eBay
March – 29 sales for 3433$; April – 15 sales for 1127$.
Total – 4560$ – 10% (estimated fees) = 4104$. This was a pretty good stretch for eBay!
Cross solid 18k fountain pen: 1500$. My totals were obviously buoyed by the sale of this solid gold pen, which you might remember as my best find of 2018.
Vintage Oliver People’s Aero sunglasses: 200$. The most valuable piece from my quality eyewear haul back in January.
Tom Ford sunglasses: 100$. These ones were fairly valuable as well!
Moscow 1980 Olympics bid book: 200$. This finally sold, only took around a year in a half. I started with a high price because I wasn’t able to find any comparables online, and lowered it until it finally flew the coop. I like it when things sell quickly, but it’s also satisfying to know that you got the most out of your item.
Wooden Soviet figurines: 100$. I found a bunch of Soviet dolls at one spot in Outremont, all of which ended selling for decent cash.
iPhone 6S: 100$. Most iPhones I find these days are iCloud locked, but this one wasn’t. In spite of my efforts I couldn’t figure out what provider it was on though, so I sold it “as is.”
Vintage bubbly glass doorknobs: 100$. Still haven’t seen any others like this!
Sanborns Mexican sterling silver salad servers: 125$. Part of last spring’s awesome silverware haul.
Pioneer CD player: 300$. Most CD players aren’t worth much these days, but this one was high end in the late 80s and held its value pretty well. I figured it might be worth something because it was unusually heavy and looked older than most other CD players. Also, Pioneer is a pretty solid brand all around. Found in TMR.
Gameboy Micro: 150$. I didn’t know these existed before I found this one not far from Dawson College. Either way, they sell for a pretty good price!
Lot of clarinet reeds: 80$. Found at a quality spot on St Urbain. I think most were used, but still had some life left in them. The buyer was happy, so I guess it was a solid deal.
Deep Trance Medium cassettes: 60$. I played one of these briefly and it was interesting to say the least. Found out front of a house being renovated near Square St Louis.
Vintage Zenith sign: 60$. The last of those cool store display signs I found a while back.
Local auction
1958.25$ (after fees) from 96 different lots.
Mokita espresso machine: 160$. The better of two espresso machines I found in Outremont this winter. This is something I probably should have sold on Kijiji, but oh well. There’s always more garbage!
Games lot: 38$. These are the ones I found with the iPods in Outremont a few months back.
Kindle + Kobo: 110$. This was one of my first lots that sold for above market value (I think). Based on my research I figured these were worth around 30-40$ a piece, with shipping cutting into those potential profits. I’m not sure why the bidding went so high, except that maybe they were going by the price of newer models and not the older ones. Regardless, it’s good to know that I will sometimes get better prices at the auction house than I could even on eBay, and it’s a reminder that bidding and buying isn’t always rational (which is something I’ve mostly assumed since the beginning).
Professional 9-speed Kitchenaid mixer: 44$. Looked barely used. Found with the eyewear in Cote St-Luc.
Pinup calendar lot: 42$. I found a huge haul of old calendars in Westmount a while back and these were among them.
Vintage airplane tin toy: 170$. At the time I thought this sold for way above market value, but in retrospect it was probably about right. Found in Westmount.
Unused tapes: 24$. Anytime I find unused cassettes these days I stash them in my garage until I have enough to make a decent sized auction lot. They actually do fairly well there, I used to sell them on eBay but this is a lot less work.
Mostly PS2 controller lot: 75$. I use the cassette strategy for other classes of items as well, like gaming controllers.
Kitschy painting: 150$. I wouldn’t want this anywhere near my wall but apparently at least two other people did! It came with a matching painting that sold for just 40$, and also a pair of clown paintings that also sold for 40$. These were all things that I probably would have sold at a yard sale for 5-10$ previously, so this is a great example of how the auction house is helping me earn more money than in previous years.
Danish teak table: 85$. This piece needed some work, but I’m sure whoever bought it is happy to do it.
1st Gen iPad, A1219 64GB: 180$. Here’s another thing that looks to have sold for above market value. You can buy these for 40$ on eBay, 100$ if you’re feeling really flush. I have no idea why the bidding went so high but I’m not going to complain. This was found with the Gameboy near Dawson College.
First ever scrap metal run: 111.45$.
Total: 6173.70$, 13070.20$ so far in 2019. I’m wondering if I’ve turned a corner in terms of income. This is my best ever stretch to start a year, and it feels pretty sustainable even though I won’t be regularly selling 1500$ pens. If this keeps up maybe I can actually starting paying off my student loans and other debts I accumulated as a dumb 20-something.
