Selfsufficientish.com

I think that things have quietened down now that the lock down regulations have been eased and there are places to go. But the local Facebook pages for the three months at the height of lock down and just after were full of posts from people who had been clearing space and leaving stuff at the garden gate for people to take away. Don't know how much of the stuff actually was taken and used. But it was certainly a "thing" for a time.

Now all the queries are about what is being taken at the tip - especially furniture. Seems that you can take stuff if one of you can move it (staff under instructions not to help) which makes it hard when it comes to a king sized mattress it seems.

At the moment Freecycle seems to be advertising mostly stuff not in need of repair - that's odd. But the local scrap man is well in demand as new kitchen goods have been bought. Next door neighbour got a free working gas cooker (she moved in without a cooker) given away because it was in serious need of cleaning. Took her time over three days but it's now perfectly good.

How has the local reduce, reuse, recycle been with you recently?

Lockdown was spectacularly good skip pickings for me. I have been nabbing old pallets for winter kindling (hoping to heat nearly solely on woodburner power this winter) and also got my hands on loads of old pots, hanging baskets... all sorts of stuff that just appeared on the pavement. Books, too. People's DIY has been good news for us, for sure.

We fell foul of the "no help" rule at the tip as well, when we took our big red armchair (at least 40 years old and frame broken in many places) to the big tip in the sky. I had the last laugh, as I struggled to get this thing off the roof of our Yaris and dragged it inch by inch up the ramp before somehow levering it into the skip solo. I held the entire tip (3 people at a time) up for about 20 minutes.

We have been guilty of clearing out the piles of stuff during lockdown too. Obsolete electronics, stuff I'd promised I would fix but never had/would, engines and bike parts in the garage that had moved house twice but weren't needed. All in all it's been very therapeutic, and most of it has been able to be sold, freecycled or recycled.

I do worry about how much stuff locally bypassed the "reuse" section and just went straight to the tip, though.

Our "recycling centre" closed at the start of lockdown and hasn't re-opened. All the surrounding ones have but theirs are all manned. Ours consisted of two enormous skips, into which everything was thrown in a jumble.

I'm sure it must have played havoc with the Council's recycling targets but I'm guessing not half as much as cleaning up the fly tipping which is bound to start soon will, if it isn't re-opened. I can't see many folks driving to the next nearest - 15 miles away.

I can't see my 8-seater kitchen table at the moment - it has collapsed cardboard boxes piled all along the long side, about a metre high. Nearly four months worth of veg box deliveries, plus all the online purchases we needed, have mounted up quite considerably. Fortunately we'll probably use most of them in the garden, back end, when we plant out our fruit trees in the front garden. In the meantime that whole area is off-limits.

I was asked at the weekend to see if we can dispose of the old imperial weights and scales from the stores section of the allotment association Hut. We don't weigh out in imperial any more and haven't for a few years (something to do with this new metric system ). I believe that I have managed to do it courtesy of Facebook. Was going to go to Freecycle if that failed. I may be challenged to get rid of a very large yellow toolbox next. You just never know who wants what sometimes.

I'm sure the toolbox will go quickly. Toolboxes never, ever seem to be big enough. I ended up with 2, and I don't have a lot of tools...

Well it's sure in better condition that the weights which need quite some work doing on them. With allotment inspections due, I have no doubt we shall be recycling badly kept and unused plots during the first week of September. Send out the standard official agreed by committee letter pointing out that people have fallen foul of the rule that says you should have X amount of your plot under cultivation by now, fancy a couple of weeks to show willing by starting work and get the thanks but no thanks replies. It's quite surprising that people take on allotments then do nothing! Or find that it's too much like hard work or that they don't have time with their job and then get upset when you draw the attention to the clause in the tenancy that tells them what they agreed to do.

Sheesh. Friday morning was the morning that was. Of the 4 sites with allotments on them, the biggest one has 40 full sized plots. We managed to persuade the association treasurer to pay for a second skip in the last 6 weeks to get rid of all the rubbish that folks had collected over the years. You'd think that plot holders would be able to use everything and anything. Seems not. I mean - 8 large double glazed window units with glass? His wife asked him what he had those for but I didn't hear the reply.

At least the lock down has cleared some plots where the tenants had nothing else to do. We've another site to do the same thing with but the tenants there are from difficult to downright difficult. Should be fun.

Freecycle seems to be back in action with a bang now. Local Facebook does have requests for things but mostly now it is full of small businesses trying to keep going.

I've kind of lost touch with freecycle. There seemed to be more and more people who looked like dealers getting in on the thing.

Dunno - Freecycle locally is the bottom end of the recycling chain. Facebook Market Place is a bit better if you are careful. Facebook itself locally is certainly becoming a trading area.

Yes, I noticed that. And I have been tempted at times, very occasionally. Most of it seems to be kids' stuff, and fancy ladies' wear - same as charity shops, really!

IKEA furniture around here.