Items with NEGATIVE VALUE: Metal Bedframes

March 17, 2012 11:02 AM

In this old house in which I find myself living, useless metal bedframes have been kicking around here for eighteen years. What should I do with them?

In my experience, an ad on Craigslist ends up in all variety of broke miscreants KNOWING WHERE YOU LIVE, that's not ideal.

In my experience, people recommend "metal salvage dudes" but they tend to CHARGE BY THE POUND for the items that you load onto their truck, so that's not ideal.

Perhaps there is no ideal solution for me getting rid of these things. Ancient metal bedframes that noboy uses that kick around from basement to garage that no one has used in eighteen years. At this point, it seems to me that they have NEGATIVE VALUE. What should I do?

posted by shipbreaker to home & garden (22 answers total)

If you grow a garden, I've seen people use them as frames to make cucumber/squash/tomato trellises.
posted by jocelmeow at 11:06 AM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can you just put them on the curb? SOMEONE will take them.
posted by desjardins at 11:08 AM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nearly everywhere that has garbage service has a bulk pick-up service that comes with it. You just call to schedule a pickup, leave a heap of junk out front for them the night before, and it all goes away the next day. In San Francisco anyway, it's free to have them come twice a year.
posted by foodgeek at 11:08 AM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pay to get them taken away. Either that or recognize you are okay with your house being a landfill. I'm nt trying to be a jerk - this thinking actually has helped me get rid of tons of junk that I had just gotten used to having around. Get rid of it no matter the cost, your space and mental health are more important!
posted by airways at 11:11 AM on March 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yep, sanitation department's bulk pick-up. In my city you can only use this service once a year, so give them a call and see what your limits are, then get all your crap together and wave goodbye to it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:13 AM on March 17, 2012

In my neighborhood you would just put them out on the street and metal collectors come take them away. It's money for them.
posted by Vaike at 11:32 AM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you have junk removal dudes like 1800GotJunk in your area? I've used them for moveouts where we're getting rid of tons of crap and they usually charge by volume rather than weight. They'll take pretty much anything that's not hazardous, in my experience.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:38 AM on March 17, 2012

Craigslist will work to find the person, so it's just a matter of logistics on the transfer. So find the interested party, but meet somewhere away from your house or deposit them in a safe place for them to pick up shortly afterwards.
posted by queue_strategy at 11:38 AM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

My neighborhood for-profit recycling business would probably pay $5-10 each for them. That's how scrappers make a living. You bring them in on a trailer, they weigh you, you dump your stuff, and they weigh you again and hand you cash. I recycled an old patio gazebo frame for $16 this week.
posted by PSB at 11:41 AM on March 17, 2012

I've taken metal bedframes to Goodwill before. Charities that accept donations can sometimes send a truck for pickup.
posted by corey flood at 12:17 PM on March 17, 2012

If you post a "CURB ALERT" under "free" in Craigslist no one needs to know your exact address or meet with you. Post a pic & put stuff out on a sunny weekend and it should vanish in a flash.
posted by Lettuce_Leaves at 12:19 PM on March 17, 2012

I put stuff like that out a little before sundown the night before garbage day. If they're in reasonably good shape you can stick a sign that says "free" on it so there's no confusion. Salvage guys cruise the neighborhoods the evening before and morning of garbage pickup around here. You have a better chance of someone taking it if you have it out early (but not like DAYS early so your neighbors complain about your trash). You also have a better chance of someone taking it on a nicer day. You can also wait until someone on your block has a garage sale and just stick it out front with a "free" sign. Garage salers will take ANYTHING.

Our local garbage guys will take a bedframe (or chair or lightweight bookcase, etc.) amount of "bulk" garbage on regular pickup day, with no prior arrangement, as long as you're not doing it every week and it's not a ton of stuff. It's better if you take it apart for them, though.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:36 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Toss them into the ocean, Fe is a limiting nutrient for phytoplankton and this would in theory help sequester some carbon from the atmosphere.
posted by oceanjesse at 1:32 PM on March 17, 2012

Put them in your car, bring them to a Salvation Army drop off. You might want to call first to make sure they want them, but I've had them take crap of that nature without problem.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 2:40 PM on March 17, 2012

Buy a stick welder and a chop saw and use them to learn to weld!
posted by TheNewWazoo at 2:41 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I got rid of a box spring (no mattress, just the box spring) and it's little metal-wheely feet by scheduling a Salvation Army pickup. Easiest thing ever.
posted by troublesome at 3:21 PM on March 17, 2012

I made a bicycle trailer out of the angle iron style bed frames... I stop and pick them up if I see them on the curb. They are actually nice raw material for small fabrication. My local salvation army sells new ones for 40$ so they aren't a negative-value item. Even tubular bed frames could be useful in the garden for something.

Cut them up with a reciprocating saw if they don't fit into a car disassembled and take them to a scrap yard for some beer money if you don't want to tinker with them, or just leave them out a day before garbage day and an industrious scrapper will hopefully grab them.
posted by glip at 5:24 PM on March 17, 2012

Oh, oops, meant to link the bicycle trailer plans if anyone was curious.
posted by glip at 5:26 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am a "scrap dude." Actually, I am an electrician - but I bring leftover copper to scrap yards, and when I go, I bring other metals too. From that, I know a few guys who scrap metal as a living.

Getting rid of metal should be simple. Just put it on your curb. Someone will take it. Or put an ad on craigslist, "free scrap metal. call xxx." When they call, explain what it is, and that they must take it all, and then give your address. Someone will come and take it.

Mixed metal is at about 1.25 per 10lbs right now. Your old bed frames are money to scrap. You should not have to pay anyone to take - people will come get it for free right now. Heck, if you are in Polk County, FL, memail me, and I will come get it.
posted by Flood at 5:35 PM on March 17, 2012

Get some old bricks and use the old bedframes to Build a Brick Pizza Oven!
posted by Ostara at 5:52 PM on March 17, 2012

FreeCycle :)
posted by dubious_dude at 5:05 AM on March 18, 2012

airways, you had the best answer.

Also, the answer that ties in with the other thing that is going on in my living situation.

Perhaps I will make that the topic of my next weekly AskMetafilter question.
posted by shipbreaker at 4:16 PM on March 23, 2012