Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Let the junkin' begin

This weekend is open season on junk.

Next Monday is our once every 7th month chance to get rid of things that won't fit in our city issued trash carts. It's the only time we can have the city haul off big junk without paying a hauling fee. But it is so much more than that.

Racecar Man and I have elevated it to a sport. Junkin'. The sport of the cheapskate kings of suburbia. Last season was a big one for me. Here are some posts about my haul.

Junkin!
Best Junkin' EVER
Junkin Journey 2
I can't wait unit February

Anyways, I started my pile this afternoon. I am anxious to see how much of this stuff gets taken away by other Junkers before the trash man cometh. But I am also enjoying the fact that we did not pay full price for any of the stuff in our pile of cast-offs.

The basketball goal came from a neighbor's garage sale and we spent $8 to fix it. It is broken again. The blue chair came from last year's treasure hunt. I fixed it and then never sat in it again. The wood was all scrapped from an old retaining wall in a friend's yard. I still have lots more to use on other projects. (Full disclosure, I see two items that were birthday presents from years past, so grandma's might have paid full price for those...)

Just FYI, in the 45 minutes since I snapped the picture, ate dinner and posted wrote this entry, the blue chair has already been picked up by some early bird junker! Junk on, Dude!

So here is to a great junkin' season. Maybe this year the kings will find another Maria, so we can quit fighting over our queen. Or at least so that we can really dress up Law Talking Guy's yard.

All Hail Maria, queen of Junkers.


10 comments:

LID said...

Wait a minute, wasn't that blue chair a 'find' from another junkin' jag?
A junkin' we will go
A junkin' we will go...
Good luck - Happy huntin' Keep us posted!

LID said...

Sorry I just saw you fessed up about the chair... the mind is a terrible thing to waste... you understand

Mike said...

Long Island Dad: Thanks for the theme song. I'll belt it out while we are cruising the 'hood on our nocturnal junkin' trips.

Ally Bean: You are right. Austin is the first place I have lived that does anything like this.

But of course, they are still a mindless municipality, so they have statements all over that they don't want to encourage "scavengers".

So they only tell you a week ahead of time when your neighborhood will be picked up.

Don't mess with the city's junk or they will get you.

Angel said...

Wow....that seems like fun. But I bet I'd come home with more than I put out and hubby would be frustrated with me. LOL. But I do refinish furniture so perhaps he wouldn't. To bad we don't have a junkin' day. I'm jelly belly. (translation: jealous.)

Mike said...

I ALWAYS come home with more than we put out.

But the trick is to grab stuff early, before the truck comes to your house.

Then if you decide it isn't worth saving, it goes into your pile for the truck to take.

LID said...

Good tip! You're a real junkin' master, I see.

jen said...

LOL AtHomeDaddy, did you digitally censor Maria? or did she come like that? I remember when you got that blue chair. Was it that long ago? Man, time goes fast! happy junkin'

Working Gal said...

You only get this once or twice a year?? We (the city of Gilbert, AZ) have once a month "bulk trash" week. It's great - and usually, most of our stuff does get scavenged away. Check out www.freecycle.com (or maybe .org). It's a way to do the same thing only, online.

I do miss living in Austin, though...even if not for this reason!

Mike said...

Yeah, we have a pretty good freecycle gig going here in town. But I would spend way too much time trying to get rid of all of this stuff.

Since I already diverted most of it from the landfill once, I don't feel too bad about trashing it on!

Mike said...

jd: Yeah, Maria is censored. My mom reads this blog for goodness' sake.

If you want a peek below the bikini, I can hook you up.