When I get rid of something, I don’t just set it out by the trash. I write it a note.
The note goes on the object, and it’s written as if the object has a personality. It has a favorite thing. It has a hope for its next life. Then I leave it in the alley or at the curb, photograph it with its note, and walk away.
In a Chicago alley, free stuff doesn’t sit around. As soon as something is put out, it’s gone within the hour. Someone rolls up, sees a pair of speakers, and grabs them. But this time the speakers come with a request.
Most of the notes follow the same pattern: tell the next owner what this thing loves, and ask them to keep that going. This TV likes cartoons. Please take and enjoy. The object gets to keep being itself, just in someone else’s home.
Notes from the alley
IKEA shelf, 2012
“Your place would look soooo nice with this!”
Folding chairs, 2015
“These chairs were used at many family parties at my grandma’s. Please take and them use them at your family parties.”
Couch, 2015
“Read good magazines while relaxing on this couch. Please take.”
Mirror, 2015
“Wow! You look sooo good in this mirror! Please take this, you beautiful person!”
[photo] Cookie jar, 2015
“A never-used cookie jar! Please take and fill up with chocolate chip cookies.”
Plant, 2015
“Please feed me and give me love.” and “I will make your home colorful and happy. Please take.”
Vintage croquet set, 2015
“Have a fun afternoon with this vintage croquet set. Please take and use every weekend.”
The ones nobody takes home
Some things are too far gone to have a next owner. In 2026, two rusted metal shelves from my garage went to the curb for scrap metal pickup. Nobody was going to carry them into a living room. So the note couldn’t ask anyone to take them home. It had to ask the metal what it wants to become.
“May these metal shelves be broken down into scrap metal, melted and reformed into something new.
These shelves spent years holding garden tools in the dirt. I hope they come back as croquet wickets, still outside on the grass, but finally getting to play.”
