miss_thenorth
Frugal Homesteader
When I said maybe barter with your neighbour to see if he can take your trash, I simply meant on garbage day--you would still have to find a way to store it at your house until them. It's an option.
What To Do With My Trash?!
- Thread starter LauraJean
- Start date
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- #22
Oh, I was responding to Abifae who said "...if your neighbor has so many bins, would he mind you stopping by to sort?..."miss_thenorth said:
Yes, I would love it if I could work something out like that. Right now he plows my driveway for free in exchange for me feeding and caring for his geese & checking on his house when he goes to Florida for a few weeks each Spring. I haven't lived here long, but I did it this March and it worked out great. I would happily watch his geese in exchange for plowing! Only problem is, I think they eat the goose eggs, so not sure if they would be interested in my eggs or not. Got to come up with something to offer in exchange for a trash run.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Sooo glad I live in the country! 
I don't have any suggestions better than have already been offered....just extending my sympathies for your plight!
I don't have any suggestions better than have already been offered....just extending my sympathies for your plight!
Marianne
Super Self-Sufficient
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I decided to bring up an old thread about where to go with the trash.
I make everything from scratch so now I have very little trash that can't be dealt with - maybe one grocery sack every 6 months or so. When we have that bag full, we ask friends or family if we can bring it along to put in their dumpster when we visit. We have gotten to the point that we only need to go to the recycle center once every three months, too.
You don't need to seperate all the recycleables at home, just sort them out when you get to the recycle center. I used to store tin cans along with aluminum, foil and glass. Easily sorted out at the recycle area.
Plastic was and still is the huge space grabber. We drink a lot of milk, plus my husband uses distilled water in his CPAP machine. I rinse out everything before it goes to the recycle area anyway, so I put those rinsed out gallon plastic jugs under my arm and smash them down.
I scored three recycle tubs that stack at the DAV, but now I use them for pet food, etc. I have a large plastic trash can with a bag in it, stored in my mechanical room for plastic. If you don't have space for that, what about under your bed? I hate buying stuff, but they have wonderful long plastic drawers that slide under beds. Even cardboard boxes cut down would work. As long as everything is rinsed out, you won't have odors or mold growing.
Do you have a bit of space by your water heater to stack milk crates? They'll hold a fair amount of tin cans, etc. Of course, keep everything away from the pilot light or electrical wires. Think small footprint and go up. Lightweight stuff could go in cardboard boxes on shelves, too.
What about in a kitchen cupboard, under the sink? If you make your own cleaning supplies, you'll be able to put those on a shelf in your laundry room to free up enough room for a cardboard box under the sink. Again, smash everything as small as you can get it.
I saw a neat box storage unit on someone's porch, made from leftover decking material and plywood. Cute big box, do you know someone who could make something similar for you? Again, everything rinsed out, lock on the lid, etc. Could be a box seat, or fake planter box - nothing that needs watering on top.
Along the same line, what about re-doing a piece of furniture to hold some things? Small dressers, cabinets, box style coffee table with lid...could be cute and function as part of your own recycle center.
There's no such thing as food thrown away here. If it's not enough to keep, the dogs, cats or chickens get it. Or I force feed the closest mouth.
My biggest problem? Cottage cheese containers. I can't take them to the recycle center. So I use them for freezer containers, especially when I'm making homemade dog chow and anything else I can figure out. But then I still end up with a stack and a pile of lids. Eventually they go into the bag for the dumpster.
It's taken a few years to get to the system we have now, but oh, so worth it. Like everyone has said, less stuff coming in, less stuff to deal with going out - no shampoo bottles, laundry soap jugs, etc. Made a big difference. I don't want a cow or goat, glass jugs are too heavy for my sore hands to handle, so milk jugs will always be a problem for me, too.
I make everything from scratch so now I have very little trash that can't be dealt with - maybe one grocery sack every 6 months or so. When we have that bag full, we ask friends or family if we can bring it along to put in their dumpster when we visit. We have gotten to the point that we only need to go to the recycle center once every three months, too.
You don't need to seperate all the recycleables at home, just sort them out when you get to the recycle center. I used to store tin cans along with aluminum, foil and glass. Easily sorted out at the recycle area.
Plastic was and still is the huge space grabber. We drink a lot of milk, plus my husband uses distilled water in his CPAP machine. I rinse out everything before it goes to the recycle area anyway, so I put those rinsed out gallon plastic jugs under my arm and smash them down.
I scored three recycle tubs that stack at the DAV, but now I use them for pet food, etc. I have a large plastic trash can with a bag in it, stored in my mechanical room for plastic. If you don't have space for that, what about under your bed? I hate buying stuff, but they have wonderful long plastic drawers that slide under beds. Even cardboard boxes cut down would work. As long as everything is rinsed out, you won't have odors or mold growing.
Do you have a bit of space by your water heater to stack milk crates? They'll hold a fair amount of tin cans, etc. Of course, keep everything away from the pilot light or electrical wires. Think small footprint and go up. Lightweight stuff could go in cardboard boxes on shelves, too.
What about in a kitchen cupboard, under the sink? If you make your own cleaning supplies, you'll be able to put those on a shelf in your laundry room to free up enough room for a cardboard box under the sink. Again, smash everything as small as you can get it.
I saw a neat box storage unit on someone's porch, made from leftover decking material and plywood. Cute big box, do you know someone who could make something similar for you? Again, everything rinsed out, lock on the lid, etc. Could be a box seat, or fake planter box - nothing that needs watering on top.
Along the same line, what about re-doing a piece of furniture to hold some things? Small dressers, cabinets, box style coffee table with lid...could be cute and function as part of your own recycle center.
There's no such thing as food thrown away here. If it's not enough to keep, the dogs, cats or chickens get it. Or I force feed the closest mouth.
My biggest problem? Cottage cheese containers. I can't take them to the recycle center. So I use them for freezer containers, especially when I'm making homemade dog chow and anything else I can figure out. But then I still end up with a stack and a pile of lids. Eventually they go into the bag for the dumpster.
It's taken a few years to get to the system we have now, but oh, so worth it. Like everyone has said, less stuff coming in, less stuff to deal with going out - no shampoo bottles, laundry soap jugs, etc. Made a big difference. I don't want a cow or goat, glass jugs are too heavy for my sore hands to handle, so milk jugs will always be a problem for me, too.
country freedom
Lovin' The Homestead
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Great thread/great ideas!
These will be very useful starting now, with myself, and then my youngest two, and my DFiance'.
These will be very useful starting now, with myself, and then my youngest two, and my DFiance'.
