Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Frugal Living => Topic started by: Sweetpea C on January 14, 2013, 11:46
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Last Friday I noticed a skip full of planks of wood so I asked the builder if I could bring the car round and take some, of course it was 'have what you like' so on Saturday I filled the car with the planks and took them to the allotment, they will do for the first year of raised beds, see how we get on. I also had a boot full of kindling and smaller pieces which I will use for my logburner.
Anyway, whilst I was filling up the car (to the amusment of local residents) a very nice couple asked if I wanted some wood for the logburner, so I arranged to go around on Sunday and got a car full - when I say full I mean up to the roof and the back seat. I would say there is a full load (usually £80) and he's got more for me. I returned later with a bottle of wine and he was extremely grateful.
Aren't people kind?
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Perfect!
Yes some people are very kind ;)
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when i see a skip i pull over and have a look to see if there is anything of use. i've found quite a few little treasure so i don't care what people think getting stuff for free is always good in my book.
:)
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Whilst walking up to nearby shopping area this weekend, I noticed a skip, it had an undamaged belfast sink perched on top of the usual broken tiles etc.
I planned on returning later in a car to see if I could get it, but when we walked back past the street, the skip company had already been and picked it up! gutted! :(
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Taking stuff out of skips without asking the person who hired the skip or the skip company is illegal.
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My husband found me a lovely oxygen trolley bottle in a skip and I use it for carting bags of compost down the long allotment path. He was wearing a suit at the time but dove in regardless :D He did ask first though :)
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when i see a skip i pull over and have a look to see if there is anything of use. i've found quite a few little treasure so i don't care what people think getting stuff for free is always good in my book.
:)
I can't pass a skip either
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i always ask, leave a note if no one is in, they always say yes it means they can fill it up more. :)
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Taking stuff out of skips without asking the person who hired the skip or the skip company is illegal.
It is but I wonder how often anyone is charged with theft for "stealing" from a skip?
I think the person hiring and the skip owner might be more angry at those who fill them up uninvited.
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maybe nobody has been charged but would you care to be the first case? It is always best to stay on the correct side of the law rather than risk being the one facing the courts.
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Taking stuff out of skips without asking the person who hired the skip or the skip company is illegal.
It is but I wonder how often anyone is charged with theft for "stealing" from a skip?
I think the person hiring and the skip owner might be more angry at those who fill them up uninvited.
I know of at least one report of someone getting the sack for this theft.
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Most tradesmen would be delighted to see their skip emptying free of charge!
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Taking stuff out of skips without asking the person who hired the skip or the skip company is illegal.
It is but I wonder how often anyone is charged with theft for "stealing" from a skip?
I think the person hiring and the skip owner might be more angry at those who fill them up uninvited.
I know of at least one report of someone getting the sack for this theft.
I can honestly say that I have never removed anything from a skip in my life nor would I unless I had asked and been given permission first.
In this crowded island of ours it seems everything belongs to some one. I would no more help myself to someone else's property than I would want them to take mine.
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I usually knock on the door first although once a house was empty so I helped myself.
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the thing some people forget (or ignore) is that sometimes planks etc are being used to shore up the sides of the skip so more can be fitted in... - the owners would be very dischuffed if they were taken...
sav
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I think the point of the thread is that re-using stuff is better than it ending up in landfill
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I think the point of the thread is that re-using stuff is better than it ending up in landfill
Absolutely my view too. Also, I felt compelled to say good morning to passers by (hence being offered the other wood) I stopped and chatted with some lovely people.
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I've found most people are delighted to have their skip emptied, so it never hurts to ask. I've also found that once the locals know I am happy to accept their rubbish, they'll often ask me if I want something before they chuck it out - so then I don't even have to clean the skip rubbish off it! Half my house is furnished with other folk's rubbish!
(I read an article about rubbish/recycling once that said people who hire skips in the south find the skip gets filled up overnight by their neighbours, while people who hire them in the north find the skip is emptied overnight! If that's true, I'm glad I live in the south as there is less competition for skip treasure :))
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Folks along my terrace always ask me before they take things to the charity shop, or throw them away!
If the old pine chest of drawers that they throw away can't be saved with some glue and a lick of paint, then they burn nicely in the woodburner :lol:
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My recent 'rescued' items include a nearly-new food blender being thrown because a 'later model' had come out, a brand new summer skirt still with the shop price tag still on it, a pine bed frame (the mattress was soaked so I left that behind, but someone else was throwing out a nearly new one the same size!) and a small bookcase. Plus enough ringbinders, paper, envelopes, pens etc to ensure I won't have to buy any stationery for at least a year! All of which were being sent to the tip!
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Recently a wooden door, 2 halves of a sash window, large plastic bags guttering firewood ans sash weights, which i swapped for some eggs with a friend.
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I've noticed the skip is full again so I'm going to pop down for a chat and a nosy again today. I noticed some doors mmmm what can I use them for?! X
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Well, went and had a chat with the builder chap and he was very friendly as I was emptying his skip (I was considering asking to borrow his landrover but I think that's a cheeky step too far!), anyway, I got doors, 4 long and 4 short so I have 2 raised beds now (well actually I have a car full of doors because the snow came down so no way was I going to get teh car to the allotment). Anyway, whilst the chap was being friendly I said 'next thing you are going to tell me is there is a shed in the garden that you don't want'...he said there was one and if it is in good condition he'd keep it, but I think it will come my way if I am persistent! I might offer to provide some pots for when he puts it on the market so it looks pretty... hummm.
