[Image ID: several household items and furniture stacked in a parking lot and a living room, including shelves, a mirror, a mop, a laundry basket, a blender, a Sherpa blanket and several dishes. /end ID]
Tip for anyone who lives in a college town: find out when your local dorm & apartment move-out times are. I got all these items from my apartment’s dumpsters. I didn’t even have to “dive” they were just sitting right on top. Pretty clean and lightly used. Results will vary, obviously, but the ideal spot is the more expensive housing. I’ve lived in both the dorms and the apartments and the dumpsters are definitely richer here.
Can you imagine if this apartment complex ran a freecycle program? Like it wouldn’t be too hard to organize. Just mark off an area of the parking lot near the dumpsters for usable goods, then let residents who are moving out sort their own stuff into usable or trash. It’s only about 2 weeks until new tenants move in, and they’ll be needing to acquire stuff. (Note: I live in California where it doesn’t rain in the summer, but this could also be done in an indoor common area.) The new tenants could get priority access for a week or it could be immediately open to the general public, either way. Two weeks after move-in any remaining items can be trashed (low-effort) or donated (higher effort but may have volunteer programs available). The apartment has to pay for the extra garbage collection either way. Why not reduce waste and benefit new tenants?
