Observations on spring cleanup

Well another spring cleanup is in the books. It is my favorite time of the year. Kinda like Christmas but with junk!

Each year I keep expecting the number of CRT tv's and monitors to drop, but I think there were more than ever out this year. I grabbed them up by the pickup load. This year I didn't see any signs of smash and grabbers who just smash out the back of the tv, take the yoke, and leave the mess on the curb. I have seen plenty of that in years past.

Lots of vacuums out this year. It was a bad year for Kirby owners apparently. I rarely find them, and I snagged 8 of the big heavy cast aluminum ones.

It seemed like there were way more cast aluminum grills sitting out too. I probably only picked up about a third of them that I saw. It seemed like most of the time I saw one I didn't have room in my pickup for it and it was gone by the time I got back around to that area again.

The cord cutters were out in force as usual. Probably about half of the things I picked up had the cords cut off of them already. I don't see how people find it profitable to drive around and snip the cords off of things.

It was a good year for storm doors too. I love them. They usually have a good amount of extrusion in them and I grabbed about two dozen doors.

I really wish I had a way to deal with refrigerant. It seems like I noticed more fridges, freezers, AC's, and dehumidifiers out than ever before. For a part time scrapper like myself I just can't justify the cost of the equipment for the volume I would have. The sad thing is that I'm sure those items were picked up by people who didn't care and just cut the lines anyways.

It seemed like there were more people out than ever this year picking things up, but I had no problem finding things to grab for myself too. It might be a few weeks before I can park in my garage again.

Does anyone else notice trends in spring cleanup from year to year?

I wonder how many people clip their own cords. I've seen some printers come to our events that way....

Out here, I've noticed a lot more businesses doing cleanouts. I think it's a sign that they're struggling and trying to cut the fat, but that may jut be regional. CRTs are holding level, but I don't take them, so I can't give a complete account there for you.

Inkjet printers are shoeing up in force again, and I'm seeing a lot of vintage printing calculators and computer systems coming in. That surprises me.

matador: "This post sounds like a stock ticker. Now trading on the Scrapper 100...."

From what I understand, back before there was blue bins and compost and everything just went to the curb together on garbage day, cutting the cord was a sign that the item was broken or unusable. It was supposed to be a courtesy so someone didn't get hurt or disappointed.

I love dryer cords the most as for cutting I do a lot on things like appliances that I do not have a license to dismantle as for vacs I do but I take them for the motor and parts are good sellers on ebay unless they are the stick ones i will just cut the cord. still that's looking at a pile of stuff vs. just stopping to cut just one cord cause i take toasters to since there tin at the yard plus a bonus wire lol. as for trends go its going to be a good year for a lot of us who stuck to it and are still scrapping fully as if prices keep as they are we are going to clean up very very good as people pass by stuff. here spring has only begun and were still a few weeks away from college move outs so its a huge time for us scrappers here.
i love building mount fouton at the yard each year, 156 is my number to beat this year but i have a new cordless this time that's powerful and fast with a new set of allan driver quick change bits on hand to break um down fast and if anything hand cutting saw/grinder to make sure its easy lol

It was my hardest year so far. Weather just has not been steady and warm to get stuff out. Still am filling up though. As far as cord cutting why not I do. Vacuums are a mess and not worth anything but the pound of wire on it. Still a month away from good steady warmth then it will be good again around here.