Have a GW yard sale! There was one last year on the Kitchen forum if you search you may find the Rules.

I'll bet anybody here (or at least those close enough to drive to your place) would jump at the chance for your left-overs. The doors sound great, but I've only got 8 ft ceilings :-(

Our Goodwill takes a lot of cr@p (and puts ridiculous prices on it if it's a floor sample or return donated by Target or Walmart - the white tags). But they don't pick up. Salvation Army in Hartford (CT) does (they came out to get some things like cheap particleboard computer desk from me just b/c I'm in same county - just barely) but closer one (next county) doesn't. They won't take exercise equipment. I see a lot of junk on CL but I don't know if it sells or just goes away.

But whenever my dad takes something big to the dump, there's always someone who takes it home!

Our community is good about recycling - at least I think it is - we have a separate truck that comes around for recycling, and they just changed from the large cans for trash to recyclables (picked up every other week instead of every week) and gave us a smaller can for trash (still picked up every week). We also just went to "single-stream" recycling so paper, cans, glass, etc. don't need to be separated.

Hmm Midatlantic eh? Maryland by any chance?

At some point you just want it to go away and not go to the dump. That's when I list it on my local freecycle.org, or craigslist, either the Free category, or the Materials, Household, Furniture, or General category.

They frown on this but title it:
Curb alert: 8 foot Greek Revival Doors

Our Salvation Army and Amvets (Midwest) still readily pick up. Makes it so easy! I used to donate to a local Catholic Church because they gave items to people in our community who had lost everything to fires or other catastrophic events like that. But last time I called to verify someone would be there they presented me with their new policy, a list of pretty stringent requirements. I get that they don't want junk, and I don't donate junk, but that list was probably discouraging a lot of good donations. (Did mine, I didn't have time to go through each item to see if it met their criteria.) Around here, if something is put on the curb, it's gone within a couple hours generally. ;)

I was going to suggest what graywings did. I see a lot more turning up under "Curb Alert" heading on CL. Made me sad one day tho, a beautiful antique hutch a church was getting rid of, said it was sitting in the alley behind the church for the taking. And it was pouring rain. :/

They frown on *Curb Alert*? I did not know that. Curb alerts are very common in my area and even I have posted curb alerts. The ads never get pulled. I'm going to check. I don't want to be doing anything wrong.

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For architectural salvage like doors, hardware and related items, give them to ReStore. They are part of Habitat for Humanity. Check the link to see if their is a ReStore in your area. Each store has it's own website and rules. The one in my area does have truck and will pick up but they encourage people to bring the stuff in themselves as part of their "donation".

http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore.aspx

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One reason recyclers dump the recycle bin in the trash is that people don't take the time to process their garbage correctly for recycling. I remember how my OCD (IMHO) husband would screw the metal lids back on glass jars because it "looked better" and toss them in the bin. Arrrrgh. Did he thing they hire people to unscrew the lids from thousands of jars at the plant?? People won't rinse containers or they won't remove the collars and labels. If there is a whole load of stuff like that mixed with the proper recyclables they just dump it all in the trash.

Here is a link that might be useful: ReStore

Unfortunately we don't have a ReStore for 20 mines in any direction. I put my old kitchen cabinets($5.00 starting bid) on eBay, and they were purchased and picked up by someone from across the state, not someone around here.

Sometimes I find my city very strange. All those things that designers suggest on TV or people on GW suggest:
"Get your old metal cabinet sprayed at your local body shop!
"Get the guy at the lumberyard to cut it for you!

routinely gets a response to the effect of "Are you kiddin'? Go $*(I love it here :(

Different freecycles have different rules. "No Curb Alerts" may be a local restriction of one particular nazi-like freecycle I belonged to.

Most suggest waiting a bit to allow people to see your ad before selecting the winning receiver. The freecycle I belong to now wants you to give it to the first person who responds.

I know you're frustrated palimpsest, but that post made me LOL! ;)
Thought of another one, kijiji. Much like CL, it's really picked up momentum in my area this past year.

I am similarly situated. but find that our municipality does do a good job of recycling.

However, I see far too many decent items curbside the night before heavy trash day (first week of every month). I guess these people don't want to go to the trouble of CL, Ebay or donation? For them it is easier to drag unwanted items to the curb.

Part of the problem may be that GW, SA, and other donation places have become much more selective of what they will take.

Our local recycling is excellent here in CT. For our local taxes, our town has a bulky-waste curbside pick-up every two years to dispose of furniture, old kitchen appliances. You have to have them separated metal/non-metal piles by the Monday of your week, and let me tell you, your neighborhood is then filled with a steady stream of people in pick-up trucks who literally take every piece. I see what you mean on charities not willing to pick up furniture so much anymore. My DH's mother passed away a few years back. She lived in a high-rise apt in NYC. Neither family wanted any of her furniture, plus it would be crazy to try to get it out of that highrise. We called dozens of charities in the phone book who stated they wanted furniture donations, but NONE would take it, and only one came to look at it (and deemed it "too old"). We ended up PAYING a junk removal service to cart it all away. So sad!

My bet is those people putting things out on the curb are doing so because, like palimsest, they can't sell it or give it away. I am in the same boat after cleaning out my parents' home. We left a lot of good things in the house (maple bureaus, glassware, chairs, decorative things) because we didn't have anywhere to put the furniture and it wasn't the really good antiques or sentimental stuff. Had we lived closer, we would have hired someone to hold an estate sale, but getting sister to come up from GA was impossible and we dared not sell anything unless she okayed it-oh well.

We live in northern VA outside DC. Charities will not take furniture and people at yard sales are not going to pay anything near what something is worth. We put things on CL, no go. Just as an example, my son did end up selling our huge antique grandfather clock that had been in the family since the late 1800s and was valued at $10,000 by our clock guy who took care of it for 40 years in Bryn Mawr, PA. DS was able to get $4800. A local clock guy here looked at it and offered $1500. He just wasn't being honest. We went ahead because it was in a crate in the garage (too big for our house) and I hated to take a chance that it could be ruined. After he sold it, another potential buyer said he would have given us $6500-after telling us $4500 was as high as he could go. I wish we had never moved it and had sold it up there in PA. Very sad.

I do like freecycle and CL because people always seem so pleased to get their "finds," but a lot of the truly valuable (talking mid-range valuable here as in thousands, but not tens of thousands) stuff is hard to get sold. I have one of a pair of cabinets (sister has other, but could probably get the other, too, if someone insisted on having the pair) with beautiful brown marble tops, inlaid wood designs on the doors and side, solid brass trim, etc. for which we can't find a home. They aren't in perfect condition, but they are in good condition. Consignment shops require that we deliver and this is too big and heavy for us to move, plus if it doesn't sell, we would have to pick it up! It really is no fun, is it? Too good to relegate to the garage, but not my style, so it stays where I see it and hate it everyday. I keep thinking that I could get new countertops if I could just sell it! LOL.

I feel your pain palimpsest! Alas, don't have any solutions.