to think it's twattish to leave your unwanted crap outside your house for passers-by to take?

[TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot]

I probably am being unreasonable because the person I know who does this is someone I just can't stand for no discernible reason and everything she does annoys me.

Every so often stuff gets left on the pavement outside her house. Sometimes with a note saying "Free to a good home! :)" but usually just left there. Books get soggy in the rain, and seriously, is anyone going to pick up a dog-eared picture book from the pavement and give it to their baby anyway? Wheelchair users can't get past (very narrow pavement) and stuff just sits there for days looking sadder and sadder and I was sure there were more reasons to be annoyed by this but as I type I realise it pretty much boils down to it's annoying because it's her.

But why doesn't she offer her things to friends or donate it to a charity shop or sell it or freecycle it?

I bet she's smugly thinking "I'm being so kind and generous letting anyone who needs my unwanted crap just come and take it. And everyone can see how kind and generous I am every time they pass my house. I bet they talk about how lovely I am all the time."

YOU'RE NOT BEING KIND AND GENEROUS YOU'RE JUST CLUTTERING THE STREET WITH RUBBISH

I'm being unreasonable, aren't I?

[liz70]

Glasgow Council don't charge for large item collection. They picked up our two old sofas the day after we filled in an online form and left them out on the drive.

[quarkinstockcubes]

It says look how free and generous I am

I think if they wanted to do that they would stand by the item smugly offering it to passersby until it was taken, explaining that they want to offer their unwanted goods to someone less fortunate.

A friend of mine works in central London and has astounded me with what she has picked up over the years from people leaving stuff out. She once got a very expensive telescope and sound system. Apparently it is the norm there.

Apart from the blocking access YABU.

[elQuintoConyo]

YABU. I furnished my flat with stuff off the street.


Blocking pavements us cunty, I'll give you that.

[beanfilledfish]

a bloke near me one left out about 30 reference books very helpful i think it's kind of nice and neighbourly

[Olswitcharoo]

We used to call it the magic kerb! Put it out at night and it would vanish by morning! It was amazing!
We live in a more affluent area now but I do miss the magic kerb, it saved me endless trips to the charity shop!

[mathanxiety]

It's common practice where I am too, in the US, and where DD1 lives in the US too.

We have alleys and people leave out lots of things they no longer need, and others pick it all up. I found a bedframe complete with all its lathes - needed cleaning but great - a lovely book of Georgia O'Keeffe prints, two deck chairs that need new fabric but are otherwise fantastic, a plastic chest of drawers that I use for my sewing stuff, and an area rug. I was too late for a great sofa that I spotted. Currently I am on the lookout for an office/ swivel chair. When the weather starts to get nicer people will start to put items out and I will drive up and down alleys to scout.

Little Tykes toys disappear within minutes of being left out.

DD1 has found armchairs, and also a very nice suitcase with no stains, rips or mysterious smells.

You can leave out items with a lot of metal in them and the scrap metal man comes by in his little well-sprung truck and hauls them away - I left out my old sleeper couch springs and they tossed it up on top of the truck. They also removed a huge old dinosaur of a fridge from the basement of my old house (left behind by previous owners), and numerous other old metal items. People put out old stoves and washing machines, etc.

Often if people are remodelling and have a skip outside on the street in front, people come just after dark and climb in to rummage around and take stuff like old kitchen cabinets, pipes, doors and doorknobs, light fixtures, etc.

There are little free book boxes outside many residents' houses too. You can take what you want and leave off whatever books you want to dump.

When my DCs were young my friends and I used to bring bags of clothing around to each others' houses to have swaps. We got recycled jackets, snow bibs, snow boots, swimming togs and lots more and returned the favour.

Both DD1 and I live in pretty well heeled areas.

[ohtheholidays]

I think YABU.

I can understand about people being able to get past though,I use a wheelchair myself and it is a shame if the stuff is getting ruined,but it does come across that your mainly cross because you don't like the person that's putting the stuff out.

I think it's great that people do this,we got some much needed topsoil for free this way and the person had even very kindly put out strong hessian bags for people to take it away in and all they asked was that people took the bags back when they were done with them and we did.

[BiteyShark]

I have done this but I don't block the pavement. Sometimes I have said free, other times I have asked for money. To be honest I would prefer to do that than take things of value to the tip as the people working at the tip are sometime so bloody rude it puts me off taking things.

