Unwanted Trade Items Placed in Cache

[+GeocachingJoy]

I know we are newbies at this with less than 15 under our belt, but wanted to address the issue of unwanted trade items found in caches. First, I would say that using our common sense we have not ever traded with edible items or meltable ones and will not in the future. However, it seems that others have choosen to ignore or not read at all these rules and have placed lollipops, hard candy and flavored water packets in more than 5 of these caches that we have found. Not only do they bring critters, but they get gooey and messy and make everything else sticky in the cache. Second, No to anything that melts. These boxes do get hot and those crayons ooze and stick to other items ruining some cute tradables. Thank goodness we had a mini hand sanitizer with us.

 

One more blah blah blah from me, Just a suggestion, this is something we have learned and have decided to do with all of our trade items. We are now enclosing everything we trade in mini size, snack, pint, quart or whatever size needed ziplock bags in order for our items to stay not only together, but apart from meltables, sticky candy and the occasional rain that washes around down and sometimes in these ammo boxes getting things wet, dirty and ruined. By looking at some of the tradables in these boxes, I'm assuming that this is what happended. Making what was once cute, not sooo cute anymore (junk). Hope this will help some of you that are trading some awesome stuff.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

You are correct with those things you mentioned, and the fact that apparently some do not read up about what may be acceptable/unacceptable materials (not just SWAG) in a cache -- or it may be they simply do not realize some things are generally not good.

 

Something I have noted being used as SWAG is liquids. These little containers of "energy" drinks and kiddie blow bubble bottles usually leak within a week, ruining most everything else within the cache.

Loose batteries in a cache are an unknown (whether they are new or whether they are junk), packaged batteries I think are OK.

 

We trade little anymore, usually just add to a cache that may be a little thin on good SWAG. We just aren't into the trading aspect, but because others are, we like to leave something that may be of interest.

 

We often CITO the food-type stuff, liquids and loose batteries out of a cache. The litter bag in our geo-truck is emptied on a daily basis!

[+ChiefEagleBear]

I know we are newbies at this with less than 15 under our belt, but wanted to address the issue of unwanted trade items found in caches. First, I would say that using our common sense we have not ever traded with edible items or meltable ones and will not in the future. However, it seems that others have choosen to ignore or not read at all these rules and have placed lollipops, hard candy and flavored water packets in more than 5 of these caches that we have found. Not only do they bring critters, but they get gooey and messy and make everything else sticky in the cache. Second, No to anything that melts. These boxes do get hot and those crayons ooze and stick to other items ruining some cute tradables. Thank goodness we had a mini hand sanitizer with us.

 

One more blah blah blah from me, Just a suggestion, this is something we have learned and have decided to do with all of our trade items. We are now enclosing everything we trade in mini size, snack, pint, quart or whatever size needed ziplock bags in order for our items to stay not only together, but apart from meltables, sticky candy and the occasional rain that washes around down and sometimes in these ammo boxes getting things wet, dirty and ruined. By looking at some of the tradables in these boxes, I'm assuming that this is what happended. Making what was once cute, not sooo cute anymore (junk). Hope this will help some of you that are trading some awesome stuff.

That sticky stuff, and cheap unwanted swag. I'am with you 100%!! I like going to my local Discount Store and buy swag that people like getting when they find your cache, a Rain Poncho is a good one......cost......50 cents, treasure coins are another. You can buy this swag at Party & Discount store everywhere!! FOR CHEAP!! You know swag like that!!

[+Snoogans]

I don't know where the OP caches, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find caches big enough to put a trade item into and my main trade item is a smashed coin.

 

I'm in the midst of planning a 7,000+ mile geocaching vacation and of the 800 or so caches I have bookmarked for possible finds along the way, MOST are micros.

 

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have. Durned if ya do and durned if'n ya don't.

[+ChiefEagleBear]

I don't know where the OP caches, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find caches big enough to put a trade item into and my main trade item is a smashed coin.

 

I'm in the midst of planning a 7,000+ mile geocaching vacation and of the 800 or so caches I have bookmarked for possible finds along the way, MOST are micros.

 

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have. Durned if ya do and durned if'n ya don't.

