craigslist – Page 3 – Things I find in the garbage

A time to karaoke

March 30, 2013March 30, 2013 garbagefinds6 Comments

I made a early morning run to Hochelaga but didn’t find much. This furniture was set in front of a storage facility on Ontario. It looked fine – if you think people put good stuff on the curb you should see what ends up in the trash at storage facilities!

Fortunately I should have a first hand account of this when I work a temp job at the end of April. Hopefully I find some good stuff to show you!

I came across this mess as I was biking home.

Inside were these dumbbells. They probably weigh about 2-3 pounds each.

One of these boxes contained a modern laptop that had definitely seen better days. It was missing some keys and the battery and the screen was cracked. Still, I figure the guys at the used computer shop at the end of the street could get some parts off of it and recycle the rest properly.

I found this ceramic head in another pile of trash that looked like the remnants of a move. I thought it would be funny to put the head somewhere random. I’ve sure some people enjoyed it (or maybe just found it creepy!).

More remains from a move.

I brought home this computer (in the foreground of the picture above). It looks great but I can’t test it fully without a monitor. It turns on though, and that’s always a good sign! It’s a Windows XP machine, which is definitely modern enough to use. I’ll let you know if it ends up working.

I also brought home this karaoke machine. It works fine! Well, it’s a bit quirky sometimes (sometime the CD doesn’t seem to want to play) but the microphone works great. My room-mate thinks it’ll be useful for making music.

I’ll see if the CD player quirkiness (it works sometimes, and then not others) is easily fixed. Either way it’s already been a lot of fun!

Inside this art carrying case were some cool posters, probably from someone’s CEGEP (college) days. The dates on them were from the 1970s, which totally makes sense considering the style.

A bag of books not too far from the posters.

I left a few things, most of which I had found earlier with the head, in a phone booth on Papineau. I think of phone booths a bit like “Give Boxes.” I hope someone can use this stuff.

On my way home I came across this lamp. I brought it home and it worked. My friend was asking for one, so I hope she likes this one!

—-

I’m trying to find a good home for my big U-Matic VTR. I found a tape for it, but when I put it in it stuck and doesn’t want to come back out. It might be an easy fix for someone.

It’s the first thing I put on Craiglist for free and got no replies. It’s pretty niche, though, and a lot of people don’t even know what U-Matic is. It also weighs like 70 pounds, so walking with it isn’t super appealing.

Search “VTR” or “U-Matic” at the bottom of the page to find the post about it.

Let me know if you want it!

Giving to the give box

March 29, 2013March 29, 2013 garbagefinds8 Comments

I was pretty busy today. I left for Rosemont at 7:45 and felt pretty energetic. I ended up discovering that trash day extended much further East than I thought. I explored a bit and ended up at rue St. Michel, which is the furthest East I’ve ever gone for trash.

I got home around 11:30, which meant I was out for close to four hours. I went the police station to get more information regarding my jewelry and made it out for a run through the Plateau / Mile-End.

Overall I didn’t find anything that’ll blow your socks off but I definitely salvaged a bunch of good stuff and got a lot of exercise to boot.

The first thing I came across were two of those comfortable portable chairs. I brought them with me and put them in a donation box.

I came across this sad looking teddy bear on St Zotique. I was about to leave it behind, but was feeling kind of sentimental (maybe because it looked so sad!). It was too big to bring with me even for a short time, so I brought it into the alley and placed it where someone else finds might find it.

I found this painting in the pile above. I was about to leave it but decided to bring it home. I’m a sucker for hand-painted art and I appreciated the artist’s style. I’m not sure what the men are building though… any ideas?

It was a bit dirty under the glass but I was able to clean it up. I think I’ll replace the cardboard border.

Inside these boxes (sealed boxes are always worth checking!) I recovered some playing cards, a book about pendulums (with an attached pendulum), and a kids’s life-jacket (that looked to be in good condition). There were also a lot of bottles that were likely used for wine-making. I deposited the life jacket in another charity box. Rosemont seems to have more charity boxes than the other neighbourhoods I go to, which is convenient.