[StrartinngfromHere]

Standard practice round here (London again). Everything I have ever put out disappears overnight. I've always seen it as a way of being neighbourly and far better than just taking decent stuff to the tip.

Charity shops round here won't take a lot of the items I have put out anyway.

[mathanxiety]

I bet she's smugly thinking "I'm being so kind and generous letting anyone who needs my unwanted crap just come and take it. And everyone can see how kind and generous I am every time they pass my house. I bet they talk about how lovely I am all the time."

There is such a thing as seriously overthinking things.

[EsmesBees]

I think this is normal too (London). My parents in law are from the Midlands and had never seen the practice. They tell a tale of helping SiL unpack her furniture outside her new London flat. Left a desk outside while they went for a tea. They were amazed that someone had taken it when they got back.

[HappyFlappy]

If she's causing a nuisance by blocking the pavement, contact the council the next time she does it.

[DesolateWaist]

I've done it loads to and it's fairly standard practice here.
This thread has actually made me think that I might do the same with my books that I was going to take to the charity shop. Just need to think of a way to keep them dry.

[HappyFlappy]

a lovely book of Georgia O'Keeffe prints,

You lucky bugger, Math

[ProfYaffle]

Common practice here in Norfolk too. I've got rid of out grown bikes etc this way. Blocking the pavement isn't on though.

[AndShesGone]

Really common in south London. Nothing hangs about more than a day. It's posh houses round here and everyone does it.

If I hadn't just got a stair gate from a relative I'd have picked one up in the street last weekend. It went before I even got to the end of the street. It's fantastic!

Along with the weekly both bin collection our streets are immaculate.

[AndShesGone]

And I picked up 2 books in Kensington last week someone had left. Comedy books. Read them on the train. Left them out again once dh had read them. Gone within 10 minutes.

[namechange20050]

Commonplace in Brighton where I used to live. It's great and saves stuff going in the landfill so I can't see the problem at all. It was a godsend when I was moving and needed to get rid of some stuff ASAP.

Saying that I wouldn't block the pavement with stuff or leave stuff sitting out for days.

[MackerelOfFact]

This has been common everywhere I've lived in London. TBH if you put it in a bag for the binmen to take, people would rifle through it if it looked like there was something of 'use' in there.

It does have its downsides though, once I left a load of my actual stuff on the steps outside my door for literally 2 minutes (it was heavy and there was nowhere to park nearby so I got the stuff out the car and then went to park) and came back to find people nosing through it and selecting things!

[MargaretCavendish]

I used to know someone who had deliberately set up an area ('the shelf', we called it) outside their house for people to leave things and pick them up. At the time we were young, poor and house sharing and I think half the house's furniture came from 'the shelf'! Thinking about it, I must still have some shelf stuff now...

[Gwenhwyfar]

Some of my furniture was acquired like this so I'm grateful for people who do it. Of course, you need to deal with them if they're not taken after a certain amount of time.

[Frouby]

I put a load and I do mean a load of dds old toys out on my front garden one day for dp to take to the tip when he got in from work.

10 minutes later a small child knocked on my door and asked if she could have a little scooter thing. She was walking home fro. School with her mum. I said yes if her mum said it was ok and went out to ask her mum. Told mum it was going to tip so could take what they wanted.

Within about 10 minutes there were kids fighting over the stuff. It all went. Even the little slide and seesaw thing was snaffled by a local childminder and stashed in her car before anyone else could claim it.

Dp was very pleased.

So yabu to be annoyed about the concept of it. But yanbu if it is cluttering the pavement up. Just pop it on her path as you walk past!

[SugarMiceInTheRain]

I think it's very practical. Obviously not if things are likely to be ruined by a spot of rain, but broken kitchen appliances I just put out the front of our drive (not blocking pavement) and they'll be gone within a couple of days (scrap metal guy drives along the road, slings it in his pickup truck - it's win-win as it saves me paying the council £20 to collect it.

[TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot]

Okay, I'm unreasonable.

I can see why people would leave out large items if they're in a usable condition or have a scrap value if you can't drive them away yourself, especially if you're on a busy road where there's plenty of potential takers.

But a load of ornaments, books and crockery on a quiet road with not a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and which no one would want to take the trouble to drive down unless they had to just seems a bit pointless.

[Cakingbad]

I always get rid of out grown bikes this way.
What she does is kind of irritating. But she obviously gets some satisfaction out of it. Let it go?