Come on down to Texas!! We have some Ammo boxes down here you can put good swag in.

[+Snoogans]

I don't know where the OP caches, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find caches big enough to put a trade item into and my main trade item is a smashed coin.

 

I'm in the midst of planning a 7,000+ mile geocaching vacation and of the 800 or so caches I have bookmarked for possible finds along the way, MOST are micros.

 

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have. Durned if ya do and durned if'n ya don't.

Come on down to Texas!! We have some Ammo boxes down here you can put good swag in.

 

Ummm, I live in Texas 10 out of 12 months of the year.

[+Snoogans]

I don't know where the OP caches, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find caches big enough to put a trade item into and my main trade item is a smashed coin.

 

I'm in the midst of planning a 7,000+ mile geocaching vacation and of the 800 or so caches I have bookmarked for possible finds along the way, MOST are micros.

 

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have. Durned if ya do and durned if'n ya don't.

Come on down to Texas!! We have some Ammo boxes down here you can put good swag in.

 

Ummm, I live in Texas 10 out of 12 months of the year.

 

I'm gonna have to fire some people in my promotion dept. since he didn't already KNOW that.

[+mchaos]

The worst I ever found IMO was a sandwich bag with a plastic knife and fork, and a half used napkin from Applebee's which was not too far away. The person who signed the log before me had said something like, Thanks for the cache found it after lunch at Applebee's.

 

Kind of annoying.

 

personally I just like to have something to find.

 

I do tend to want to find medium to larger caches, but micro's are okay when they are creative.

 

lamp post hides in parking lots,

bison tubes just hanging on a twig,

nano's in an obvious place,

 

Those are all boring.

 

Fake wall plate hides,

magnet sheet hides,

bison tubes at the end of reabar in a barking block,

Fence post hides.

 

Those are more of the creative type I like to find. Although at this point they are obvious finds to me now.

 

As far as swag is concerned, I find my self trading less, just looking at the swag. And have only been trading trackables.

[+buttaskotch]

You are absolutely right! However, a lot of people around the word like to do one thing NOT READ DIRECTIONS! And it doesn't only happen with this game but with appliance, IKEA furniture, recipes, etc. So you will have them everywhere.

 

My personal pet peeve is BUBBLES. How I hate bubbles. I have not been to 1 cache where the bubbles container didn't leach and go over everything in the cache with that dishsoap scent I can't stand.

 

But I digress, perhaps finding out who placed the candy in the cache cached you found and sending a polite PM to them would be in order with a snippet of guidelines can be of use if you want to take the initiative to find the "culprits"? Only if you want,

[+mchaos]

But I digress, perhaps finding out who placed the candy in the cache cached you found and sending a polite PM to them would be in order with a snippet of guidelines can be of use if you want to take the initiative to find the "culprits"? Only if you want,

 

That's an iffy idea I think. May come off nagging and sound like a kill joy. I am sure they bought a bunch of stuff at a dollar store, and bubbles is a cool thing to play with for a kid, but the thought just wasn't there about it being a liquid. I have gotten lucky. Found a thing of bubbles and it hadn't leaked yet. My GF took it and had lots of fun with it LoL.

 

All in all its probably a better idea to just keep CITO'ing caches for bad swag.

Edited June 5, 2010 by mchaos

[+Too Tall John]

I had a cache get raided by a bear who could smell the Willy Wonka candy someone left in the cache. I found it 20 feet away from the hiding spot, teeth marks punched into the side of the plastic container. Strangely, the bear seemed to give up, because it never actually got fully into the box. Perhaps once it punctured the box & could fully smell the Wonka candy it realized that it wasn't real food at all. . .

 

How 'bout those not-so-family-friendly items? I found a beer sitting on a cache one day. I CITO'ed it. *Hic*

 

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

I don't know where the OP caches, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find caches big enough to put a trade item into and my main trade item is a smashed coin.

Guess not everything's bigger in Texas!

I'm in the midst of planning a 7,000+ mile geocaching vacation and of the 800 or so caches I have bookmarked for possible finds along the way, MOST are micros.

 

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have. Durned if ya do and durned if'n ya don't.

You coming up my way in New Hampshire? There's still a few nice sized caches around, I'll take ya around!

