AIBU to leave unwanted household items outside for people to take if they want them

[longwayoff]

Sometimes I do this. Mostly books occasionally small furniture items. I put a post on a neighbourhood site saying please take if u want them. If not gone by end of day then I make other arrangements. Vile Mail says I'm a middle class fly tipper. I'm feeling a bit miffed.

Totally normal around here. I think it's a great idea so long as it doesn't block the pavement and you take it to the tip if no one takes it.

Tempted to do this for a sofa I want to get rid of but can’t fit in my car - waiting for a call back from a ‘man with a van’

You don't see it here but when DD went to Uni there was stuff everywhere outside. They put little notices on it some were very funny.
The following year we were used to it and were fairly nonplussed about seeing six lads move a three piece suite up the middle of the road of a posh area in the city.
When DD & OH moved houses they got a few bargains including a bike, some tomato plants, kitchen equipment and a table.
I think it is a brilliant idea for students. Get rid of your stuff, some other students have free equipment. Local people put there stuff out then too and at other times. DDs house got a Christmas tree that way too.
We've had a washing machine near the front gate and no one has so much as asked about it. It is going for scrap because it can't be repaired. Mind you there are a few millionaires in our village. We're not!😁

This has been the way of getting rid of stuff for ever hasn't it? It's not a new thing. Honestly, the Daily Mail just has to stir up shit doesn't it? Gives people something else to moan about.

My mum mioved from a large 3 bedroom house to a warden controlled flat and so we needed to get rid of a lot of things. We filled her front garden with furniture, books, boxes of DVDs etc that she no longer wnated with a view to ringing up the council to remove it. Before we'd had chance to ring the council, most of it had gone! My sister put an old broken vacuum cleaner outside her house just to see if it would disappear and it had gone by the next morning!

We did this recently when clearing out house of a deceased relative - not on pavement so not in anyone’s way and anything not gone quickly went to tip
There was a lot of stuff to go through (needed 5 skips) so saved us a fortune on trips to tip
I don’t live somewhere where people drive past and do live nearer to a recycling facility so take my stuff there - they have an area for anything that could be resold - which they then sort and have a little portacabin shop - all the money goes to a local hospice

We live in Spain and stuff to give away gets put by the bins every Wednesday.

We've put toys and furniture out, also when we've needed something we've had a look round on a Weds evening. We got a massive drop leaf dining table and a sideboard like that.

Here it's called Street Shopping and it's a great idea.

This is middle class? To have furniture in the garden? .

I do it too, it’s normal.

Fine to do if it goes in less than 24 hours but if it’s staying there for days it should go to the tip.
I quite often put things out the front ready to go to the tip and there gone in an hour or so. People have taken fridges, washing machines, bed stead’s from out the front of my house.

I've done this, there was a showdown over some plant pots between a man and some children. The man was loading them into his car and the children were saing that they neeeeeeeded them for school. There were a few pots and the guy offered to split them but the kids wanted them all.
I shut the door and left them to it.

You care what the Daily Fail thinks?

We do this and so far all has gone within a couple of days. Happy folks.

Just stick a note with it so those walking past ( and maybe not on neighbours group) know!

It's standard to do this where I live - West London. Everything goes, every single thing. I think it's great, I love the idea that someone is getting use out of my unwanted stuff. I put a perfectly functioning tumble dryer out a few weeks ago. A bit old and battered but working finer, just too small for us. It was gone in half an hour.

Wednesdays every week in Germany this is normal anything outside on the street by your gate etc is for free to take away

Tempted to do this for a sofa I want to get rid of but can’t fit in my car - waiting for a call back from a ‘man with a van’

Have a look on your council website. They probably have a scheme where they'll collect A couple of bulky items for a small fee (£20?)

We do it but mainly stuff for the scrap metal man. Nothing ever sits there for longer than a couple of hours. We live on a long road and there are always a few houses having work done so the scrap man comes along most days to look through the skips.

Anything else we put on Facebook or freecycle.

We went to Budapest last year and there were mountains and mountains of old furniture and unwanted stuff everywhere. Every single street was covered in old wooden chairs and beds etc.

We thought it was so strange until we discovered that they have one day a year where they leave everything outside and the authorities come and collect it in the middle of night.

What happens though is that hundreds of people travel into the City just to hunt through the rubbish for stuff to sell. Apparently fights break out between people arguing over the stuff!

By the Sunday morning there was absolutely no trace of the rubbish.

@Glitteryfrog thank you! They’ll collect for £15

We used to do it in the old house, we called it the magic kerb. Old bikes, a fish tank, fishing gear. Put it out in the evening and poof, it was gone by morning. Can’t do it now, we live on a “naice” estate and we’d get a slapped hand.

He is just a revolting snob. We have often done the same and we are not lord and lady muck chucking out our crap lazily. We put scrap metal and useful items out for a period, a few days to a week and if it doesn’t go we take it to the dump. We’ve had people grateful to receive a king size bed, bunk beds, fridge. I appreciate that if people just leave it and it gets left then it’s not good, but he just comes across as an arrogant twat in that article.

I do it - put things out on the wall. Our street is fairly busy with foot traffic and things go straight away! Waste not want not!

I do it all the time! Put stuff in getting rid of in the front garden it's gone in an hour. On the odd occasion something is still there the next day I take it to the tip.

A friend lives near a phone box used as a book exchange. Put your used books in and take some others out. Excellent.

I've done it quite often. Things like metal headboards and fireplaces that won't fit into my teeny tiny car.

I cleared my shed out the other week and put stuff on my front wall with a sign. I swear I hadn't made it upstairs before it had gone!

As long as it's not out there for ever, it's a good way of recycling.

Normal here, I'd rather see people's 'old tat' outside to be used by someone else than I would see it being slung into a hug skip at the tip and going into landfill!

Oh and the poster who said take it to a charity shop, the shops here are so picky about what they'll take and things have to have the requisite safety labels on. So in our area, freebie groups are the norm.

YABU. Put them up on gumtree/fb marketplace/free cycle. That way you can still give them away without leaving your unwanted stuffy lying around making your street looking like a rubbish dump.