Well, another university move-out day has come and gone, which means that it’s now summer (if only in my mind). I’m sure I wrote about this last year, but these days I treat the day(s) like a treasure hunt. I’m not interested in clothes and food and books and whatnot. I’m after the gold and silver jewelry, and to a lesser extent coins.
By focusing on one class of item, I can quickly move from pile to pile and not get overwhelmed by the massive quantities of junk. Of course, I’ll pick up other things if I happen upon them while searching for the treasure (this year: lamps, a nice framed page from some 1800s newspaper, quality pencils and markers, etc.), but it’s more fun when I don’t take it all that seriously.
Given the demographic (very young people, who may or may not come from money), a lot of the jewelry is terrible. I’d say about 95% is fast fashion junk that was garbage from the day it was made. But inevitably, some nicer stuff gets mixed in.
Here is my reduction of all the jewelry, to just the precious metals. On the top left is the gold. That 14k ring is worth about 200$ for scrap, which was probably about half of what I earned over the two days. The rest is silver, or gold plated silver. The middle bracelet is Italian silver, and the bottom one is Thai. One of the links of the latter was stretched out making it “broken”, but I was able to fix that pretty easily.
All in all, not a bad haul. I spent around 8 hours biking around in the sun on what were two very nice days, and probably found about 400$ worth of stuff. There are certainly worse ways to make a living.
Otherwise, a hoarder house is starting to toss stuff again after a long pause. I say hoarder, because I can’t imagine why a single household would need over 100 bars of soap. And this was just from one night! The week before, I found a few other packs, and I’m currently using soap I found there last year. I also found 9 unused Brita tap filters, and the recycling bin is often full of every magazine this person ever owned. But it’s all very clean, so it’s fun to dig through. Hopefully, they continue the purge for my benefit. I already have enough found soap for five years at least, so the plan is to sell these at yard sales or give them to friends.
You enjoy your job … so you’re one of the lucky ones. 🙂
Keep up the great work.
If you were in Quebec City I would buy from you all of Le Chat bar soaps as unable to find it in stores for the past year. My favourite for years. Wishing you great finds over the summer!
Great finds. I’m near a University and will go check the neighborhoods. I’m glad you’re having some fun in the sun. Am trying to learn more about scrapping too, so it’s great to get some of my education from you. I appreciate what you share!
I think different universities might have different move-out days, but from what I hear it’s a pretty common phenomena across the West. Good luck!
Hi Martin, I love that you’re posting regular again. It’s such a treat to see you in my email. I volunteer at a food pantry and we provide a hygiene bag which contains a bar of soap, a roll of tp, and whatever else we can find in the donated items that fits the general description of hygiene. I don’t know if y’all have food pantries, but one would sure love a donation of soap. Wishing you continued success.
I would have rescued that good soap too. It is so much better on skin than the detergent stuff in bottles. I use it to make laundry liquid, saving a lot of money.
I always save soap when it’s in its original packaging. Sometimes I find bars that retail for 10-20$ each. Apparently it never really goes bad. Some of the nice stuff ends up being gifts for my mom, who thankfully isn’t queasy about this kind of thing.
Amazing score on the soap! Perhaps the occupant couldn’t pass up a good sale (or 5 or 10). It’s so nice to read your posts.
Speaking as an aficionado, there is no such thing as too much soap! 😊
How ironic. You have become the people you despise. You are now passing over the useful and collectible garbage in favor of precious metals and money in the same way the people set out their perceived garbage in favor of things they determine are worth keeping. What is looking back at you in the mirror?
If you decide to save everything, that just means that you’re going to get bogged down and you won’t be able to save something else later. I am only one person and I need to conserve my energy. Also, it is a job for me and I need to keep my own economic interest in mind. The person in the mirror is unfortunately slowly growing bald but otherwise I am confortable.
If it makes you feel better, I have lots of competition on move-out day. In that article I shared, in recent years local organizations have been set up to reduce waste. But there is still lots of garbage, and lots of people picking through that garbage.
I don’t think you’ve experienced a move-out day, otherwise you’d understand the sheer quantity of stuff involved. No single person can possibly saved all the useful items.
Sophie … I can’t reply to your comment but I wonder what you yourself do for the planet on a daily basis? What is looking back at YOU in the mirror? Do you pick up litter? Do you commit to zero waste? Have you reproduced?
A lot of people have large soap reserves-that is not hoarding.I would like to know in which neighborhood this soap is being discarded.You do not have to disclose the street name.Thank you for your great work.
If it was just the soap I’d understand, but it appears to be Brita filters, lightbulbs, magazines, sales sheets, etc. I can’t give out any more information, let’s call it a trade secret. I’ve lost out on trash in the past being too open with my privileged info. Regardless I think this kind of situation can happen in pretty much any neighbourhood