[+bittsen]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Even scented Maxi-pads can be used as an emergency bandage in the wild. They are a great first aid item.

[+Scubasonic]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Even scented Maxi-pads can be used as an emergency bandage in the wild. They are a great first aid item.

 

If it's hot out they work well as a had band to keep the sweat out of your eyes as well.

 

Scubasonic

[+bittsen]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Even scented Maxi-pads can be used as an emergency bandage in the wild. They are a great first aid item.

 

If it's hot out they work well as a had band to keep the sweat out of your eyes as well.

 

Scubasonic

 

Now that's an image I could live without...

 

Scubasonic with a maxipad on his forehead...

[FaithCacher]

That sorta defeats the unwanted trade item problem and creates the "I hate micros" entitlement that some folks have.

 

I just had to laugh at this. I go geocaching with my 12 and 8 year old son's, and they always get 'that look' on their faces when I tell them we're looking for a micro-cache. LOL! The love the bigger ones. (And, I have to admit, that I do too).

[+groale]

That would be irritating. We haven't come across melty swags yet... but we DID come across a big spider in a box. Sort of felt sorry for him. Judging by the log, he hadn't been bothered since 2008! We leave a green "support" bracelet when we come across these...Team KPM! Keep a lookout for them!

[4wheelin_fool]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Even scented Maxi-pads can be used as an emergency bandage in the wild. They are a great first aid item.

 

If it's hot out they work well as a had band to keep the sweat out of your eyes as well.

 

Scubasonic

 

Now that's an image I could live without...

 

Scubasonic with a maxipad on his forehead...

 

Well, that would be an interesting thread.

 

Have you ever used a maxi pad that you found in a cache?

[+NanCycle]

bison tubes at the end of reabar in a barking block

Just wondering. . .

What's a barking block?

 

Nancy

[SmallWorldTreks_Bee]

I found a geocache last weekend that had just enough moisture for the pencil sharpener to rust and make the whole cache rusty. We cleaned it out but in hindsight I should have taken the sharpener out since it is really trash now. I started a box in my vehicle so that I have extra items on hand to leave behind if I do take an item out that is ruined. IMHO, I really don't care for the plastic trinkets. I feel like I am finding trash.

[+K T S]

My grandpappy always said to leave things better than you found them. If there is junk in a cache throw it out and put something decent in there. It would be great if the owners of caches would do regular maintenance, but let’s be honest some cachers have placed numerous caches across the country and are not going to check them on a regular basis. So, just do the neighborly thing and help out, kind of the point of CITO as well.

 

Typically I cache with my kids and we primarily look for larger caches that have been recently placed so they can actually trade items.

[+AuntieWeasel]

There was a time in my caching career when I took great pleasure in being the Cache Fairy and sprucing up caches that had gotten worn down. Fresh baggies and a bit of new swag. Trashing out the naff bits. Paper toweling out the insides if they were smelly. I went out for one or a few caches per trip, so it was something else to get gratification from.

 

There's all kinds of ways to enjoy the game.

[+e-bird67]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Who knows? Maybe 18 unprepared women would stumble upon this cache and be grateful...

 

Recently, I found a cache with someone's business card in it. Do people actually think that I would consider their business card "swag"? What would I do with "Joe Holcomb, Systems Analyst, Cisco Systems"? Seriously?

 

I am newbie enough that I am still on a "spruce up nasty caches" high. I carry swag in my bag at all times, just in case. I will drop in a couple of extra toys and goodies if the cache is sad and lacking. Maybe I'll get burned out with the renovations at some point...

[+GeocachingJoy]

You are correct with those things you mentioned, and the fact that apparently some do not read up about what may be acceptable/unacceptable materials (not just SWAG) in a cache -- or it may be they simply do not realize some things are generally not good.

 

Something I have noted being used as SWAG is liquids. These little containers of "energy" drinks and kiddie blow bubble bottles usually leak within a week, ruining most everything else within the cache.

Loose batteries in a cache are an unknown (whether they are new or whether they are junk), packaged batteries I think are OK.

 

We trade little anymore, usually just add to a cache that may be a little thin on good SWAG. We just aren't into the trading aspect, but because others are, we like to leave something that may be of interest.

