to go out in!!! We weren't that poor either - we just lived within our means. We had a new kitchen when I was about 18 and it was a real event - we were soooo excited about it! When Mum died and I cleared out her house I found nearly all my clothes from when I was little hanging in the back of a wardrobe - I could remember every item and some of the events I had worn them to. My DD's have that many clothes they don't even know what they have now amd certainly won't remember them in years to come! I also found my books from when I was little which I have passed on to DD2 - she now loves Malcolm Saville, Noel Streatfield, Nancy Drew, Mallory Towers and the Five Find Outers! I try not to be wasteful and always make sure that anything I throw out goes to a good home and not to a skip or the tip.