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Do you want a bath? ours is coming out this week or next. Could be water storage or a pond. As for the doors I've got some as a manure storage area,or you could make a compost bin with them.
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Wow never skip raided before, But I certainly will now, :tongue2:
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Just remember to always ask first, otherwise you can be charged with theft.
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Do you want a bath? ours is coming out this week or next. Could be water storage or a pond. As for the doors I've got some as a manure storage area,or you could make a compost bin with them.
Thanks snowdrops, I'll let you know about the bath :)
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It's coming out today.PM if you want it as it will go in my sons skip probably in pieces to get it down the stairs if not.
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Shore up the sides?
Ever noticed the sign on the side saying 'Level load only' or 'NO asbestos'? ;)
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Shore up the sides?
Ever noticed the sign on the side saying 'Level load only' or 'NO asbestos'? ;)
I never said it was right, just that it happens!
I do something similar when presented with a buffet and inadequately-sized plates...
:)
sav
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We used to have community skips in the glen once a month :D Usually filled within about two hours of arriving and overfilled by far by the following day. Amongst the more interesting items we've retrieved were a working VAX upright vaccuum cleaner (we think the thermal trip went and the owners thought it was broken - passed onto another good home since it was a little noisy & we didn't need it :)) An old stationary engine which turns OK but we haven't tried running yet :wub:, A load of 'old lady' furnishings and bedding, not new or particularly to our taste, but I'm thinking of some to charity shops, and having a go at braided rag rug making. The most annoying thing I saw were books, that someone else (presumably) had then put wet paint on :mad: Unfortunately council cuts mean no more skips & we do miss them! :(
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I e to take my cardboard to the tip/recycling centre and often have a nosey in the wood skip etc
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Shore up the sides?
Ever noticed the sign on the side saying 'Level load only' or 'NO asbestos'? ;)
I never said it was right, just that it happens!
I do something similar when presented with a buffet and inadequately-sized plates...
:)
sav
:lol:
Two plates and a friend who likes going up for a natter. ;)
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working on a building site at a grand house i noticed a heated argument when the skip lorry turned up first thing in the morning the evening previous the gardener had thrown lots old pots and tools out and some plants as he was clearing some sheds our labourer had spotted them and was helping himself as the lorry turned up with the driver screaming at him that's ours once it is in the skip then all hell braking loose as the argument raged pots flying people ducking with me sitting on the scaffolding laughing then the gardener arrived with more items to add with both driver and labourer racing to claim the contents of the barrow at which point the gardener who was a large burly ex grenadier guard grabbed both of them stopping them in there tracks and proclaiming the skip to be loaded on the lorry and the labourer to follow him back to yet another shed which was full of vintage pots and other gardening items the gardener explained how annoyed he was with the owner of the house who had ordered all the sheds to be emptied of all the old items and the sheds to be flattened to make way for a swimming pool and if he could find a use for it he can have it all the war of the skip was over with driver leaving believing he had won and a labourer with the task of getting all his new finds home including a shed that was to big for his garden and the gardener who later that year got a new house and sheds at the other end of the estate SKIPS BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
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So, having visited the skip several times at the house renovation, I am now on first name terms with the people working on the house. They are saving any wood they don't want (for my logburner) and having invited myself in I asked what they were doing with the patio slabs... rplacing them - joy of joy they are coming my way...still isn't letting me have the shed though! Not just yet! They are also working on other houses . . . . !
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So, having visited the skip several times at the house renovation, I am now on first name terms with the people working on the house. They are saving any wood they don't want (for my logburner) and having invited myself in I asked what they were doing with the patio slabs... rplacing them - joy of joy they are coming my way...still isn't letting me have the shed though! Not just yet! They are also working on other houses . . . . !
I was always told as a child: "If you don't ask - you don't know" and in the next breath told off for being nosey! ::) :lol:
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the last week has seen 4 yes 4 skips across the road from me
council flats being renovated
i eagerly waited a harvest of bounty but not a dam thing of any use to any one
just broken up chip board and smashed cupboards and rubble >:(
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Re bath: We are planning to change ours and assuming it comes out in one piece, have in mind a slightly different raised bed/border with a matching loo planter and trailing plants from the hand basin.
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Just got a perfectly functional, bit rust chimaera from the skip at work. Cool
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some hose for making tunnels
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My auntie was moving from a house with a colossal garden to one with a garden slightly bigger than a postage stamp :ohmy: and we had a bet " you'll never get all that in one skip!!!" "Challenge accepted"
Put in the swings, 2 broken up sheds, 6 land rover seats (don't ask - forgotten hobby of her son) rusty BBQ and a lot of bits and bobs from a good ten years of the extended family enjoying the only large garden in the family
I put 2 children's slides in front of it with a sign saying 'homeless and lonely : ( ' and they were gone Within the hour, then I put a sign out saying tin shed free if collected - this was lifted fully built over the garden fences to a house a couple doors down
my own little tikes yellow Wendy house went to a little girl who knocked on the door to ask with her mum on the way home from tesco with armfuls of bags and a baby carrier on her back - they sent dad back for it later
That night there were a few knocks and it went down even more
Then a scrap metal truck turned up - he d heard about the car junk and gave us £20 to take it away
Safe to say I won the bet ! I was given a box of flap jack from the Wendy house family, and my auntie got 3 bottles of wine from the people that took the empty rabbit hutch and run ! :D :D :D
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So not only did you make people happy but just think about what you saved from going into landfill - well done :).
I got some double glazing windows yesterday that were about to be skiped, they are now on the allotment waiting to be turned into cold frames!