 

We often CITO the food-type stuff, liquids and loose batteries out of a cache. The litter bag in our geo-truck is emptied on a daily basis!

 

Thanks for the reply. Even I who was doing the complaining in the first place, just left the day before a mini guitar full of liquid bubbles. Now I feel really bad. The good thing maybe, I did enclose it in its own ziplock bag. So hopefully I will not ruin the same thing I was complaining about. Thanks will not do that again.

[+BlueDeuce]

Personally I like to bring the subject up in my local forum. I'm far more likely to reach them there then here.

Edited June 7, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+thistleRacers]

just yesterday I pulled a full match book out of a very kid friendly cache near a dry dead log in the woods, what are people thinking sometimes?!?

 

(and no there was nothing to roll and no tiny bong or anything in there with it, as i know many of you may ask if you are following another forum string....)

[+GeocachingJoy]

There was a time in my caching career when I took great pleasure in being the Cache Fairy and sprucing up caches that had gotten worn down. Fresh baggies and a bit of new swag. Trashing out the naff bits. Paper toweling out the insides if they were smelly. I went out for one or a few caches per trip, so it was something else to get gratification from.

 

There's all kinds of ways to enjoy the game.

 

I like the Fairy Queen idea. Thanks. I think I'm in training for that position too. I have been putting cache log books in ziplock bags to perserve some of the memories of fellow cache adventurers. We get great pleasure from reading some of these logs from years and days past. I have even put a few of the realy cool trade items of others in ziplocks as well, to preserve them for the next trader.

We enjoy the game even with the junky swag. We just traded for a metal car that was stuck to and surrounded by its melted neighbor from an ammo box that had been through a forest fire control burn. Who knew we would appreciate such a trade.

[+GeocachingJoy]

just yesterday I pulled a full match book out of a very kid friendly cache near a dry dead log in the woods, what are people thinking sometimes?!?

 

(and no there was nothing to roll and no tiny bong or anything in there with it, as i know many of you may ask if you are following another forum string....)

 

 

I laughed so hard I almost fell off the couch

Edited June 7, 2010 by joys4family

[+GeocachingJoy]

The worst I ever found IMO was a sandwich bag with a plastic knife and fork, and a half used napkin from Applebee's which was not too far away. The person who signed the log before me had said something like, Thanks for the cache found it after lunch at Applebee's.

 

Kind of annoying.

 

personally I just like to have something to find.

 

I do tend to want to find medium to larger caches, but micro's are okay when they are creative.

 

lamp post hides in parking lots,

bison tubes just hanging on a twig,

nano's in an obvious place,

 

Those are all boring.

 

Fake wall plate hides,

magnet sheet hides,

bison tubes at the end of reabar in a barking block,

Fence post hides.

 

Those are more of the creative type I like to find. Although at this point they are obvious finds to me now.

 

As far as swag is concerned, I find my self trading less, just looking at the swag. And have only been trading trackables.

[+GeocachingJoy]

The worst I ever found IMO was a sandwich bag with a plastic knife and fork, and a half used napkin from Applebee's which was not too far away. The person who signed the log before me had said something like, Thanks for the cache found it after lunch at Applebee's.

 

Kind of annoying.

 

personally I just like to have something to find.

 

I do tend to want to find medium to larger caches, but micro's are okay when they are creative.

 

lamp post hides in parking lots,

bison tubes just hanging on a twig,

nano's in an obvious place,

 

Those are all boring.

 

Fake wall plate hides,

magnet sheet hides,

bison tubes at the end of reabar in a barking block,

Fence post hides.

 

Those are more of the creative type I like to find. Although at this point they are obvious finds to me now.

 

As far as swag is concerned, I find my self trading less, just looking at the swag. And have only been trading trackables.

 

Fake wall plates, magnet sheet hides, etc. COOOOL. I need to find some of those. I love the trackables too.

[+GeocachingJoy]

Personally I like to bring the subject up in my local forum. I'm far more likely to reach them there then here.

 

 

Thanks for the info.

[+GeocachingJoy]

You are absolutely right! However, a lot of people around the word like to do one thing NOT READ DIRECTIONS! And it doesn't only happen with this game but with appliance, IKEA furniture, recipes, etc. So you will have them everywhere.

