Caught in the Act!

We've got one coming at the weekend. I am a skip virgin - don't know what to expect. I shall keep an eye on the neighbours though - I think we will fill it with our crap!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl5us_7Myyg

I remember working with a colleague on night duty who had just had a skip delivered. By the time we had finished our long tiring shift my friend found her skip piled high with other neighbours rubbish. She had to wait until her next nights off to order (and pay) for another skip and keep guard over it!

I think Victor Meldrew had a car dumped in his skip!

Nannyxthree - That's on the youtube clip above!

We had one neighbour who asked about one item and said yes. The scrap dealers took it the next time they were round. And they asked if they could empty it, I guess because we were outside when they came.

I did skip dive a new carpet offcut last year as it looked just right as a runner for our utility room (and was!) but generally theres never anything interesting!!

I understand this is quite a frequent occurrence. People seem to think that a skip is for everyone, not just the person who has paid for it.

I’ve also seen people taking stuff out of skips, but at least this is recycling.

Flaming cheek, ask them for half of the money towards the skip.
I do have a friend who did a course on upholstery and was out with her husband and saw an old chair sticking out of a skip. They did knock and ask if they could have permission to take it though.

I think that Councils should have 'skip days' when they put out a skip in different locations. It must cost them as much as dealing with fly tipping does.
They work on the basis that making it difficult to chuck out rubbish means that people will have less but there is little evidence of that. A bit like their old policy of making parking difficult in residential areas so that we will all get buses, even in places where there aren't any.
Some skips now have covers on and for what you have to pay it seems like a good idea. People could still lift them up but it would stop some.

How cheeky of your neighbours! We've had it the other way round. We were getting a new kitchen and the old one was in the skip. A man with a van knocked the door and asked if he could have it. We were more than happy to let him find a use for it. I think he had a contact with the skip people so he knew where to look for skips.

My DS lives in USA and in their local area it's very common for people to put stuff outside their homes for anyone to take, which I guess is a valid type of recycling. (This is in a State which has good weather most of the time!)

I use freecycle quite a lot and have managed to recycle quite a few things that may have otherwise gone to landfill.

After we'd bought this house but not moved in we drove up to find friends peering through the windows...apparently they just wanted to see if we were in....no car in the drive was a dead giveaway on that! If they had asked to see it we'd happily have shown them round as it was they were happy to give opinions on it to anyone who would listen especially about the massive water stain on the sitting room wall where there had been a burst pipe .Of course if they had just waited a week or so they'd have seen it decorated and furnished and looking much better than the empty shell .
Gilly I freecycle a lot of things ,we used to move stuff into our rentals but now we dont do furnished we give it to folk who need/want it ,,always pleased to help someone when I can .

I put rubbish into neighbours skip - the builders’ polystyrene food trays, sweet wrappers etc, which they left blowing around. In return I helped myself to some nice pipe cladding - just right for the outside tap.

On a different theme, we have a brown bin for garden waste, we don't have a lot, but having given up the car getting rid of greenery was a nuisance. We came home one lunch time to find that our neighbours had taken down their rose arch and completely filled our bin, mainly I think because we were not at the time doing any gardening, and some other neighboura had used the bin, (with our permission). at another time. I said very little, unlike me, but I think my silence spoke volumes, and now they always ask. It's no problem, but I am tempted to ask why they don't get a bin themselves My mother in law, bless her heart, always said "least said soonest mended" True.

Recently had my bathroom renewed and of course needed a skip. Not one person took liberty of putting rubbish in...but after the workmen had finished with skip I put some of our garden stuff in ....old sand-pit outgrown by grandkids... plastic paddling pool...swingball set ... see-saw.All difficult for me to get rid of because I don’t drive. Immediately people started knocking on door and asked if they could have the sandpit..paddling pool...seesaw...and I said I’d no problem with them taking the stuff out. Nobody took anything with asking. So much went that I put up a notice for neighbours to fill it up again if they could. They did.

We had a skip on our front lawn once, long time ago now, and the only thing the neighbours chucked in it was a set of keys. They were having a bit of a row and she threw the keys at him, missed, and they flew over the fence and into our skip. They had to make up then and were last seen head first in the skip on a key retrieval mission ?

I did skip dive a new carpet offcut last year as it looked just right as a runner for our utility room (and was!) but generally theres never anything interesting!!

I used to work off Belgrave Square - one day a colleague came struggling through the door dragging quite a large carpet that she'd retrieved from a skip. She was a bit eccentric and we rolled our eyes at this dusty mess - when unfurled it was a rather nice but grubby Persian carpet!

It makes me cringe when I see good stuff dumped in skips, because the owners can't be bothered to recycle it in some way. There are lots of places like Freecycle, local 'swap, donate and sell' websites and charity shops. Societies for the homeless are often glad of furniture and household stuff for poor people starting off with nothing. There is a second use for almost everything, with a bit of effort.

I only wish that someone would come and take all the rubbish from a skip at the house opposite me. They have been renovating the house and the last skip they had has been siting there for several months now. It has on it a mattress, a door and loads of other assorted large items ,along with bags of whatever. It’s such an eye sore and when windy (often ) stuff has been blowing onto the busy main road. Not sure if they have any intention of having it removed so someone, please come and take what you ca!! ?

I put the green wheelie bin out once a fortnight, usually half full. By the time the operators come around to empty it, it is overflowing, think my neighbours take advantage and decide to contribute! Don't mind really, one neighbour asked me if I could clear away a pile of garden rubbish in his garden and put it in my bin, he is in his 30's and I am a pensioner! He pointed out that he doesn't have the time and I am after all retired! You couldn't make it up.

sunseeker. Absolutely Dreadful! Disgusting Cheek! I looked into skip hire recently and my sharp intake of breath was powerful enough to move most of my belongings!
I thought you were going to say they were taking things out! I did have a lovely polite man knock my door a few years ago and ask if he could look in the skip as he recycled things.
Your story has put me off booking a skip! It's hard enough because of the parking situation anyway but now I would feel I had to sleep in it to make sure I kept it available for my stuff!
I do hope you managed to get all your things sorted out. A big well done for attacking the job! One I really want to give my second go at. Not easy!
Best wishes with the move. I am sure it will be lovely when you are all settled in and sorted out!

GreenGran78. I have great trouble getting things recycled, being disabled, living alone..
However, at least one skip hire co. will recycle all the stuff he takes. I think they have to actually. Also our local recycling centre (that I still call the "tip") is wonderful, they recycle just about everything, taking a lot of it to charity shops. However, I was upset when they said the Charity shops have stopped taking books! Apparently they only take new or 'in new condition' books now!

The house opposite had a skip for a week and kept us entertained watching the other neighbours helping themselves and then other's putting stuff in it was like Piccadilly Station. The owner's never actually came out but must have seen the activity it nearly wore the grass out!!

If books are in reasonably good condition, your local library will probably be glad of them, but ask them first. We never need a skip because we Freegle (Freecycle) everything. We have got rid of a couple of wardrobes, a leather sofa and armchair, a double bed, large rugs, suitcases - and lots of other things. People are always very grateful and you feel that you are helping somebody else out.