How to drag large garbage can?

[Walter E.]

Our city provides large garbage cans, about 4' tall and 30" square. Full, they can weigh up to 200 pounds, especially if we fill them with heavy ice plant. Our home is located at the bottom of a fairly steep driveway (50' in length). We have three of these black cans for household garbage and landscape debris.

I am getting on in years (80 YO) and find it hard to roll these monster cans up to the curb for pickup by the garbage truck. I have tried tying them (one at a time) to the hook for my trunk lid inside my trunk.

The problem is, the cans meander something awful when I pull them up the hill with my car, to the point where I am afraid they might tip over sideways. I have used heavy rope and also bungee cords. Same problem.

Any better suggestion, anyone? Thank you.

[RobertPatrick]

"Walter E." wrote in news:hro3t1$4oi$ [e-mail]:

Call the hauler and request them to pick up at your house. That's the way people do it around here, anyways. You pay extra, but it saves you a lot of aggravation.

[krw]

We have one of those. It's heavier going down the driveway than up. ;-)

You're 80YO and fill three cans a week? People typically use less as they get older (fewer in the house, smaller meals, less junk,...).

Pay a neighbor kid $5 a week?

[The Daring Dufas]

If I was your neighbor, you could call me to help. I would hope you had a neighbor who wouldn't mind coming over to grab your can.

[Elmo]

What I do is open my driver side window and grab a hold of the handle and drag the garbage can behind me just a few inches away from the car.

Surprisingly, it doesn't scrape against the car and doesn't hurt the arm (too much). Try it once with the empty can on the way back up the hill and let us know how it works.

Also some people (who have more money than I do) use a garden tractor with a yard trailer hitched behind with the garbage cans piled in the trailer. Also works from a pickup or from an automobile hitch but this might be more work than you were asking for.

Good luck ... if you find out a better answer, let me know.

[Walter E.]

The monster garbage trucks are too huge and heavy for my driveway.

[Walter E.]

Well, most of the stuff is not empty pizza wrappers, although we have a lot of those, too. It's gardening debris from a one acre lot.

[Walter E.]

Thank you for the idea but there are no neighbors close to us (semi-rural environment)

[Walter E.]

Good try, but when you are 80 years old, will you be able to do that neat little trick with a 200 lb garbage can??

[GeorgeD]

In our town, people with disabilities are not required to bring the trash cans to the curb. You might call the town and explain that it is not feasible for you to bring the cans to the curb. I suspect (in light of all the disability laws) that they will have someone fetch them for you.

Regards,

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I'd be willing to bet you're not the only 80yr old with a long driveway your hauler has ever come across. Give them a call & see if they have an idea.

I'd probably end up building something like a walker with good sized swivel tires so all I had to contend with was forward motion- not holding the weight on 2 wheels.

Got an old golf cart lying around?

Jim

[HeyBub]

Heh!

We have those cans and the city won't pick them up if they contain "yard waste;" There's a separate protocol for that.

I recommend piling up the clippings, etc., in the backyard and burning them.

Alternatively, put your yard waste in easier-to-handle plastic bags, put an empty can on the curb, and discover some clever way to get the bags to the can (in the back of your pickup, using a wheelbarrow, attaching the bags to the harness of a (large) dog...

Can you rig up some sort of pulley system, like tenement clothes-lines?

[norminn]

Paved drive? Could buy or build a small cart to take stuff up the hill. We have the monster cans with wheels, but they are in the lot and the city rolls them out to the truck. I would not consider filling a standard garb. can, much less the monster cans, and trying to maneuver it by myself. The solution might be to have an enclosure at the top of the hill for the cans and take smaller batches of trash to the cans there.

I'm not 80, but I can almost see it from here. No 80 y/o has any business trudging up a hill with a load like you describe...gotta plan for your own safety, above all else. A garden cart will take plenty in one batch up the hill to empty there. Hauling a heavy can with an arm out the window of your car is likely to get you a broken arm, or worse.

[Jeff The Drunk]

Buy the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane version of a 1/5 scale model helicopter and fly your garbage to the curb.

[LSMFT]

Get a cheap utility trailer for your garden tractor. Keep the cans in the trailer. On garbage day, haul the trailer up to the road with your garden tractor and unhitch it there. If needed, get a $20 trailer jack with a wheel so you can hook up easy.

[Chuck]

I had a similar problem and I decided to start a mulch pile in a remote corner of my property. Mostly grass clippings and small bush cuttings. That took care of most of the heavy stuff. A neighbor complained about it to the code enforcement people. They came out and said I had a great idea and they started to encourage all rural folks to do the same.

[Caesar Romano]

On Mon, 3 May 2010 20:22:05 -0700, "Walter E." wrote Re How to drag large garbage can?:

I had a similar problem that I solved by leaving the trash can by the road, chained to a tree. I bring the trash (in plastic bags) to the can by placing it in the trunk of my car trunk and bring the bag to the can when I go to pick up the mail. On trash pick-up day I unchain the can and re-chain it after the pickup.

Now I never have to deal with more than the weigh of a single plastic trash bag.

[Bill Gill]

May places do offer pickup for people in your situation. Call and check to see if you can get it.

Bill

[h]

Not true! Taking things "easy" is how you become decrepit. My 86 year old mother regularly hikes (even with recent foot surgery), works out every day, and does all her own yard work. Dragging the cans to the curb every week is a given. And she's only 110 lbs at 5 ft. Man up already.

[h]

I'm sure your neighbors love that. In my town, you'd be in violation of local laws.