Today was bulk pickup day in our neighbourhood. As we had just moved into our home this year, we did not have much to put out onto the curb. As it is every year, what gets to be put out to the curb is not what the sanitation department picks up.

I put out my old gas grill which was about 4 years old. I do not know it is about barbecues but they do not last long under regular use no matter how much they cost. The steel just deteriorates under the heat, leaving a brittle rusty shell where the burners are. Everything else is in tip-top shape. It seems that gas grills are probably the most common item you see on the curb for the bulk pickup if it last that long. Along with the grill, we had a television with a broken co-axial cable connection, an old frame, some long flat storage containers and a poster and some odds & ends.

I put these items out on Sunday afternoon as I was going through the garage and within an hour, nearly all of it was gone. It seems that my junk is high quality junk worth picking up unlike my neighbour across the street who had a pickup load of stuff including furniture in decent shape just sitting there all week long. As usual, scavengers precede the bulk pick up looking for salvageable items. I think every day, pickups will be going through the neighourhood seeing what was put out on the curb. If there was metal involved, then there was a good chance it would be taken. In a lot of pickup dumps I could see other gas grills and lawnmowers and steel frames. My neighbour’s furniture did have some interest for someone as they apparently took the brass handles off every drawer.

This morning, the crews were out and I was impressed by the size of the operation. Four garbage trucks were moving through the subdivision along with a flatbed truck with an attached crane for the heavy loads. A supervisor in a pickup was also in the vicinity. If you did not have your stuff out there in the morning first thing, then you missed your chance. As it was, scavengers were still prowling the neighhourhood getting what scraps they could ahead of the sanitation trucks.

So that bit of business is now taken care of for another year. I still have a garage full of items that need to see a garage sale to clear them out. What is left over from that will go to charity and hopefully we will get some breathing room in the garage.