A New Record for Junk Collectors

Sometimes, the most satisfying projects aren't the ones you can photograph. Today was like that. Ted and I were standing in the garage, contemplating what to do with a ginormous pile of scrap metal left by the previous owners. Most of it was extra garage door parts--springs and tracks and the like--that we've been hanging onto "just in case." But we recently decided that if the garage door ever does need to be replaced, we'll convert it back to a two-door style and won't need this stuff, anyway.

"Let's just haul it all to the curb," I said. "It's garbage night, and I'm sick of looking at it."

"Okay," Ted agreed. "We'll leave it for the tinkers."

Almost every day, we can spot an overloaded pickup truck slowly driving down our street in search of scrap metal. There are so many of them, in fact, that the city considers them a nuisance and wants to start regulating them. Evanston, which charges a $25 fee for special pickups, claims it lost nearly $90,000 in revenue last year to junk trucks that beat them out. I say "whatever," we already pay a lot in taxes and fees 'round here, and if a junk collectors does take something, at least we know for sure it's actually being recycled.

"Let's just lean them against the bins, then," I said. And just as I was dragging out the first piece, what did I see rumbling down our alley? Yup, a junk truck. So instead of trying to figure out how to carefully balance everything without it spilling into the alleyway, we just waved the driver down instead, and he loaded up his truck directly. A new record for the removal of unwanted junk!

Eager to clear out more space, we decided to put a curb notice for an old refrigerator on Craigslist.com. Since last summer, I've been meaning to list it for fifty bucks or so, but never seemed to get around to it. The ad said it was on the driveway, come and get it if you want it. We rolled it out to the curb and...fifteen minutes later two big, burly guys drove up in an SUV to take it off our hands. Woo-hoo! A Craigslist record, too! I'm sure it will find a second life as a beer fridge in someone's garage.

So, while we didn't get much done on our place this weekend (although we did help my cousin hang up drywall at his), it felt like a satisfactory day just clearing out that stuff.

What do the rest of you think? Should junk trucks be regulated?

Fancy Schmancy Potting Bench

Sadly, the sideboard I found in the alley last week won't be making it into the house. I really couldn't figure out where I was going to put it! And so, it's going to start it's next phase of life as a sort of upmarket potting bench:

I managed to get most of my ceramic pots underneath it for winter storage, filled the side compartments with bags of grass seed and fertilizer, and looky! Room for my hand tools in the front drawers! Previously, these were scattered here and there throughout the garage.

There's almost, almost room in the garage for a car.

Nifty New (to Me) Dresser -- Dumpster Diving Treasure

While strolling down our alley last week, I spotted this dresser waiting to be picked up by the garbage collectors. I ended up making half a dozen trips up and down the alley to carry all the pieces back. I found it at the same bungalow where, earlier this spring, we found the swinging kitchen door. That treasure is still in our garage, waiting for a new purpose. (If you're in the Chicago area and need a door for your bungalow restoration, let me know by posting in the comments. You may have to patch a bit of the corner with Bondo or something, but it's an overall good door that we don't think we need, and are willing to give away.)

Anyway, the exterior of the dresser is in excellent condition. There are a few scuffs, but nothing serious, and most can be buffed out. I'll replace the round wooden knobs that scream "hello, I'm from the eighties" with something modern and bronze. Half of the knobs are missing, anyway. But I'm not sure how to go about fixing the sliders. It's probably the reason the neighbors were tossing this dresser out.

Each drawer has a simple groove that fits onto the slider:

Here is what the sliders look like:

Each slider is about 13 inches long, and is just a simple plastic piece that screws in place. Half of them on the dresser are either broken or missing. I checked Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes without luck. It's kind of an old style piece. I Googled around, looking for replacements, but I'm not sure I'm even calling it by its proper name, because I can't find anything like it.

So, my question to y'all is this: do you a) know if this is actually called a slider or not and b) where can I find a replacement? Short of that, what else might I try as a replacement, without making this project into too much of a production.

You see, until I actually fix and use this dresser, both Ted and Mom will continue to mock me, as they often do, for my dumpster diving and alley prowling, because I tend to bring home things that are of genuine value, but don't take (or find) the time to fix them, so they collect in the garage. I just can't stand seeing perfectly good items getting tossed out.

The Tinkers, Junk Trucks of Chicago

A Chicago junk truck
Photo by kristen60647

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor.
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief...

I've mentioned the tinkers a couple of times in my posts without really elaborating on them, but they serve such a vital service to the Chicagoland area that they deserve a post all their own.

People usually refer to them as "the junk trucks." When I lived in Uptown Chicago, we'd see the ancient pickup trucks--loaded with an assortment of old air conditioners, beat-up shopping carts, and miscellaneous scrap metal--parked all up and down Lawrence and Broadway at night. Neighbors would often complain about them, because, let's face it, they're pretty much an eyesore. But what would we do without them?

Every day will find these trucks prowling up and down the alleys of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, looking for scrap metal and other valuables to sell to recycling centers. I started calling them "tinkers" as a nod to the metalsmiths of old who traveled the countryside, fixing and selling metal goods, and the Irish traveling people I encountered on my first trip to Ireland in '98, who were often referred to as tinkers. I don't know of anyone else who actually calls these junk truck drivers "tinkers" except me.

Like many communities, ours charges a special pick-up fee for large-item pickups--which includes furniture, appliances, etc. But it never really comes down to that. Leave anything of value in the alley, and chances are a junk truck will stop and haul your item away. We had so much crap left behind by the previous owners, that we've come to rely on the tinkers to help us out. They've hauled away old metal tables, broken aluminum windows, a washer/dryer set, and miscellaneous, unidentifiable bits of scrap metal. The city would have charged us hundreds of dollars for these pickups. The quickest pickup I witnessed was five minutes. Nothing has sat in the alley for more than two days. Why oh why would I ever complain if one of my junk-collecting neighbors wanted to park his crappy-looking truck in front of his own house? They've saved me money time and time again, and in this economy, every bit helps.

So "God bless the tinkers," I always say. What would we do without them?

Bungalow Door — A Dumpster Diving Adventure

On the way back from a late-night run to 7-11 for our Big Ass Diet Cokes, we decided to come back via the alleyways. It was garbage night in the 'hood, and we were wondering if we'd find anything interesting now that it's spring and everyone is working on their houses. The night yielded a few choice finds: a set of funky old rocks glasses and this great, solid-wood swinging kitchen door that came from a bungalow. Now, we already found the two kitchen doors that were original to The Box House, so we don't really need this one, but there was no way we could leave a perfectly decent door to be tossed out with the trash.

It does need some work; one side is painted white and on the top, at the part where it attaches to the top of the door frame, there is a bit of wood loss that can probably be filled in with epoxy. But still, they just don't make 'em like this anymore. I was too paranoid to take the Cokes home first and come back, lest someone snatch it from under my nose, and I didn't want to leave the Cokes behind with the rest of the garbage. Who knows what could happen to them in the five minutes they were out of my sight. So we carried the door under one arm and balanced our drinks in the other hand. What an odd sight!

I have to laugh--after weeks of trying to find new homes for all the junk left by the previous owners, here we are bringing more salvage home!