Links
1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings, Sign up for eBay, Search for something you want / research something you have (I’m a member of the eBay Partner Network so I make a bit of money if you buy things [even if they’re not mine] or sign up for an account via these links)
3. Help me pay off student loan debt / Contribute to the blog
4. Follow me on Instagram
Congrats on the great start to the year! May the trend continue and grow. Keep some nice things for those yard sales though! 😉
Good work and nice pictures!
Wow impressive first quarter. Last year at an estate sale which was reopened with leftover items and a make me an offer premise, I bought a box of my picks for $5.00 I gave my cousin who works in watch repair two watches I found in the cellar. One sold for parts on ebay for $350. I also bought an Asian bowl with a mahogany stand. . Revere auction house’s asian expert looked at my texted photos and said it is 150 years old and worth $800! The thrill is addictive
Thanks. Sounds like a good haul! I go to estate sales too, I’ve got a few good deals but nothing quite that good. I mostly like looking at people’s interior decoration skills, or lack thereof. It’s an interesting window into a life lives (garbage also provides this, of course).
I’m struck by your comment that bidding and buying isn’t always rational – I hadn’t thought about it exactly that way before but I did observe it at the only two auctions I’ve attended. I’m glad you’re doing well and hope it continues! As the song goes, you work hard for the money 🙂
I never really thought of it that way either. I’m still a believer in the “Buy it now” / set price listings on eBay, but the irrationality does make auctions more tempting for some things. I’m glad it exists, as it’s easier to justify bringing things to auction if there’s a small chance it’ll sell for than it’s “true” value…
I don’t understand who would buy used clarinet reeds; it’s personal like a toothbrush!
Francis, you assume that items will be used for their original purpose. I am a mixed media artist and can think of at least ten “non clarinet” uses for these gems.
Thoroughly enjoy every one of your reports!
We found a Cirrus Bodyfloat bicycle seat post yesterday in a pile of items someone had just dropped off at the electronics recycling place. It sold today for $189.99 USD =)
Always love hearing about your progress. Debt be gone! Seems like you are more savvy, which is why you are earning more. Auction house, scrap metal, etc. You are actually making a career out of keeping stuff out of the landfill.
People throw this stuff away?
Donna
>
As always I am amazed by what human beings have thrown out — and inspired that you have managed to salvage and re-sell so many different kinds of “trash.” I recently saw a video which made a very compelling case for how crucial it is to reduce our overall consumption (of stuff, fossil fuels, energy-intensive foods like meat, etc.) and RE-USE things rather than rely upon our at-least-temporarily-stalled recycling systems. You are a terrific reminder that we can live in a very different way here on planet earth. Thank you for all you do!!!
In daring to march to a different drummer, you’ve developed a “calling” that suits you perfectly. Colour me happy for you!
An impressive first quarter!
Always a fun read, and your readers add a lot too in their comments.
wonderful finds!
I have a question or 2, what advice would you give the younger you to avoid making “dumb mistakes”?
how would it be possible to avoid racking up student loans?
my kids are going to graduate high school in the next couple of years and the prospect of paying for 8 years of college is daunting to say the least
Good question. I went from high school to CEGEP (in Quebec, it’s like a community college that’s also an intro to many university programs) to university without really thinking about what I was going to do with my degree. I ended up switching in the middle of my program (Political Science, I like politics but the science was pretty boring) and have a fair bit more debt as a result. In retrospect, maybe I’d take a bit of time (working, perhaps traveling a bit though I’m weary of placing too much value in it) before rushing into university. But, to each their own, I also think lots of kids do well by going straight to university.
Also, I realize now that I was limited by social anxiety for much of my life including my university years, and that I probably would have been well served by consulting a therapist earlier in life. I think of it as a lifelong investment, and would recommend looking into issues sooner rather than later.
Other than that, it’s mostly silly stuff. For example, I had to learn the hard way that the government will track you down if you don’t pay your parking tickets (my Grandma bailed me out of that one). It’s inevitable though that people will make some mistakes.
thank you, somehow I replied to the next commenter below, felicitations!
Tess…. just an observation…. a friend who is a plumber earns a fantastic living (impressive home, vacations abroad, a large pontoon boat, etc.) and no student debt. The daughter of a good friend can’t find a job with her Woman’s Studies degree and is so deep in debt that she will live in her parents basement forever. When will we learn?