This haphazardly-placed trash contained some tools, screws and other hardware-related things. There was a plastic bag full of forks and knives as well. That’s not too exciting, but three of them were nice old silver plate (“Revelation”) forks. I love silver cutlery and happily added them to my collection.

I dropped off the tools, fuels, forks, knives and whatever at the “Give Box” on St Viateur. These are boxes built around the city where people can leave things they want to give away. More of these pop up when the summer comes and I’ll definitely put them to good use. They give me a place to put stuff I don’t need but also don’t want to go to waste.

I came across this garbage a little before I arrived at the Give Box. I dropped off a few things at the Give Box, but took some home.

Inside these bags were six toners for printers. Some of the boxes were open, but all the toners looks to be unused. Toner is expensive and I’d say I found maybe 100$ worth of it here.

I also found this strange “Sport-Elec” device. It looks like something for stimulating muscles with electricity? I don’t really understand. It looks pretty much unused, despite a receipt inside that said it was bought for about 200 Euros. The charger was European, so it was definitely from overseas. I’m not sure what I’ll do with this thing – it seems like it could be worth money if it works, but it’s also sort of a weird thing to sell and I’d have to find a converter to test it with.

These were the fruits of my run to Rosemont / St Michel: silver forks, a medallion, a calculator, something for steaming veggies, a sterling silver bracelet I found near the flea market, and a little toy car, all inside a cast iron pot that I’ve promised to a friend. I’ll probably end up keeping only the silver and the veggie steamer.

I found this stereo receiver later in the day. It worked at first, but when I came back to it later it no longer wanted to turn on. I may have blew a fuse or something. I’ll take a look inside later to see what’s the matter. I was hoping it would work, as it’s a useful for tested other audio equipment I might find. Also, if it does work it sells for about 100$ on Ebay.

—

Regarding the jewelry: I went to the police station and they gave me a number to call in one month to see how the (investigation?) is going. However, the officers didn’t seem to be very optimistic about the likelihood of me getting the jewelry back.

A consistent theme I’ve noticed is that the police seem confused about who actually owns garbage. The original officers were pretty bewildered and the ones I talked to today seemed to believe that I am not the actual “owner” of the garbage. However, why am I not? If I don’t, who does own them?

Interesting questions, and I’m going to try to figure out the best course of action in the coming days.

Update:

Here’s a picture of the artist’s signature for those who are curious! It’s hard to make out.

Relocations

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 garbagefinds8 Comments

Today was the warmest day in since the thaw in early March. The city was bustling. Walkers and cyclists filled the roads, happy to be able to walk around comfortably and relatively effortlessly. More trash pickers came out of the wood-works – I saw an older woman pushing around a baby carriage full of stuff, going from pile to pile in search of whatever it was that interested her. It wasn’t bottles – I saw her pass on a whole 12 pack. Just goes to show that there’s plenty of different kinds of “dumpster divers.”

There was a lot of trash out but not much I felt the need to bring home. I mostly moved things to places where they were more likely to be found by others.

This bike was amongst a pile of renovation-type stuff. It was spray-painted that colour. Both tires were flat.

I should find out the location of the Mile-End bike co-op – I could have brought this bike there pretty easily. I’m not sure if anyone would have taken it but it likely had some good parts on it.

Underneath all the boxes I found this snowboard (behind the back wheel in the picture above). I left it in a location that was a little more visible. It was still early in the day so I’m optimistic that someone else took it home.

I brought home a couple pieces of nice glass baking-ware. They were pretty clean too. I figure I can make use of these.

This keyboard was incomplete but might have been good for parts. It was in an alley and I moved it to the street so that someone else would be more likely to see it.

The beginning of spring is definitely the nastiest season in Montreal. All the snow melts and reveals all the trash that didn’t make it to the truck over the winter. The city goes on a “spring cleaning” of it’s own once the snow disappears for good, but until then the streets can be pretty grungy. This alley in between Bernard/Van Horne and Parc/Hutchison might have been the best (or worst) example of a filthy road I’ve seen so far.

I hope to make it out tomorrow morning to either Villeray or Hochelaga/Maisonneuve, in addition to my own neighbourhood. I’ll let you know if I find anything good.