Sadly, the housing market continues to collapse in many areas of the nation, leading to a continued uptick in foreclosures. Increasingly these foreclosed properties are still filled the remnants of the previous owners, causing banks to pay "trash out" men to literally trash out a house.

Similar to the board up men that were benefiting early on in the housing crisis, trash out companies are under increased demand as more and more homes need to be trashed out before they can be put back on the market.

The number and array of items left behind by families who are likely close to broke is disturbing. In this small sampling of homes there were many items that could have been otherwise sold to at least bankroll a new start somewhere else. But even more concerning are priceless items like photos which are also left behind, leaving homes looking like its tenants simply vanished in a matter of minutes despite having at least 30 days to prepare for the last few moments in their home.

Despite the good condition of much of the remaining items in these homes, the trash-out companies do just that, trashing everything that is left behind no matter what it is. The weight of this is not lost on the men and women who do this dirty work, but neither is there wastefulness behind how they operate. The companies contact charities to take away valuable left-overs when they can. But charities can only do so much, and there is still much left behind for the overbooked trash out crews.

With the quickness that people can strip the contents from a house after a single posting on Craigslist, it seems like the trash out companies could make their jobs easier and ensure that unnecessary items aren't thrown away by placing an ad on Craigslist. Even if they only offered an hour-long window at the start of the job for anyone to come and take whatever they wanted, the result would likely be a lot less waste.

Via Calculated Risk