Hard rubbish, hard facts

Posted by Andy Bell

It’s hard rubbish week in my neck of the woods.

And that means all kinds of no longer loved bits and pieces emerge from under beds, out of cupboards and deep from any remaining sheds.

To some of my fellow Brunswickians,  it might seem a temporary blight, but to me it’s a revelation.

It’s an “interesting” sight to behold.

What people are throwing out reveals what they are rejecting, running away from or discarding with scorn.

And it appears that in my part of Brunswick West the population is luxuriating on brand new mattresses while gawking at plasma tellies now that they have cleared the decks.

Some sorry-looking bed equipment and quite battered (and not so old-looking) 4×3 TVs are filling up the verges in these environs.

But much of the stuff isn’t that shoddy.

It’s being thrown out because something else came along – not necessarily better, but newer.

Don’t get me wrong –  much of the garbage is garbage.

There’s a lot of  IKEA-esque bookcases, sets of drawer and desk units hither and yon.

Although, for the want of a viable allen-key these might have survived the cut, but there they are in several states of collapse.

Then there’s the individual and sorry pieces of people’s lives – suitcases unused, lampshades regretted, carpet uncleaned.

They sit forlorn, these memorials of meubles.

I wandered among them and wondered what they might represent.

The queen sized mattress that heralded a short, but pneumatic relationship.

The Samsonite knock-off that only carouselled a couple of times … and then only domestically.

And, worst of all, the rejected toy – soft or otherwise.

There are also mysteries.

Tyres and a sink unit ?

Now that’s a spring clean.

The level of our consumerism is naked on the streets.

Much of what we no longer use or wear is far from broken or worn out or salvageable. 

We just want to see the back of it because it isn’t doing the business for us now.

Oh, and my hard rubbish ?

Just a bed frame. 

It collapsed. 

And there’s no funny/sordid storyto go with the collapse.

It just wore out.