What’s that Trash?

In Budapest, districts provide an opportunity for everyone to get rid of all their unwanted furniture, electrical devices, magazines, books, records and whatever else they don’t need any more. People can leave these items two previously announced times a year, out on the street. Dates vary district to district. After a few days of exposition, the district will clean up the trash from the street.

Lomtalanítás is a free clearance of your bulky waste organized by your district authority, and for some it is a treasure-hunt opportunity. From mattresses to the kitchen sink it all goes curbside for a designated day or two before being whisked away by the authorities.

Lomtalanítás is a super way to get rid of cumbersome junk like old furniture or broken appliances. Moreover, if you are a fan of flea markets, lomtalanítás can be an antique buff’s delight. Although largely rubbish, if you have a keen eye for quality and don’t mind doing a bit of sifting through the junk heaps, you could unearth some cool curios, or if you’re really good – a valuable antique.

At times like this you might be able to find some rare treasures, like ‘thonet’ style chairs and other rare pieces of furniture. If you don’t mind sorting through other people’s trash, this is not ‘ciki‘ (awkward or weird) at these times of the year. Unfortunately you will have a lot of competition; others will be attacking the nice objects, sometimes in an organized fashion. Most useful things will probably show up again on one of the flea markets of Budapest. Anyway, it is very interesting and currently you can see this happening in the seventh district of Budapest.

I have a “nice” small wooden table and a wooden cupboard from a lomtalanítás many years ago when competition was smaller. This is actually fun, if you are weird enough (like me).

How to know when?
Because of the organized diggers, Budapest districts will no longer announce the scheduled trash takeout days are no longer announced online. You are supposed to find this information on posted signs in your apartment building’s bulleting board. Lomtalanítás in your area will be announced via posters, in Hungarian, and the date clearly marked – even if you miss the posters, you’ll soon see all the junk heaps on the sidewalk.

lomtalanítás, flea market, antique, trash, junk