My Trash, Their Treasure

The weather has been really nice here in Alabama for the past week or so. We’ve had highs in the 60s and it definitely feels like spring, which has been much welcomed after all the snow and cold we’ve had this winter. This past Saturday, I took advantage of the nice weather and decided to clean out my shed. It’s been a couple of years or maybe even three since I’ve cleaned out the shed and I knew there were some things in there that I haven’t used in a sweet forever and I wanted to throw them out. I told ya’ll that Peter Walsh show was getting to me. It’s like all I want to do these days is purge my house of clutter.

It took a couple of hours to get the shed cleaned out. I had left over paint from when I renovated my house that needed to be thrown out and I also went through all the storage boxes. I had a lot of college textbooks in the shed and I got rid of all of those. With the internet, information is easily accessible and I hadn’t even looked at those books one time in the 11 years since I graduated so I threw them out. I also threw out some pillows that had been out there for probably five years, as well as an old sleeping bag that my childhood dogs used when they briefly lived with me before going to dog heaven. I also put a box fan and some storage containers by the road and also threw out some holiday decorations I no longer wanted and also set out an old garbage bucket that was used to house dog food for the aforementioned childhood dogs. In my garbage bin, I threw out an old answering machine, caller ID box, flower pot, broom, and old dusty camera bag in which I found a really old camera and nice lens (kept that and brought it inside). All of these things I took out to the road on Saturday afternoon (except for the paint buckets which were picked up by someone and properly disposed of).

After straightening the remaining items and sweeping out the shed, I went inside to get cleaned up and waited for folks to start coming by and picking through the garbage. When you live in the city, people will inevitably come by and look through the stuff you have thrown out. I’ve had numerous things taken from my curbside before and this time was no exception.

The first person to stop was a man who rides by on his bicycle every day. He pulls a flatbed trailer behind his bike and picks up things along the way. He took the box fan and looked through other things, but passed on them. The next person I saw was a lady pushing a baby in a stroller. She took some old ugly Thanksgiving decorations, an old broom and a couple of pillows. She looked through all the textbooks, but I guess nothing caught her eye. Sunday when I arrived home from church, the big maroon colored storage bin was gone as were the two pillows and stuffed Christmas mouse inside. Also gone was one of the bins of textbooks. That afternoon, a guy came by with a shopping cart and started pillaging through the remnants of my trash. He ended up taking with him the old answering machine. For a while I thought he was going to take the old sleeping bag that my childhood dogs used, but when I went to throw out my trash from the house this morning, I noticed it was still in there. He too looked through the remaining books but didn’t take any. This guy got serious about his dumpster diving as he literally had my garbage bin on its side with his head stuck in digging through everything. At some point, someone took the flower pot, but I don’t know who.

This morning when I went to throw out the garbage from the house, all that was left was one bin of textbooks, the sleeping bag, and the old garbage can that once held dog food. I actually ended up pulling that dog food holding garbage bin back because I decided I would put my rakes, shovels, etc. in it instead of lined up along the inside of the shed. I think it will give me a little more room that way. So, that’s the story of my weekend cleaning spree. It’s true what they say, one man’s trash is indeed another man’s treasure, and it sure is interesting to watch that man dig for his treasure.

On a completely unrelated note, don’t forget to vote for the heifer’s name at the top of the page. If you are having trouble voting, it could be because you are voting multiple times from the same computer. I think that may be why some of your votes aren’t showing up! Have a great Monday!