Looking for a family outing these holidays? Might I suggest the local ‘resource recovery centre’. Otherwise known as the humble tip. There’s a little something for everyone, at least at my local one.
There are toys, bikes, scooters, even skis. There are books for the bookish and tools for the handy. And I’ve literally never seen so many toilets in one place.
I took one of my kids, who was a bit squeamish about the whole notion of resource recovery (“People threw these in the bin, right?”), and not impressed by the bouquet-de-dump (a scent that clings for some time afterwards).
But – as a strong young fella – he came in very handy when loading my prized find into the 4WD – a heavily corroded metal rim from a cartwheel.
I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with it yet, but mark my words, it’ll be spectacular.
Finding cool things at the tip is like next-level op-shopping. This is the stuff that people think isn’t even worth putting in the charity bin.
And yet, where else are you going to find three old wooden piers from a wharf (waaaay too big and heavy, otherwise they would have gone in the car with the wheel rim). Or a pile of old bathtubs. I’m definitely going back for one of them (gonna need the trailer for that baby), because I have a plan for an outdoor ‘spa’ that will be sure to impress the neighbours.
Even when it comes to more conventional items, you could practically set up home entirely from the tip. There’s every kind of furniture (in fact, a dining set I would totally go for, if I didn’t have one already), cutlery, glassware, and some fetching ornaments just like Aunty Beryl’s.
It makes me wonder why we ever buy new things, instead of re-purposing old. There’s just so many of those ‘things’ already in the world. Why do we constantly clamour for more?
Everything we buy and use comes from somewhere and ends up somewhere else. And hopefully ‘somewhere else’ is my local tip, because there’s nothing like a pile of junk to make me smile.
