‘I draw the line’ at feces: A guide to the best thrift shopping on Columbia curbs

“Busted-ass table and chairs. Between 20 and 400 years old, and ugly as sin. But if people are actually reclaiming and using sofas they find on the street, then it’s conceivable someone will want this.”

This iconic message from a Columbia neighborhood Facebook group a few years back rings just as true today, capturing the heart of Columbia’s special “curb alert” culture.

It’s a tale as old as time in Columbia neighborhoods: Spring arrives, the junk cleaning begins, and the treasure hunters come out.

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“Curb alerts” are generally one of the most popular ways of communicating on social media in some Columbia neighborhoods, right up there with lost pet posts and recommendations for the best handyman to hand wash your grandmother’s cousin’s basket weaving shed with organic essential oils — or, if you live in Rosewood, the infamous “call it in” posts (if you know, you know).

Curb alerts are especially numerous this time of year with spring cleaning and many college-aged renters on the verge of packing up and moving out.

What’s the deal with the curb shopping thing? In other words, why do we love picking up other people’s junk on the side of the street?

First of all, it’s really not just dumping old junk and picking up someone else’s junk.

“Rather than put something in the garbage to throw it away, it is recycled,” said Janice Broom, a frequent “Shandon shopper,” as she says they’re called in her neighborhood.

“It’s a culture of upcycling. ... I think it’s a nice way to keep usable things out of the landfill,” said Tracie Broom, Janice’s stepdaughter and the co-founder of a local boutique communications firm. She picked up some of her curb-shopping ways (and some of her best decor items) from her parents, she said. “It’s a bounty of communal stuff-sharing.”

A pile of unwanted items left on a curb in Rosewood on April 25, 2018.
A pile of unwanted items left on a curb in Rosewood on April 25, 2018.

Tracie Broom used to live in San Francisco, where curbside junk piles are not allowed. But once every so often, neighborhoods would have a “big trash day,” producing a trove of treasures for “an income-challenged 20-something,” Broom said.

“So imagine my delight when I moved home to Columbia and every day is big trash day,” she said.

Pick a day, any day, and you might find scattered across the city’s neighborhoods a box of Nancy Drew books, a four-post bed, a ping-pong table, a couple of mirrors, a stove top, a collection of pint glasses, a kid-sized plastic basketball goal, a keyboard (the musical kind or the computer kind). All free for the taking.

“I think I have a pirate’s eye for treasure,” Janice Broom said.

The Brooms have picked up items ranging from decorative lamps and yard furnishings — “I know that some people will look in our yard and say, ‘Isn’t that that Adirondack chair we threw out?” Janice said — to a diamond and pearl ring, Louis Vuitton luggage and a vintage steamer trunk that Tracie has used as a coffee table in her office for years.

“If you want something like that in your life, you’ve got to shell out for it or find it on the street,” she said.

‘I draw the line’ at feces

It looked like a great rocking chair — until Cody Hughes sat down in it and the seat caved in.

No harm; moving right along.

The handyman and landscaper was driving through Rosewood earlier this week when he thought he’d stumbled upon his latest treasure.

“Anything I see good, I’m going to stop and pick it up. I refurbish them,” Hughes said. “If it’s something I can use, I’ll pick it up.”

Almost anything goes in the culture of curb shopping.

“There’s no rules,” said Suzan Stafford, who supplied the broken rocking chair Hughes almost picked up. Leaving and collecting curb items happens all the time in Rosewood, she said. “If it’s there, take it.”

A pile of unwanted items left on a curb in Rosewood on April 25, 2018. Handyman and landscaper Cody Hughes stopped and considered picking up the rocking chair - until the seat fell through.
A pile of unwanted items left on a curb in Rosewood on April 25, 2018. Handyman and landscaper Cody Hughes stopped and considered picking up the rocking chair - until the seat fell through.

There are, however, a few unwritten rules — etiquette, if you will — to curb shopping.

If you pick through a pile, leave it neat; don’t let it spill out into the road.

If something doesn’t look like it’s meant to be in a pile on the road, maybe go knock on the door of the house and double-check with the owner (it’s just the nice thing to do). Related: If it’s your house, don’t leave things sitting too close to the road if you don’t want them pilfered.

The good stuff goes quick.

Knowing when trash pickup day is in a certain area can help you plan your shopping trip. Curb piles will tend to pop up the day before pickup.

Saturdays and Sundays also are notoriously ripe curb shopping days. That’s when many folks have done their house cleaning or project work, and when yard sale leftovers get tossed.

An assortment of other tips for curb shopping newbs:

Especially with fabrics, give stuff the smell test. Remember that some curb items might have endured the flood of 2015, or, you know, just South Carolina humidity. Beware of mildew.

Check for roach egg casings, feces and other signs of pests. “I am not going to pick something up off the street that has any trace of feces on it. Or an odor. That’s where I draw the line,” Tracie Broom said.

Don’t go cutting the copper elements out of a perfectly good thingamajig. Someone else might be able to use the whole thing if you leave it intact.

If you’re leaving items on the curb, consider leaving a status note with them — something like “This printer still works.”

There appear to be mixed feelings about closed trash bags. For Stafford, they’re off limits. On the other hand, if everything lying around it looks clean and neat ... “It depends,” Janice Broom said. “You don’t know if you don’t peek!”

Should you come upon another curb shopper at a pile, be respectful. Respect “first come, first served.” For goodness’ sake, don’t get into a curb kerfuffle.