 

My personal pet peeve is BUBBLES. How I hate bubbles. I have not been to 1 cache where the bubbles container didn't leach and go over everything in the cache with that dishsoap scent I can't stand.

 

But I digress, perhaps finding out who placed the candy in the cache cached you found and sending a polite PM to them would be in order with a snippet of guidelines can be of use if you want to take the initiative to find the "culprits"? Only if you want,

 

When I vented on the forum, I was just trying to think of a way for all of us newbies to learn what not to put in as trade items. Even I made the mistake of placing the hated bubbles in a cache right before I had vented about food items and meltables not realizing it would leak. However I did place it in its own ziplock so hopefully that will do the trick. Wont do that again.

[+Heresomewhere]

My worst "items in a cache" finds have been fireworks, and, in a cache in a family picnic area, a chisel.

My best find was an ammo box near a US Interstate where the majority of the trade items were road maps that were relevant to the areas accessable from that road.

[+paleolith]

OK, I'm reviving a dead thread to add my rant, but better than starting a new thread.

 

NO LIQUIDS! In particular, NO BUBBLES. and NO HAND SANITIZER.

 

You might think that at least hand sanitizer would evaporate. Nope, not if the cache is tight enough to keep water out in Florida. Somebody did it to one of mine.

 

I got the urge to rant because I just read a log where someone did their best to clean out a cache where someone had left bubbles. It's not my cache, but I did replace the container for the owner.

 

And someone once left a bottle of hand sanitizer in one of my caches. I couldn't figure out why the cache was being reported as wet inside until I got there and saw it.

 

Now, bubbles might be OK in a freezer bag. At least a bag is flexible, so you won't get a pressure difference between the inside of the bag and the inside of the cache. But bags get holes, and in any case a bottle of bubbles that's leaked out in a bag is no fun.

 

I can possibly see hand sanitizer in flexible packets. Again, the flexible packet absorbs the pressure difference. And there's not much liquid in a packet.Still, the packet is likely to develop holes being tossed around in the cache. Is it worth it? At least hand sanitizer and insect repellent are two thinks I might actually use from a cache. Did use insect repellent one time.

 

NO BUBBLES! NO SANITIZER! NO LIQUIDS AT ALL!

 

Edward (there's an obvious tag line but this is supposed to be family friendly)

Edited August 1, 2010 by paleolith

[+The VanDucks]

Let me add to the list of No-No's: Ink Pads. I know they are often part of a letter box hide, and probably the people into letter-boxing are using high quality stamp pads. The ones I want to ban are the cheap McDonalds toy type ink pad sets, or dollar store ones, which can leak in hot weather all over the contents of the cache.

We once found a very nice ammo box hidden beside a scenic river, and when we opened it, everything inside was coated in red ink from a child's ink pad someone had left in it. Even though we cleaned the box out as well as we could, the contents were fit only for the trash can.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

I know we are newbies at this with less than 15 under our belt, but wanted to address the issue of unwanted trade items found in caches. First, I would say that using our common sense we have not ever traded with edible items or meltable ones and will not in the future. However, it seems that others have choosen to ignore or not read at all these rules and have placed lollipops, hard candy and flavored water packets in more than 5 of these caches that we have found. Not only do they bring critters, but they get gooey and messy and make everything else sticky in the cache. Second, No to anything that melts. These boxes do get hot and those crayons ooze and stick to other items ruining some cute tradables. Thank goodness we had a mini hand sanitizer with us.

 

One more blah blah blah from me, Just a suggestion, this is something we have learned and have decided to do with all of our trade items. We are now enclosing everything we trade in mini size, snack, pint, quart or whatever size needed ziplock bags in order for our items to stay not only together, but apart from meltables, sticky candy and the occasional rain that washes around down and sometimes in these ammo boxes getting things wet, dirty and ruined. By looking at some of the tradables in these boxes, I'm assuming that this is what happended. Making what was once cute, not sooo cute anymore (junk). Hope this will help some of you that are trading some awesome stuff.

