July 2013 – Page 5 – Things I find in the garbage

Moving day has come and gone. My room-mate and I look a long bike ride passing through many different neighbourhoods including the Plateau, the McGill Ghetto, Centre-Sud, Hochelaga and Rosemont. There was tonnes of stuff out on the streets but we didn’t really find much to take. Regardless, it was a fun ride and I got to see a lot of the city.

July 1st is certainly an interesting day but not one that I, as a sort of garbage archaeologist, thrive on. I think it has a lot of appeal to the casual picker, the one who wants to furnish their house or find some cool knick-knacks, some clothes to wear, books to read, records to listen to, and so on. It also has a lot of appeal to professional pickers as well; there’s lots of scrap metal to be salvaged, vintage furniture to be fixed up (like the above), and so on. I’m sure there are treasures to be found too, but I think those tend to come pretty randomly. July 1st, from what I can see, is a moving day mostly for younger, lower to middle class people who haven’t committed to a fixed address.

My concept of July 1 might be representative of the places I went. It’s hard to tell what I might have found in NDG, for example, or if as many people would have been moving. It’s definitely far, but my impromptu tour across Montreal ended up being pretty long as well. It was definitely a learning process for me being my first July 1st trash pick. Maybe next year I’ll go out of my way to explore richer neighbourhoods, but I might just stick to the places closest to home.

I think after the “summer of trash” concludes I’ll try to learn a bit about fixing electronics. It’d be a useful skill that goes along well with garbage picking. For instance, I have a big flatscreen monitor in my room that sells for around 40$ not working on Ebay. However, in working condition it sells for close to 200$. Definitely some money to be made there.

I went out this morning to Villeray but didn’t find too much. Now that people have moved into their new homes I see a lot of empty boxes out on the curb, which is sort of annoying when you generally keep your eyes open for big piles of stuff.

The only thing I brought home was this fishing rod (by Shakespeare, the company not William). It seems to be in fine shape but I don’t know jack about fishing. When my room-mate comes home I’ll ask him what he thinks of it, he has a lot more fishing experience than I do.

I dusted off the hanging lamp from yesterday and found a patent date – 1929. I knew it was vintage but didn’t really think of it as being that old! It was made by a S.R.L. Co. out of New York but I couldn’t find any reference to them on Google.

I’m going to do my usual Plateau run later this afternoon but I’m looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow!

Moving day (known as Canada Day in the rest of the country) is here! For all you non-Montrealers, a disproportionate amount of people move for July in Quebec because of a law passed years ago that made most leases expire on July 1st. All that moving means that there’s a lot of trash out on the streets, even in areas not scheduled for garbage collection.

It’s actually my first year looking around for treasures on moving day. Last year I was in Alberta, before that I was working as a mover, and before that I was moving myself.

Much of the trash is composed of household items, clothes, and furniture. That being said, I’m not super interested in these things. I’m more interested in the archaeological element of garbage at this point, and there’s not really that much more in the way of old things to be found on moving day.

The prevalence of trash and the well-reported nature of the day (there’s even an article about it in the Wall Street Journal) means increased competition as well. I saw a lot of other pickers out on my morning run, including one old couple walking together with a little cart. Today is perfect for the “amateur” to make a few good finds.

In short, while moving day is fun I’m keeping my expectations tempered.

I think I’ve captured in a few images the average moving day “pile.” Above is the “we took mostly everything.” It often includes kitchen appliances and dishes, whatever half-open food was in the fridge or pantry (and occasionally unopened tins), and kitchen / bathroom waste (including half-finished shampoo). I usually make a point to take or set out cans of food but otherwise this pile isn’t very exciting.

This is “what won’t fit in the truck.” Alternately it’s just stuff that wasn’t worth moving. Here there were some tires, a big old TV (which someone seems to have gutted for copper), some scrap wood and an orange armchair. The armchair wasn’t in perfect shape but I still thought it was nice.

Finally, this is the “we’re leaving town / buying new stuff.” These people kept the stuff they really wanted and threw out the rest. That this is also what a bedbug pile can look like. I think this stuff (on St Zotique near Papineau) was clean, however, as the mattresses showed no signs of infestation. Regardless, I was far enough from home that I had no interest in anything here.

I explored a Rosemont and a bit of Outremont this morning. I came across this stuff in the alley between Hutchison and Durocher.

Inside one of the bags I found this ornate, antique-y looking hanging light. It definitely needs to be re-wired but it’s in pretty nice shape otherwise.

In the same bag was this candelabra marked as being silver plate (by Lanthe of England). I found one on Ebay that sold for about 50$. Not bad!

I also took an evening walk with my room-mate yesterday and found a few cool things. This is a tray from Portugal which I reckon was made in the 70s.

I carried this big ol’ lamp all the way home from St Urbain and Fairmount. I bet it’s from the 70s as well and should make me some money at a yard sale.

Last but not least, a cute handmade pot-pourri holder. The writing on the bottom indicates that it was born in 1966.

I’m going out for my usual Plateau run a bit later. I’ll let you know if I come across any special “moving day” finds.

Month: July 2013

The day after

Moving day!