Margot's Blog: Sort out pallets

15 April 2022

Sort out pallets

Once upon a time, someone in my neighbourhood had something big delivered. It came in three pallets, nailed together, and wrapped in plastic. Whoever it was and whatever it was that was delivered, the person left the packaging by the side of the road. But the council will not pick something like that up.

I decided to take the pallets apart. I don't like fly-tipping! And I know that it is not unusual for someone to ask on the village Facebook group if someone has some pallets. I could just wait for that to happen and then get rid of them again! But nobody put in a request, as far as I noticed. So one day I decided that something needed to be done. And I decided to chop one up for firewood. It was painted, but well, what can one do.

When I had separated the three pallets, I had been a bit dismayed at how many nails the people had used who had fixed them together. And those people would in all likelihood be different people from those who had made the regional pallets. But I was soon to find out they had the same outlook on life. Whoever had made these pallets did not do sparing use of nails! It was a right pain to separate the various planks and blocks. The sawing into chunks was not much of a problem, but getting the nails out of these planks was a bit of a challenge as well. I decided this was just not very efficient use of a pallet. So I soon as I had chopped it up I became proactive, and actively advertised the remaining two (plus an unrelated smaller pallet) on the village Facebook page. And someone immediately responded! They wanted all three. And they lived a bit further east on the high street.

I pondered fixing them to my bike, but I didn't think it would work well. Then I pondered my dolly, and decided that was a better idea. I just stood all three pallets on the dolly; they just stood there quite stably. Then I strapped them to it with a ratchet strap. Ready to go!

Getting the whole construction to the road was bit interesting as the slopes were steep and the ground uneven. But if I could do this bit, I could do the rest as well!

I got them to the high street. All was well except some drainage gutters in the pavement. But I managed to negotiate them! And when I was beyond halfway there, I met a woman on the pavement, and she spontaneously offered to help. That was kind! The rest was a doddle.

When we got to the house I thought was our destination she said "that's Donna's house!" And it had indeed been a woman called Donna who had wanted the pallets. We were at the right address! So we wheeled them into the front garden and said goodbye. The lady introduced herself as Megan and vanished. She had been kind!

I took the strap off and wondered if I should knock. But I figured that if anyone would be home they would have heard me by now. And I had somewhere to go. The lady had suggested I just leave them in the front garden so I took my dolly and walked back.

I have no idea what their new role will be. I hope they will remain pallets! They certainly are sturdily built. And I now have some firewood that smells a bit funny thanks to the paint, and a lot more space in the garage!