Cleaning up our houses, cleaning up our yards

Just do what my housemates and I used to do whenever we moved out of a group house…

1) Pick a street corner that gets a decent amount of traffic

2) Put everything on said street corner in prominent view of traffic

3) Put up a massive sign that says “FREE”

4) Grab a few beers and watch the underground looting patrol move in – you’ll be amazed at how fast you shift everything

5) When it appears you have a few items leftover that nobody wants, replace the free sign with a new version that says $5 or something like that… as soon as people see there is a value to the leftover crap, they’ll again come knocking and try to bargain you down to take it off your hands – they’ll feel like they’ve got a deal from you, you’ll be happy you’ve paid for some of the beers you bought earlier… win-win situation =)

I’ve seen this in action a few times, it works. I even had one guy come up to me once and ask if we had anything else in the house he could have. By that time all the valuables were in boxes at the new premises so I brought him in and let him take his pick. He turned up later with a car and a mate and helped me get rid of even more cr^p (and shared a beer with me and my housemates). Now if only I could have figured out some sort of deal where he helped with the clean-up for final inspection.

Ahhh, filthy group houses… good times

On a student income?

– Drive to large unit complex.

– Locate large rubbish skips.

– Empty out car and drive home.

– Beer.

No no no, you have it all wrong. You’re a uni student on a meagre income. You’re supposed to gather all your uni student collection, put it on a tray of some sort, add quantaties of super glue and paint then sell it as art for a tidy profit over and above your student fees for the year. Don’t they still teach you that in first year?

I agree with s-s-a’s scheme. Freecycle the big stuff, recycle the recyclables and distribute the rest equally amoung the neighbours. Or, hire a mini skip / trash pack. Or get your mates together and hold a garage sale / cart the stuff Mugga Lane.

That is a business idea -= Trash packs for garden waste where the garden waste is recycled! I tried to find one too.

On the original idea – I think the govt promised to bring in hard rubbish collection at the election – so look into that before outlaying any money.

I too missed council cleanup when I moved to Canberra (20y ago now) but have so far found alternative and free means of disposing of most things…

– Green waste can be dropped off at Mugga Lane free of charge with the exception of a couple of species and really thick branches.
– These days kerbside recycling accounts for plenty of stuff – I once put so many magazines in our yellow wheelie bin that I could barely drag it up the gentle slope to the street!
– Surplus kerbside recycling items (eg massive cleanout of old uni notes) can be… ahem… distributed up and down the street in the wee hours on the morning before pickup.
– Anything vaguely reusable that fits into a wheelie bin gets dropped at my local Salvos.
– Anything vaguely reusable but bigger than that gets put on Freecycle and is generally collected within days.
– If you have something small scale to sell, use the freebies on Allclassifieds or cheapo Tuesday classifieds in the Canberra Times (free ad up to three lines for items up to $100, you can place up to three ads per week).

Personally, I can’t see a market for paying someone to do a service like this, though it may exist.

In the last few years I have relented and got a trash pack that is emptied monthly if required, mainly due to time constraints involved in taking a weekend worth of garden stuff to Mugga Lane and our old neighbours who used to let me empty my catcher into his trailer and would dump it for me.

I tried and tried to get a trash pack that would go to green waste recycling, but no such thing existed. So I pay to get rid of green waste that would usually fit in my garbage bin but I’m not allowed to put it there, yet it still ends up in the same place. Grrr!

Getting rid of green waste at Mugga Lane is free.

Things that aren’t quite good enough to give the Salvos or Vinnies go to Revolve. If you have stuff that you want money for then I’m afraid you will have to sell it yourself…

I believe green waste is accepted at the local Mugga Lane tip and also a place in Vicars St Mitchell (can’t recall the name of it) for a nominal sum.

Why not load the unwanted stuff in your car – I’m presuming you have a vehicle as you are proposing to start a business removing such stuff – and take it to the tip/charity/R Shop yourself? Some charities collect items. Advertise your stuff for sale for free in the Tuesday Canberra Times or on allclassifieds.com.au or swap shop on radio 2CC on Saturday morning. Get a skip bin and go halves or thirds or whatever with a couple of neighbours. Plenty of ways to dispose of stuff if you really want to.

I hear you! The lack of a kerbside collection service for unwanted goods or green waste is one of the notable absences from life in Canberra.

And, for such a transient population, it has never ceased to amaze me how few second traders there are for a city this size. Where on earth does everybody’s stuff go when they move? from what i can see, a lot of people try & cram all sorts of shit into or beneath the salvos and vinnies collection bins…

You may find some useful information on starting a business in Canberra here (the Govt’s entry point) – http://www.business.act.gov.au/doing_business_in_canberra/starting_and_growing_your_business. The portal includes info about finding investors if that’s an issue for you.

You will probably need a few licences for the premises and equipment you use, and certainly if you sell goods to the public. Tax registration is something else.