Kerbside "network"

I was driving through my suburb today, which I have to say is a hearty mix of old and new, nice and hideous, house proud and eyesore. It's kerbside collection this week, where everyone gets to put out all their crap and the council comes and picks it up. This service is in lieu of using council tips like we used to when I was a kid.

We have these every few months, and each time I am amazed at just how much crap each house gets rid of each time. For hubby and me, we don't really have any crap left to toss out, we did it the first time. Yet it seems that some families each time just keep discovering more junk - the three matresses, a couch, a coat and hat rack and some old kids pipeline furniture that they didn't know they had last kerbside collection. I mean seriously, just how many mattresses can one house have??!!

I have a theory. Whenever people's crap comes out, so do the kerb crawlers, like seagulls to a chip. They roam the streets looking for that special loot that they may be able to use. My theory is the council never actually comes. Everyone is just swapping crap. House A puts out their crap, House B scavenges it and takes it away. House B then realises it's crap and puts it out next collection. House C scavenges it and takes it away. It's the "network".

Hubby put my very rusty and decrepit old bike out there once, and no word of a lie he turned his back to tend to something in the garden and two minutes later he turned around and the bike was gone. Vanished. Into the kerbside "network". I like to think that it now bounces happily from house to house, from trash to treasure and back again...

Just a funny story, years ago during the lead up to the collection we saw a house with a lounge setting on the kerb that happened to be identical to the one we have in our lounge room (hand me downs from my folks, we always intended to get them re-covered, may still do). Oh the temptation to, under the cover of darkness, go and dump our setting next to theirs, and then see the looks on their faces when they saw that their lounge setting had "multiplied". Ah we did have a chuckle over that...