Free stuff in front gardens

[FourChimneys]

I love this idea and it seems to be increasingly popular.

At about 9.15 am this morning I put out a camping chair, some carpet tiles and a large plastic bowl. All gone by 10.00 am.

DH came home with a couple of books last week.

What have you given away or found?

This is a big thing in our area with kids toys. DD has had ana amazing rocking horse, a dolls house, a ton of dressing up clothes and various garden toys. Was a particularly big thing during lockdown 1 when people were delivering, and shops were closed.

It's a good way of ' recycling ' unwanted items.
I usually put a ' free to a good home ' note on it and by the end of the day it's gone, particularly small furniture items.
To be fair, I sometimes feel like putting my husband at the end of the driveway with a free to a good home note pinned to him.
I have a feeling that he would still be there a week later though!

Does it work for ddogs being total twats? Back door open and they shit inside!!
Change in the weather or just twats!!

I put everything out which isn't saleable or suitable for the charity shops and things we can't fit in our cars for the dump.

So this year: Broken Lawn Mowers x 2, old sun shade, old wooden garden tables and chairs. Desk chair. BBQ set. Ring binders and box files. An ornamental apple tree (!). Dozens of Bonne Maman jars and other random kitchen bits. Selection of plastic childrens garden toys and balls.

All gone. Lovely 🙂

We did this when we cleared out our parents house during the November lockdown. Because it was lockdown we couldn't get anyone from the charity shops to come and get it so we put everything that was too good to be put in the skip out on the front lawn, took a photo which we posted onto the village FB page with the words "all free, if you want it come and get it, what's left by 5pm will be put in the skip". Within 3 hours everything was gone. We even had people ask if they could look through the skip for stuff.

People will take some right crap. We got rid of an old chest of drawers that had gone all bubbly and rank on the top.

Used to this but haven't in aaaages, since I moved. Having a sort later, so thanks for reminding me. May put some things out...

I do this a lot with the kids stuff they've outgrown. Scooters, garden toys, play tables think I put the IKEA kitchen out too...
Never had anything not go.

I’ve given away excess veg plants, excess garden produce. Picked up bags of windfall apples from someone’s gate and a stack of terracotta plant pots from another. Couple of garden chairs. It’s very common round here.

I had a rug the cat kept peeing on. I cleaned it but after a while the smell still lingered. Got fed up and tossed it out the front and someone took it! I imagine they regretted it once they got it home and unrolled it!

Weirdly, the cat loves the new rug I put in its place! She rolls around on it in ecstasy and hasn’t peed on it once! She clearly just hated the old one.

I always put stuff out for people to take, doesn’t even need a sign, it just goes. I don’t drive and the council charge £10 per item (minimum £30 to come out) to dispose of things so they’re doing me a favour.

When clearing my DP's house we did this numerous times and it worked really well.

They had a lot of half started bottles of alcohol (ancient liqueurs and the like). They went very quickly and would not have been accepted into a charity shop.

I noticed it became notably more common round here during lockdown. We (and about 15 other households along our road) always put out spare cooking apples.

They always go.

Cooking apples in October. I had a glut of them this year. I froze a lot but gave a lot away to my sister, neighbour and then anyone who wanted to take them.

Slightly different, but we rescued an old drinks cabinet, attached it to our front garden then put in any books we had read for people to take and for them to put their books in. This was in lockdown and it's still being used as a community book swap now!

It’s quite common where I am, but because we don’t have front gardens we have to be careful, or the council might accuse you of fly tipping. We put things on our front wall for people to take. It always goes. We’ve picked up loads of stuff too - a chest of drawers, ceramic plant pots, books, a mirror, mini greenhouse, lots of wood, dishes, a rug…

Agree, love love love this idea.

Infinitely better than things going to landfill.

Today I've put out an old saucepan and baking tray. Hoping someone takes them for scrap metal ... we'll see.

I've done this with all sorts.
It helps that we live on a road that is fairly busy with both traffic and people walking past.
Works better in dry weather of course

Absolutely normal here. You have to be careful not to leave things out or someone will take them. It's really handy to get rid of things though and others get something they want. You often see it on Facebook groups too where someone lists an item as outside awaiting collection and either puts the address or says inbox for address.

I once put out a slightly damaged garden table. A lovely young guy and his friends came past and actually knocked on the door if it was OK to take it. They were so excited to have it.

This is a fantastic idea - although I was going to say the same thing about the table; to be fair, it might not be completely clear that you aren't giving the table away too - especially once everything on it has been taken and you're just left with a table with a sign on it saying 'Free - please take' !!

I wish people would put a clear sign on things, to say whether or not they work. If there's, say, a microwave there, you don't know if it's perfectly fine but no longer needed, as they've bought a shiny new one, or whether it's wrecked and only good for the scrap man.

We put books and dd has picked up some toys

Today I've put out an old saucepan and baking tray. Hoping someone takes them for scrap metal ... we'll see.

Maybe this chap?!

I always do this with gumtree

Yep I gave up with FB marketplace a long time ago and just do this now, my most recent was a set of bedside drawers that went in about 10 minutes.