One Can Make a Living from the Droppings from the Foreclosure Table

Posted on March 27, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes | Leave a Comment

In these days of unemployment one can make a honourable and decent living from the droppings falling from the foreclosure table. Many companies are now taking contracts from the bank to clear and clean the repossessed houses.

The first step is a general inspection where the cleaning teams often comes upon sleeping vagrants and dying pets kept in chains. Sometimes the house has to be broken in to and the locks changed. The second step involves removing the rubbish and unwanted items left behind to landfills.

The workers retain some of the things discarded. Although the banks are supposed to connect the evictees with their things, in reality this is impossible. The cleaning crew rushes into the house making a grab at what one can lay hands on. It takes on the appearance of the chaos of a clearance sale. Some have taken back to their homes television sets with wide screen and comfortable chairs and couches. One discovered a collection of rare coins inside a tools shed. The first finders are the keepers.

It is not always that the stuff is in good condition. One worker honed in on a chair only to find that the upholstery had been ripped apart. Added to the list are shattered mirrors, bleached and stained carpets, graffiti on walls and overflowing faucets. The foreclosure victims vent their anger on the property they are leaving behind. The vagrants, vandals and petty thieves complete their unfinished work.

Part of the work of the cleaners is to take pictures of the cluttered property – inside the house and outside. Photographs were taken of a pile of DVD’s, upturned mattress, unopened cans of fruit juices and rotting trash bins turning toxic for about the last two months.

Some of the items tell tales – a debit card from a resort and casino, cigarette butts littering the hallway, a teddy bear forgotten on the floor together with sundry dirty clothes and bed sheets.

Combing through the remains of what was once a home the workers sometimes ruminate on the past and wonder where they are struggling with the present. Thoughts like this can be disturbing emotionally for men who have been engaged to clear out the past with its memories in a robot like fashion. The forgotten rubbish speaks volume of human hopes and suffering – all that have been foreclosed upon.

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