Removed un-wanted items from caches...

[+Roadster]

I have been caching for only two months now but I have already removed from caches a few items that should not have been placed in a cache. I have removed: a shoe insole well used, a unused condom that the wrapper looked like it had been in someone's pocket for months this was in a cache that is "...for kids" also removed a cigarette from the same cache, one cache was so full of "cache trash" that we "TNLE" (took nothing left everything...) the best thing in that cache was a clothes pin.

 

Makes me wonder: What have you removed from caches that shouldn't been in one in the first place?

 

<url>http://www.mokancachers.com</url>

-Does anyone have some cache on them?-

[+Smitherington]

I have removed wet items from waterlogged caches, batteries that were wet and rusting, and panties (see The Hunt/The Unusual - Panties in the woods).

Some things become useless even if they were at one time good items. Others are inappropriate.

I will have to check my own caches now that it is warming up to see if anything needs to come out of them.

[+Stunod]

Someone left a new toothbrush, still in the cardboard box. However, this cache was a leaker, so the cardboard had basically disintegrated leaving the toothbrush exposed. I figured no one would want it, so I trashed it.

 

Now I think I should have left it for people to clean the McToys with...

 

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."

[McKenna Family]

Bic lighters, in a cache out in the middle of grass lands.

 

McKenna Family

Watsonville CA

[+DeerChaser & Company]

hmmmm I don't remove these things, I add them. The little bottles of booze are great trade items. I also like leaving hamsters, they are cheap and can live a day or so, very flexible in case the cache is full. Been thinking of used Q-tips as well, also cheap, small, and handy.

 

Rino 110

MeriGreen 128

[+JohnnyVegas]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DeerChaser & Poni:

hmmmm I don't remove these things, I add them. The little bottles of booze are great trade items. I also like leaving hamsters, they are cheap and can live a day or so, very flexible in case the cache is full. Been thinking of used Q-tips as well, also cheap, small, and handy.

 

Rino 110

MeriGreen 128

---

 

If you use a large enough ammo can you can put a fair amount of food an water into the cache, and you can even solder a brass tube to the ammo can for an air hole. This seem to work well in most areas. On a side note, you might have repaint the ammo can from racoons try to get to the hamster, they tend to scratch the paint up a lot.

[+Marky]

I removed a pepper spray dispenser, which I thought was a bit dangerous to have lying around in a cache. I usually remove (and sometimes eat) all food items I find.

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

[+Pepper]

Bubbles, they always leak yuck what a sticky mess!

 

Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

[+Dawgies]

Last weekend I removed, and threw away, a couple of cigarettes from a cache. I'm not a smoker, but my wife is, and when I told her about it her 1st reaction was "YUCK" so in the trash they went. I feel that it was in very poor taste that they were left there. Now, maybe if it had been a sealed, unopen pack that would have been different...maybe not.

 

~ Honest Value Never Fails ~

[+briansnat]

I'll remove and throw away any food I find. Also scented items like candles, pot-pourri, etc...

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+Georat]

I certainly agree with most of the undesireable items mentioned in this thread, but I don't understand the problem with scented items like candles, potpourri, etc. What am I missing?

[+GIDEON-X]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Georat:

I certainly agree with most of the undesireable items mentioned in this thread, but I don't understand the problem with scented items like candles, potpourri, etc. What am I missing?

---

Here in the Desert Southwest, sented items attract critters (coyotes etc.) and yes they will go after the container with a vengeance ~~~

 

Mzee ~~~ "And now where"

[+GeneralBracket]

quote:

---

I certainly agree with most of the undesireable items mentioned in this thread, but I don't understand the problem with scented items like candles, potpourri, etc. What am I missing?

---

 

They aren't bad in and of themselves, but...

 

Ever been to a scented candle store? Instant headache. Imagine opening up that ammo can and BANG! An aroma comes wafting out that practically renders you unconscience. Even a good smell can be a bad smell with enough quantity. I prefer not to be rendered incapacitated while opening a cache.

 

Candles also melt in the heat. (I live in the desert)

[+Renegade Knight]

I always find ammunition. Out it goes every time I find it.

 

=====================

Wherever you go there you are.

[+briansnat]

quote:

---

I certainly agree with most of the undesireable items mentioned in this thread, but I don't understand the problem with scented items like candles, potpourri, etc. What am I missing?

---

 

Animals don't know the difference between a scented items and food, so they'll trash the cache. I pulled a berry scented candle out of a cache recently. It happened to be in an area with a lot of bears. How's the bear going to know the difference?

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+MountainMudbug]

quote:

---

Originally posted by GeneralUrsus:

 

Ever been to a scented candle store? Instant headache. Imagine opening up that ammo can and BANG! An aroma comes wafting out that practically renders you unconscience.

---

 

This is so true - we opened a cache once and were nearly bowled over by the overpowering reek of a pina colada car freshener thingie. We couldn't stand to trade anything cause everything in the cache reeked of the freshener.

 

We generally remove anything that seems to have been picked up on the way to the cache and added like real trade items. For example: dirty golfballs (which turn up frequently in one of our caches in a park where people knock-em around), leaves, seed pods, dirty grimey plastic safety glasses (we passed em on the way to the cache - weeks later someone else picked them up and put them in the cache).