JustMe, It took us years! to save for our basement to be fixed, and a very short time to spend it paying the contractors who worked on it, so far my kids show no interest in any of those useful trades/professions
Good luck to your friend’s daughter, don’t know what country she lives in, in the US, there is some kind of loan forgiveness if one works in the nonprofit sector for 10 years, narrow requirements I imagine.
Thank you, Martin, for your good advice, social skills can not be underrated,
daunting struggle for those of us who haven’t mastered them, and
yes, the long arm of the law! how dear of your grandmother to intervene!
somewhere along the way you became a compelling storyteller, reading your stories makes me happy
TWA used to belong to howard hughes (check out “the aviator” movie) specifically he flew the model you have 😉
You inspire me to scavenge when I am in different neighborhoods.I took home two Readers Digest magazines of the year 1954 and one Readers Digest from 1963.They make for excellent reading.I found them in a recycling bin
in Westmount.1954 is 65 years ago.
I also rescued an unopened tin box of gourmet cookies and gourmet chocolates from a trash bin in Ville Émard recently on Holy Cross street.Somebody had apparently received them as a gift,but just junked them.I ate them heartily.How can people just throw out new gourmet chocolates in the trash in Ville Émard?
Thank you for inspiring me.Thank you so much.
That’s good to hear. I can only be in one place at a time, so there’s lots still out there for other pickers!
Now that it’s warm out your luck will improve. You will have the best luck near the end of the month, and when houses are sold.
The bubble doorknob you sold for !00 are on ebay (US) for $25 each (2 available) under vintage glass doorknobs. You could email your purchaser and ask if they want two more. Perhaps the seller would ship them direct to your buyer
Fun idea but sounds like too much potential hassle to me, I’m just glad I got a good price for them.
Marie Kondo has gone too far and she is very uninspiring to me.I boycotted her show after 2 episodes.Her book inspires revulsion in me.She has no respect for personal archives,email,knick-knacks,etc and adsvises people to toss out a lot on a whim.Shame on her.She is a monstrous species of vermin or dictator who is bossing many North Americans around.Boycott that bitch and her show.Many articles have been written against her on the web.I hope your readers join the boycott.!I love collecting old stuff in my spacious home–especially vintage knick-knacks that you often find.Long may your blog live!
Marie Kondo stands at less than 5 feet tall.For that midget to have so much influence on many of us is frightening.I live in New York state and we already are devastating the environment by junking too much.Marie Kondo is sending us to hell .I want her show to be canned.Canned.And let me hope she fades into obscurity.She is getting super super rich by destroying our planet.
I don’t know if I’d go that far. Marie Kondo is popular, I think because previous generations were pretty “pro-trinket” and now the current generation is changing things up by being more minimalist.
I think Marie Kondo in some ways is good for the environment if she convinces people that happiness is not found in buying things / consumption. There are so many totally useless gadgets and doohickeys, all of which will inevitably go to the dump because they’re useless and often poorly made (one recent example, my friend got a free promotional reusable coffee cup, but it’s the cheapest cup I’ve ever seen and she already has better cups. What a waste of resources). So I think minimalism can be good for the environment if it means cutting down on useless items that require extracting resources to produce.
On the other hand, the “does it bring you joy” minimalist approach, which does seem to lead to more garbage, isn’t ideal either for a variety of reasons. I’ll leave it to the articles others have posted to explain why.
Eventually I hope we find a middle wrong, where trinket appreciation is respected but we also cut down on the production of useless crap that clutters our lives. I’m not holding my breath though.
Otherwise, I’m not sure her being under 5′ tall has much to do with anything, lol.
Marie Kondo helps declutter homes. What does that mean for plastic waste?
As families “tidy up,” they generate tons of plastic waste. In the long term, though, that balance may flip.
By Alejandra Borunda
AdvertisementThis article was created in partnership with the National Geographic Society.
Rachel Friend and her family were at their wits’ end. She, her husband, and their two young children had all the ingredients for a wonderful life, but as often as not, the days felt chaotic and unsettled. The Friends fought about cleaning, childcare, and chores. So they called in an expert: Marie Kondo, the world-renowned “tidying” coach—who documented their journey for her TV show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which premiered on Netflix this January.
Japan-based Kondo has helped people around the world clear out the excess stuff from their homes and lives. Her 2014 book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, sold over 1.5 million copies. Her TV show immediately sent viewers down binge-watching spirals.
Over the course of several weeks, the Friend family tidied their LA-area home—and by extension, Friend says, much more of their lives.
