The tale of our couch
 

The other day my wife came home from a shopping trip and gleefully announced that she'd bought a new couch for the family room.
OK.
It came today.
I had all my ducks in a row and the guys were here less than 15 minutes and only came in the sliding glass door to install it. I think it will easily be their easiest delivery today. I paid them $20 to carry the old couch out front for me as it was a heavy son of B.
So, it's out on the driveway, waiting for me to get the cushions out on it and for me to call the city to pick it up tomorrow. We're allowed one oversized pickup every two months I think is what the gal said when I called.
I move it and the cushions out to the parkway so it'll be easier for the guy putting it in the really cool truck they have now for stuff like this. I didn't get pictures of the neighbor's couch when it was picked up the week before but it has all kinds of hydraulics on it. They used to have a flat bed truck with stock racks on it to get stuff like this. Now the hardest thing the operator has to do is get the item on the lift in front. Up and over it goes into the bed and then a big ram pushes it all to the back, crushing everything as it goes. Pretty impressive compared to the old truck.
Anyway, the couch is sitting out there, I no sooner call the city and there's someone looking at the couch. 5 minutes later all the cushions are gone and the base has been carted away too!
I call the city again and cancel the pickup.
When our kids were in junior high my son asked why we live in the ghetto. I guess it's for moments like this where a couch can disappear in 5 minutes.

I rarely throw away stuff if it's usable. All big items, I simply put on the sidewalk with a "free" sign and they're gone within an hour or 2.

I hope you like the new couch Scott. It's always a concern when the wife makes such a major purchase without consulting the hubby first ;)

Haha, I'd swapped out the old hotwater cylinder and put it just outside my gate while I got my breath back, prior to taking it to the dump. Five minutes later it was gone. A few bucks worth of copper inside if you can be bothered.

I used to work in an very industrial area. There were several large companies with lots of employees that were just hourly workers.

We could put ANYTHING out front on the curb, and it almost never was there after 24 hours. Something like a chair or a couch was gone in short order. We put out old toilets, and even an old 64 inch wide solvent based inkjet printer.

It was great for getting rid of stuff and sending it to someone that can use it and not the landfill.

Our city has large junk pickup day every two months. We can toss water heaters, appliances and piles of old stockade fences. The junkers come through early and haul off a lot of "treasures" and save it from the landfill.

Hopefully he got the cushions too!

$600 in fuel to drive and collect. BUT the couch was free and that's what's important.

If a couch is left on the curb for free.....how many rainstorms can it take before it stinks??

I think I mentioned in another thread a friend of mine put an old cast iron stove to the curb for fall pick up and it was left (too heavy) . While he was at work that day someone came to the door asking about it and his wife sold it :D
Now that's the way to do it!

Best
Les

With rain on the way, or so they say, that is what I was worried about. I didn't want to deal with a wet couch or have to help the guy get it into the truck wet. It would have weighed a ton wet.

Old E, ha that reminds me, I had an old table by the side of the road with a note "For Free". No one wanted it in a week.

My friend's idea, I put a note on it $20 and it was gone.

In our neighborhood put anything out on the curb and it will generally be gone in less than 30 minutes.

Do you live in Florida?😂

He threw out an orange and blue gator skin couch? Who does that?!:D

If I have something I don’t want any more, I’ll ask a few people I use at work if they want it first. Or, I’ll put it by the street with a “free” sign. It’s always gone within hours.

If you put something out with a "free" sign on it, and it doesn't go, try putting a price tag on it. It will disappear overnight.

My wife grew up in Coombs, just up the road from the place with the goats on the roof (if you know, you know)…

Her parents would regularly put miscellaneous crap out on the road (highway) to be picked up by whoever wanted it. About 5 years ago, they put some stuff out there like they had been doing for years and about an hour later, the police showed up at their place…

The long and short of it is that it’s a bad idea to put can of paint out by the road for free. I guess some idiot decided it would be fun to swerve into the paint cans. The net result was the car following behind him was splatted with paint. The lady in the now multi coloured car tried to pin it on my in-laws… other than the visit from the RCMP, nothing came of it.

The moral of the story:
1. No good deed goes unpunished.
2. Don’t put out cans of paint on the side of the road… ever.

I just put a 4’ X 4’ painting of a naked woman out and it is gone! Two other (poorer quality) paintings also taken.

Caused a little stir in my neighborhood.

Everybody needs a yard couch

I hate mowing around mine. :mad: