A moving question

I've noticed that when Germans move out they are able to just throw all their crap on the sidewalk. When I move out of my apartment in Frankfurt in July I would love to be able to do that! Does anyone know who to contact? I assume it would be someone at FES...Also, does it cost anything to have them come pick it up?

Thanks,
Courtney

Hi Courtney Anne

I did it when I left my old place - you have to ring up the Einwohnermeldeamt and tell them when you want to do it and they give you a time when it will be picked up from outside. It doesn't cost anything for the first time. If you don't call them and just dump your stuff, they will try and find out where it comes from and fine you.

Thanks Little Bear! It's great to hear I don't have to pay for it!

Hi Courtney Ann,

Just yesterday I had Bulk Rubbish removed...they call it "Spermüll". However as I dont know where you live I can only go by what I know ...which is: You do have to pay. You can book Spermüll either online or you go to the Bürgeramt/ Einwohner Meldeamt and they will give you a card to fill in. You tick all the items you want to get `rid off...on the card...and also fill in your bank details. Here it cost me 24 Euros. You hand the catd back into the Meldeamt and within a week you will get a date of collection ...send to you via post.

it´s easier online...that´s the way I did it anyway.

But like I said I dont know how it works where you are...best to go to the Bürgeramt/Meldeamt and find out.

Mickey

I don't know what it's like in Frankfurt anymore, but here in Stuttgart they've changed the system. There used to be a few fixed dates in the year when you could dump your sperrmüll at a specific collection point and they'd come round and take it away. Now though you have two opportunities a year to get rid of it free of charge and you have to phone them in advance to arrange a collection time. They've done this to try and avoid all the eastern Europeans driving around in their clapped-out vans, parking illegally, and making a complete bloody mess as they rummaged about in the heaps of junk trying to find stuff to take back with them.

Which reminds me of a true story about when I lived in a little village in deepest, darkest Westerwald... It was sperrmüll collection time and one of the residents happened to be walking around the village when he came across a 3-piece suite that had been put out onto the pavement to be collected and he thought, "Blimey, that's in better condition than ours". So, to avoid unnecessary hassle, he decided to go back home, put his furniture out onto the pavement and then he could just pick up this new suite and shift it straight into his house. [You can tell what's coming, can't you...?] So he left his suite on the pavement and went back to the suite he'd seen earlier, but this had already been taken by somebody else, so he returned to his house only to find that somebody had also taken his furniture!

did you know that it is not allowed to go and pick anything up that is left out for sperrmüll... you can be charged with theft. i have seen reports that this has actually happened

From what I've seen here in Frankfurt, you can dump stuff pretty much anytime, but I've gathered that you have to call someone ahead of time and let them know about. Whenever I see people "dumpster diving" as we call it in the States, they always look so shady, like they know what they are doing is illegal...

Hi Courtney Anne,

I rang the FES the other week as I had stuff to get rid of the earliest collection they could do was three weeks later so make sure you ring in advance. I just threw all of my stuff into my car and took it there directly to the local 'dumping area' my one is in Bornheim (Weidebornstr.) and open from 9am - 12pm and you can take up to one carload of Sperrmüll there and the people there were really friendly the guys even helped unload my car!

http://www.fes-frankfurt.de/index.asp

Here is the service number they will be able to tell you where you nearest unit is

(0)180 33722550

I think if you want to get rid of old PC equipment you do have to take it there yourself I am not sure the Sperrmüll people take them as there were some left outside my building the other week but I am sure they can confirm this on the telephone.

Hope this helps
Amanda

Years ago when I first came to Germany I worked with a lot of Americans, and on the days that sperrmull was put out they would go sorting through the stuff and
often found quite good items. They called it junking. They asked me to go with them on numerous occasions, but I politely declined.

I had to call the old Sperrmüll in earlier this year. I think the date you get depends on when they're in your area, so it might be 3 days or 3 weeks. In some places it's free, in others it isn't.

Round here (Essen) there's combustible and non-combustible waste and they're dead picky, too. For example, I threw away my old sofa-bed, amongst other things, but they left the frame behind because it was metal, so I had to call them again for non-combustible.

Also, they'll call round once a year for free (in Essen, anyway), but if you want them to come again, you have to pay, so try and get it done in one go.

We recently moved from a 100 sq mtrs to 52 so we had a lot of stuff to get rid of, put it all out on the street, and you'd think it was Christmas, the whole neigbourhood decended on our street, it was like Vultures feeding on a dead body.