“It was this truly transformative experience that made us so much more mindful about everything in our lives,” she says.
Kondo’s method of tidying, in which objects are gently cleared out of people’s houses and lives, leaves behind empty swaths of closet and neatly organized spaces. It also can generate piles upon piles of trash.
Some of that detritus gets passed along to friends or family, or finds new homes via donation. But much of it ends up thrown away—out of sight and mind of the tidy-er, but far from gone in the larger planetary sense. Earth, unfortunately, does not have its own trash collector or tidier.
“I have this concern that thinking about where the waste goes isn’t totally a part of the process,” says Kate O’Neill, an expert on environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “The notion that once it’s outside and off your doorstep that it will find its way in the world—that’s wrong.”
But the immediate pulse of waste production, say some tidiers, is offset by the bigger impact of being more careful and aware of what they bring into their lives in the first place.
The tidying process
Kondo’s methods for tidying are comprised of a few simple steps and maxims. First, tidiers must take stock of everything they have. All the clothes, from the summer tees to the winter coats, come out at once. The items get picked up, one by one, and the owner decides: Does this tank top “spark joy?” Does this tie inspire feeling? If not—out it goes, with a gentle thank you for its service.
First come the clothes; then books; then papers like tax forms, leases, and random mail; then “komono,” the miscellaneous detritus that drifts into nearly every household, from kitchenware to personal care items to others; then the sentimental items like photographs and mementos. The order isn’t fixed, but at the end of the process, a tidier will have taken stock of basically everything they own.
The things that spark joy stay. The other things go away.
But where is “away?” And what ends up going there? As it turns out, a lot—much of which is at least partly composed of plastic.
Friend’s family, for example, got rid of at least 13 30-gallon trash bags of stuff throughout the grand tidying experience. About half of those were clothes, shoes, and accessories—often plastic-laced, but not fully plastic—and a few more were filled with primarily plastic toys, containers of expired products,
continued article–
, and odds and ends. Other tidying consultants list plastic hangers, small appliances, broken kitchenware, and much more as contributors to the trash toll.
Some, of course, gets donated and reused. But some of it—especially the broken things or the low-quality things—get tossed.
Waste management companies don’t have fine-grained enough data to track whether the volume of trash might have bumped up after the start of Kondo’s show, but charities and secondhand shops across the world have reported upticks in donations since the TV program began. Some Goodwill donation centers across the U.S., for example, saw bumps in donations in January that they ascribe to the effect of the show: 22 percent higher than the previous year in Houston, 20 percent higher in Roanoke, and 16 percent higher in Grand Rapids. In Australia, some charities reported nearly 40 percent increases over the previous year.
Break free from the buy-toss cycle
Kondo has said previously that she hopes her method helps people examine their own relationship with stuff. Ideally, she says, after going through the process, tidiers will find themselves thinking more carefully about the things they choose to bring into their lives, ultimately decreasing the amount they buy and discard.
That speaks to the underlying issue: Many people in developed countries are accumulating historic, unprecedented amounts of stuff—much of which is disposable, designed for single-use or a short life, and quickly ends up in waste streams. In fact, economists have noted a close correlation between the strength of a country’s economy and the amount of waste it produces.
“The fundamental problem is that we haven’t been able to decouple growth from waste generation, which is a proxy for consumption,” says Stan Krpan, the chief executive officer at Sustainability Victoria, an Australian state-organized environmental organization. “Many would say consumption is a good thing, but we really have to recognize that there’s a cost to that—and that cost falls onto the environment.”
Jenny Albertini, a Marie Kondo- (styled as KonMari-) certified consultant based in Washington, D.C., has watched her clients recognize the ways they were often buying or accumulating more than they needed as they decluttered. “The process helps people sometimes get to the heart of it—why were you buying these things in the first place?” she says. “Were you buying that lotion because you wanted it, or because you wanted something less tangible?”
Jessica Louie, a KonMari-certified consultant in Pasadena, California, often directly incorporates discussions of sustainability in the process as she works with her clients. Instead of buying new storage bins to store their newly organized items, for example, she makes sure to help them use what they already own. And often, the process helps her clients deplasticize their lives.
“We have a plastic pollution problem that’s very obvious,” she says, “so we talk about how to convert over to glass, for example, or about how to change habits so when you go to a grocery store you make sure you’ve taken stock of what you have ahead of time so you’re more aware of what you’re purchasing. It’s really about applying this method of thoughtfulness to any other purchases you make—especially plastics.”
