One man's trash is another man's treasure

Rob Smith is a principal at Architects Smith Metzger

A last effort after my house move was to organize my workbench. After sorting stuff I ended up with a box of coax, phone wire, speaker wire, plumber’s putty, and two white electrical switches. All of which I will never use.

I picked up the box and instinctively headed to the trash can. “Wait a minute” I said to myself, someone at the office certainly needs this stuff. The next day I offered my stuff to those much younger home owners, but alas, no one was interested. 

I headed to the office dumpster when someone mentioned Craig's List Des Moines. I took a picture and that evening at home posted a listing in the free category, “box of phone and speaker wires and more”. 

What happened next still amazes me. The next evening I checked to see if anyone was interested. To my delight I had 15 responses!!  They ranged from “I’ll take it” to asking the exact length of the coax or if there was an Ethernet cable in the box.

I decided to go with the first response who said they wanted the entire box. The time was 10:23 PM. Two hours after I made the post.

My stuff that I was going to throw away will have another life. I am now a believer that if you try, you can find a new home for your unwanted stuff.

Let me know interesting ways you have repurposed stuff rather than sending it to the landfill.

Send your thoughts to rsmith@smithmetzger.com

Comments

[Marge McCullough]

The Habitat for Humanity Restore is a great place to donate usable/reusable hardware.