Dismantling this horrible and surprisingly very heavy desk, donated from someone's office revamp and used (rarely) in the small attic as a workbench for stained glass, lugging it down several flights of stairs, through the house and out into the back lane for the council to collect, was today's task.
The metal legs are hidden from the scrap-man's view, and the screw thingummies are neatly bagged up and taped inside one of the drawers in case someone desperate wants to salvage it. Back lanes are great places for scavenging and finding things you never knew you wanted till now.
There is also a very basic Ikea table and its screw-on legs out there. I was in chucking-out mode today. My heroes, the Neighbourhood Response Team, and their little travelling wagon may pick it up tomorrow. I nominated them for a council staff award one year, and they were thrilled; their certificate is carried with them in the wagon.
It was my third attempt to get rid of the desk. I had spent a fair amount of time on hands and knees underneath it, peering upwards, mystified, to find how it was held together. Once I remembered to do this with benefit of specs, I realised that it was held together by those screw thingummies that require an allan key, and not a screwdriver. And after I had found an allan key (in the tea towel drawer - where else would you look?) the desk was almost easy to dismember. But still very heavy, in the way of chipboard desks and other mass-produced junk furniture. I'm tired, but smug. A small patch of floor has been cleared, and I have actually thrown some things away.
11 comments:
Wow, you have been industrious! Doesn't it feel good to get something like that accomplished? If people there are like people here, someone will get that desk before the day is over.
Well done you. It's so liberating getting rid of 'stuff' (especially if it can do someone else a good turn).
It says something about our mad world that junk furniture is soooo expensive and has no second-hand value.
PS By the time I got up this morning, the neighbourhood heroes had already been, and everything had been taken away. They also took the overflowing garbage bags from the student house opposite, thus saving Millie the Scavenger from her own worse tendencies.....
Well of course I would have looked in the marbles bowl.
I too am grateful to scavengers. I balance the most unlikely objects on the front fence post and they are often taken within the hour.
hooray for you ! begone stuff !
It feels great doesn't it ?
We've had to get rid of a perfectly good Ikea bed,as when it came out of storage all the'bits'that hold it together(and were in a bag taped to it)had mysteriously disappeared. We have a jug in the kitchen with keys and stuff in...there has to be a dumping ground for them!
Yay! You persevered and got the thing out of there. Good for you. I hope the scavengers take it away.
Very liberating !
Years ago Youngest Daughter had a young student friend who would scour the neighbourhood for interesting throwouts . If he came across anything good when he was on his way to college , he'd ring on the doorbell and ask the discarders if they'd just keep the object(s) till the evening till he could take it home .
Rachel's little sister here, posting a comment for the first time and feeling very technology- savvy for doing so. I just want to thank all of you who discard on streets, deliberately or accidentally. I am a drama teacher with an extraordinary props and costume collection in my classroom. Whatever a child wants or needs, I can provide it. I have over 50 hats, boxes full of scarves, gloves, shawls, an incredible collection of keys, trinkets, jewelery, ties, wigs. I even have boiled clean large animal bone (from a cow, my Biology department reckon. Explain that one then! Then there is the bottle collection, a veritable gantry which includes just about every alcoholic drink known to man and no less than 7 makes of champagne. These are all 'found' as I walk around my area. Living as I do in a city centre, Monday mornings in particular reveal an astounding variety of discarded and interesting items. The kids always ask me where I get all my stuff - and I lie. I have to! They would die if I told them the truth! So, thank you. Keep leaving, discarding and losing! I love you!
Ikea things always seem to weigh a ton. Does make you feel good when you get rid of stuff doesn't it. Tea towel drawer seems perfectly reasonable to me.
I too could not fathom out the desk without my specs, in fact sadly I have taken to needing to wear them while cleaning the cottage. I don't mind if the house looks a little soft focus and dusty but the holiday cottage needs to be spanking clean. I am impressed with the throwing away too. My OH tends to stand in my way!
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