If they’re already in your life and working, she doesn’t encourage people to get rid of them—that would just contribute to the waste issue—but she tries to get her clients to think carefully about bringing new plastic items into their lives.
For Rachel Friend, the process changed many aspects of her relationship to both stuff and trash. “The thing is, the simple act of tidying can bring you joy. But this process, it can permeate so much farther, so that you start to look at the whole way you interact with your environment.”
In the end, she says, it’s the planet that needs tidying—and that can start with the smallest step.
National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo.org/plastics. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.
The National Geographic Society and Sky Ocean Ventures have launched the Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge, which asks problem solvers around the globe to develop novel solutions to tackle the world’s plastic waste crisis. Have an idea? Submit your solution by June 11 at oceanplastic-challenge.org.
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I agree with Martin that we should reduce manufacturing of cheap and unnecessary plastic knick-knacks.Ok Marie Kondo places less emphasis on material things which might be good but she does not ask us to buy lessBut I dislike Marie Kondo’s philosophy because she asks people to throw out valuable personal archives,diaries,photos ,books,etc if they do not ‘spark joy’.I know one person who followed her advice and trashed many family photos but later regretted very much and cried.We should not get rid of personal stuff that we may need or value.Marie Kondo is a nut.She does not realize that many items donated to Canadian charities are junked.Why throw out more?I advise noone to throw out family photos,personal diaries and valuable books.
Read the article about Marie Kondo’s effect on plastic waste.I think Marie is a nut in many aspects.I hope she gets challenged and deep-sixed.
What you designate as a “cheap and unnecessary plastic knick-knacks” may well be a treasure to someone else. Who will be crowned King of what can and cannot be produced and what we can and cannot treasure? I recall that my aunt loved jewelry and wore cheap rhinestones. I decided she deserved better and bought her many quality pieces that – OMG – she never wore. One day I woke up and realized she had a right to like whatever it was SHE liked and I began to buy what she wanted (instead of what I determined she should like) when gift giving times rolled around. When she died she left me some of those “cheap” jewelry pieces and I treasure them more than the expensive items I own. I don’t want ANYONE dictating what is valuable and what is not. There are enough meddlesome people I am forced to revile.
I’m thinking mostly of promotional items that are often given for free without asking. Maybe knick-knack is the wrong word for that.
One example is a local pizza place, which included a free plastic pizza cutter emblazoned with their name with a delivery. It wasn’t a very quality piece, and was of pretty limited use to begin with (the pizza comes cut anyways, and I never make my own pizza). I didn’t ask for the promotional item, and I think a lot people end up throwing them out.
Another example is the reusable bag. Reuseable bags are good for the environment – if you actually use them (depending on the material you have to use the bag somewhere between 50-300 times to actually save resources over the common plastic bag). But companies often give them away for free as a promotion, and then when the personn goes home they add the bag to the stack of other reusable bags that other companies have given out. A lot of these end up in the trash, never having been used. It doesn’t help that some of these bags are of a size that aren’t very useful for most applications.
Same goes for promotional coffee cups. It’s become a common giveaway item, but a lot of them are cheaply made. Most people only need one or two nice travel mugs, and beyond that it is a waste to have more.
In short, I would like to see less promotional items given to people who don’t need them. I’m not sure what the solution is, though… I don’t mind people buying cheap stuff, at least they made the conscious decision to buy that thing.
I am not trying to dismiss your concerns but can you see the problem here? You draw the line in what seems a reasonable place but someone else moves that line even further and so on until we are being dictated as to what is good and best for us, probably by someone who is hard pressed to run their own life. And as for the freebies we receive, unasked for, many of them have become highly collectible over the years. Have you seen what old McDonald’s papers, utensils, giveaways, etc., are fetching on the collector’s markets? I personally am an ephemera collector and if your plan was implemented then I would be deprived of what I enjoy. It would help to step outside ourselves and realize people are vastly different and what seems crazy important to someone else may be silly to you and vice versa. I told a friend about this blog and he made some very unkind observations about you – even to the point that picking through garbage should be outlawed. Be careful what you wish for. He could be the one in charge one day.
I see your point. But I wonder if it’s a bit of a “slippery slope” fallacy to assume that starting in a reasonable place will inevitably lead us to an unreasonable place / policy.
I like old ephemera as well. But if none of it was ever thrown out, it wouldn’t have any value today. It’s value comes from the fact that while millions (even billions) of a certain thing were made, only a fraction remain. So, a lot of those things are in the dump as we speak, waiting for archaeologists to dig them up 1000 years from now. The question should be asked, is it worth producing “ephemera” on purpose, if 99.9% of that is destined to go to the dump? I’d say no, unless companies start making their novelty items biodegradable.