Sounds like you're off to a great start, and a fast learner. Plastic baggies can make things so much better as they do not get ruined. As far as the unwanted items, we can only each do our part to trade them out and clean up each Cache we find a little.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Found an ammo can once someone had stuffed full of maxi pads. Scented ones. Why, oh why, oh why??

 

Even scented Maxi-pads can be used as an emergency bandage in the wild. They are a great first aid item.

 

They can also be used as knee pads when you're down on your hands and needs searching for briansnat in a bush.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Let me add to the list of No-No's: Ink Pads. I know they are often part of a letter box hide, and probably the people into letter-boxing are using high quality stamp pads. The ones I want to ban are the cheap McDonalds toy type ink pad sets, or dollar store ones, which can leak in hot weather all over the contents of the cache.

We once found a very nice ammo box hidden beside a scenic river, and when we opened it, everything inside was coated in red ink from a child's ink pad someone had left in it. Even though we cleaned the box out as well as we could, the contents were fit only for the trash can.

 

Same thing happened to me . In this case, the cache was part of a series along a river. All of the caches in the series contained a stamp and ink pad. If you got 10 stamps (I think) on a card available from the local chamber of commerce you'd get a geocoin made specially for the series. I only found a few of the caches in the series but one was just too close to the waterline and the container was an inky mess when I opened it.

[+Steve838]

I recently found a wrapped condom in a cache with a note saying to be careful. This is a family friendly game and items like that do not belong there. I got rid of it, of course. A few days later I read a log that mentioned another one in another cache.

[+Setan Meyacha]

One thing I'm surprised no one has mentioned, unless I missed it, is knives of any type. To date I have found at least five folding knives. Although they were all cheap ones, they were all very sharp. I rarely carry any swag because I'm not in it for the trading, so when I find something like the knife I just found recently, it just disappears from the cache. Maybe some day I'll start carrying some cheap swag for those ocassions when I come across something that shouldn't be left in a cahe

Edited August 3, 2010 by Setan Meyacha

[+FunnyNose]

Ummm coke spoon in a cache called give me a lift.

 

[+GeoGeeBee]

Ummm coke spoon in a cache called give me a lift.

 

 

You're kidding, right? If I'm reading the scale of that photo correctly, that's no coke spoon. It looks more like a soup spoon from an Asian restaurant.

 

Edit to add:

 

Here are some pictures of real coke spoons for comparison:

Google Image Search

Edited August 3, 2010 by GeoGeeBee

[+Snoogans]

I recently found a wrapped condom in a cache with a note saying to be careful. This is a family friendly game and items like that do not belong there. I got rid of it, of course. A few days later I read a log that mentioned another one in another cache.

 

I found some umm, personal lube, in a cache near Stinson Beach, in California about 5 weeks or so ago. I traded for it and trashed it and that's the story I'm sticking with. yeah.

[+BuckeyeClan]

 

Thanks for the reply. Even I who was doing the complaining in the first place, just left the day before a mini guitar full of liquid bubbles. Now I feel really bad. The good thing maybe, I did enclose it in its own ziplock bag. So hopefully I will not ruin the same thing I was complaining about. Thanks will not do that again.

 

We left bubbles once, too, before we knew better! Another kid's thing that you might think is good swag, but actually isn't, is Play-doh. It smells like food to some animals, and caches have been destroyed by animals in search of Play-doh. Actually, anything scented is probably a bad idea.

[+lachupa]

I've found some strange things that make no sense. Nothing offensive but when I come across things like 1 child's mitten, a timing chip for a race someone didn't run, or something else that I think of as trash I've been leaving it.

 

should I be trashing that sort of thing?

 

I rarely take things. In fact the only thing I've ever taken was a carabiner but I carry a few things to stock them with. It just seems like it would be more fun especially for a kid to find a little squirt gun (empty), multi sided die, or plastic animal than a childn't mitten.

[Clan Riffster]

should I be trashing that sort of thing?

Typically, I'd say "No" to just trashing stuff out of a cache. I prefer the whole "Take Something/Leave Something" aspect, which is why I trade for stuff that I feel needs to be removed from a cache. Sure, there will be exceptions. If I find something that is utterly objectionable, to me, and for some reason, I am swagless, I would likely remove it without trading, noting what I did in my log.