Leaving things in public as free take-aways

Topic split: Moving box full of cleaning stuff
sarabyrd, just a question. I can imagine wanting to particularly help fellow expats, but all these items to give away on TT made me wonder what the policy is about street sales (carboot or garage sales) in Germany, and whether it is legal to leave things on the street for people to take away for free?

In Holland, the only time you can sell anything on the street without a license is on Queen's Day, the national celebration of the Queen's Birthday. (For any travelers, that is the absolutely BEST time to visit Holland. All the Dutchies are in a good mood, with beer and music in all the streets. April 30th is the date.)

When I moved, I gave a lot of my things to friends, but of course, some of the items would have been repeats of theirs. I put it all out on the street the morning I left, so I wouldn't know if there were repercussions for leaving things in the street. I imagine there would be in Holland, as every homeowner is required to clean in front of their house.

Anyway, just curious. Thanks!

1) Ask the KVR (for Munich)
2) I would wager that leaving things on the street "to be taken away" is illegal disposal of garbage but can't be bothered to google

I've definitely seen fruit in boxes outside people's houses before with a sign saying "frei zum mitnehmen" or something like that on it. That was in a smaller town though, suppose not many people in cities have apple trees.

Thanks for replies. Yes, I kind of figured it would be illegal. But I would have left Schipol by the time they were on to me, I surmised. However, I was let back into the country, so perhaps the Dutch cops weren't too interested. They did seem to have a live and let live philosophy, which I admired. It was just the old ladies, like in Germany, that were scary. You know, they have mirrors angled to look down in the streets from their easy chairs.

In smaller towns and in the country there's a day every three months for disposing of "Sperrmüll" - larger items such as furniture, which would otherwise be a bit difficult to dispose of. You just pile the stuff up on the payment and a lorry comes round and collects it. The range of things which you can dispose of in this way is limited (we are in Germany, after all!), but in practice anything you put out that might be remotely useful will disappear into the back of a Polish van within minutes, so nobody really bothers too much about what's allowed and what's not.

I know lots of unexpected things are illegal in D but why should that be? As long was whatever it is isnt poisonous/dangerous/illegal in itself and as long as it does actually get taken away in a reasonable time frame (I would suggest 48hrs max) then its fine.

I do this all the time, with stuff from old PC monitors to broken garden chairs and the stuff vanishes within hours normally. Disposing of old Monitors costs 5,- down at the Wertstoffhof, so if someone wants to take it away for free, theyre welcome to.

Course, its worth not putting out anything traceable, just in case someone takes it and dumps it two streets away but otherwise...

andy M

Wouldn't happen in North Germany, but then anything left outside would get washed away in the rain...
Obtained some excellent Penguin books on the outskirts of Munich - left in a carton "Frei zum mitnehmen".

Cuz the sidewalk in front of your house is public property. And most cities have laws against private litter on any public property outside official disposal grounds.

Simple way around that though - just put it on your own.