It’s also worth noting that ephemera / doohickeys of old were generally better produced than the things we get now, which are usually made cheaply in China and destined to break pretty quickly (if even used at all). The pizza cutter I got from Pizza Bella is not likely to age well as a collectible, because it’s made of low quality plastic that will break or degrade with time. These things are not like the celluloid or bakelite of old, which were pretty sturdy and built to last.
Maybe I have a different view of things, because I pick through the trash all the time, have a garage full of people’s former “junk,” and see the things that people constantly throw out (but aren’t even worth trying to sell at a yard sale). I think at some point it would benefit society to stop producing so much useless crap, things that are destined to fill our landfills, pollute the planet, and waste precious resources while providing marginal use. But, like I said earlier, if these things can be produced in a way that is better for the environment, I’m all for it.
So I’d say I’m generally against freebies. If I want a coffee cup, I can buy one new or second hand. I don’t want a low quality free one forced upon me at some event. That’s the one thing I like about Marie Kondo, in that maybe she and her minimalist talk will lead people to reject the “free crap” that clutters up our lives and kills our planet. I’m not a minimalist, but they do have a few good points.
Anyways, these are good conversations to have! Please try to convince your friend as to the merits of trash picking, ha ha. The only reason I could think of to ban trash picking is for privacy reasons, but I think those are bad reasons. I personally don’t give a hoot who the garbage belongs to, and I go out of my way to not give away personal information on my blog. I think some people think of themselves as notable when they’re not really. If identify theft is a concern (which is fair enough, though I think it’s overblown in most situations), then buy a shredder, or do what I do and soak your papers in the shower and then turn them into a mush. Good luck getting any info out of that!
LOL! Before I got a shredder I used to “drown” my private papers too!
I just remembered this post I wrote way back in 2012. This kind of find definitely influences my views somewhat… I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the kind of stuff that companies and marketing agencies throw out (without it even being used once).
https://garbagefinds.com/2012/09/21/marketing-waste/
I have a couple of bilingual francophones living in Villeray who work in the cosmetics and perfume business.Their condo is full of art and knick-knacks,but very neat.When I mentioned Marie Kondo to them,they said they had never even heard of her.I talked to other francophone friends living in Laval and South Shore.They too had not heard about Marie Kondo.Marie Kondo has not made incursions into the francophone community in a big way.
Among anglophones,she is better known.Many anglophones love her.But the anglophones who like collecting stuff have an absolute right to criticize her.
I am a single young male .I have sex with lots of men and women,but I always wear a condom.The other day I was going through my drawer and counted 36 condoms.Should I discard them because they do not `’spark joy’?Should I discard my snow boots because they do not `’spark joy’?They are in impeccable condition,and next year I will need them again.You get my point.A lot of Marie Kondo’s advice is idiotic.
Sunday night,i.e. yesterday,there were two or three vintage suitcases and one travel handbag on wheels in the trash on Brewster street in St.Henri between St.Jacques and St.Antoine Streets.There was also a big rocking horse thereI took one handbag with me.I hope the others were rescued before the trash trucks came today morning on Monday.Two days on Saturday I came across chairs and nice tables and teddy bears junked in the trash in front of various apartment buildings on Provost street in Lachine.I hope they too were rescued by neighborhood résidents.
I hope more people speak out in your favor or people like you.The reader whose friend had unkind words for you is getting it wrong.Unless somebody is using private information from the trash for cybercrime or identity theft,what you are doing is great for the environment.There are many people who are doing what you do,but on a much smaller scale.Also neighborhood residents often pick up useful items for their own use when they see it in the trash.But a lot of reusable stuff is still ending up in landfills.Unless someone is stealing from front porches,backyards,cars,garages,what scavengers are doing is great.One must also be careful never to take stuff from building stairwells or in front of building entrances left temporarily or for a few hours when people are moving.Some people’s stuff can get stolen while moving because a person might be dishonest or think the stuff has been abandoned.
—————————————One must only take what one finds in city trash cans or on the curb with the trash and recycling on trash pickup day.One may also take stuff left in open boxes on a nongarbage pick-up day with the sign “FREE” or “A DONNER’.
————— Stuff found in metros,libraries,shopping malls,etc should be returned to the lost and found because they have not been discarded and the owners often come to pick them up.