 

Anything wet in a cache is going to start molding now that its getting warmer..... best to just take it out I guess...

[+BGunner01]

While I agree that there are many things out there that definitely should not be placed in caches, I have some reservation about how much responsibility/right I have to make the decision as to what is right or wrong to be in the cache. IMHO the cache owner should be doing periodic maintenance on his/her own cache and they can add/remove anything they darn well want to. Just yesterday I was reading a geocaching thread talking about the large quantities of caches that various people had placed. I agree it's admirable that people have the time and resources to plant that many, but the first thought that came to my mind is - I wonder if they also maintain their 40 or 50 caches? Too many caches are being initiated and then mostly or totally ignored by their owners. This is one of the main reasons for junky, trash-laden caches. My motto has been Don't plant it if you ain't gonna maintain it. What do you think?

There....now I feel much better

[swanlakers]

In response to the many posts about trash in a cache, trading cheap items for quality items etc. I humbly propose that trade UP be inserted into general cache instructions. For instance in the FAQ: http://www.geocaching.com/faq.asp

the instructions would read:

 

1. Take something from the cache

 

2. Leave something nicer in the cache, Trade UP!

 

3. Write about it in the logbook

 

Perhaps that might slow the decay of a cache.

 

My flame suit is on, so if this has been talked out a thousand times you can let me know.

 

Swanlakers

[+Team GPSaxophone]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Swanlakers:

My flame suit is on, so if this has been talked out a thousand times you can let me know.

---

Why yes, you talked about it in this thread.

 

[martmann]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bgunner01:

While I agree that there are many things out there that definitely should not be placed in caches, I have some reservation about how much responsibility/right I have to make the decision as to what is right or wrong to be in the cache. IMHO the cache owner should be doing periodic maintenance on his/her own cache and they can add/remove anything they darn well want to. Just yesterday I was reading a geocaching thread talking about the large quantities of caches that various people had placed. I agree it's admirable that people have the time and resources to plant that many, but the first thought that came to my mind is - I wonder if they also maintain their 40 or 50 caches? Too many caches are being initiated and then mostly or totally ignored by their owners. This is one of the main reasons for junky, trash-laden caches. My motto has been Don't plant it if you ain't gonna maintain it. What do you think?

There....now I feel much better

---

 

I think If someone sees food or trash in a cache, it's helpfull if the remove it, yes it's the cache hider that is responsible, but why not help out if you are already there? I always bring enough stuff to 'trade' for the food or trash, and log it that way, I normally don't take anything anyway. But even if you just remove it, if it's food or trash, what's the problem, it still isn't as bad as the person that took something nice and left crap.

 

_________________________________________________________

If trees could scream, would we still cut them down?

Well, maybe if they screamed all the time, for no reason.

Click here for my Geocaching pictures

[+Roadster]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BrianSnat:

I'll remove and throw away any food I find. Also scented items like candles, pot-pourri, etc...

---

Thanks for reminding me, I also removed a "Berry" car freshener so a animal wouldn't trash the cache, smelled like a fruit garden in there, but now my truck smells good. And i did trade up for it too.

 

http://www.mokancachers.com

-Does anyone have some cache on them?-

[+Hoomdorm]

In my caches I put a note in them stating that I don't want people removing items simply because they don't approve of them. I ask that they email me and tell me about the item and let me decide. I do maintain my caches and feel that it's my responsibility to decide what should be there & what shouldn't. Now when it comes to pure trash in it then I definitely don't mind people removing that. I think it's all of our responsibility to make sure the caches are clean when we leave them. That just shows our own respect for the sport.

 

--------------------------------

Magellan Meridian GPS

Handspring Visor Deluxe

L.O.S.T. - http://www.kjjeep.com

[+briansnat]

quote:

---

have some reservation about how much responsibility/right I have to make the decision as to what is right or wrong to be in the cache

---

 

As a cache owner, I appreciate it if someone removes obviously inappropriate items. If you find food, please get rid of it! Booze, or cigarettes, please take it. Drink up and have a smoke of you like. I maintain my caches, but can't check up on them every week, so I appreciate any help.

 

quote:

---

- I wonder if they also maintain their 40 or 50 caches?

---

 

Yes I do. Because of this I probably have about 50 finds fewer than I could have.

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+Ltljon]

I found a cigar cutter in a cache of mine & my friend thought it was a magic trick. Good thing he figured it out before slicing his finger.

I check on mine occasionally but it only takes a couple of days to get trashed so I hope the next cachers will use their best judgement if something in them is questionable. Been working good so far.

[+dasein]

We have removed several Power Bars that were 1 to 2 years past 'expiration.' Yuck! Also have removed cigarettes twice. Last summer during a long dry spell we removed a baggie with fireworks and matches in it; the cache was in the middle of an area surrounded by dead and dried grasses.

 

Temporarily French Polynesia's most prolific geocachers!

[+Bluespreacher]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bgunner01:

While I agree that there are many things out there that definitely should not be placed in caches, I have some reservation about how much responsibility/right I have to make the decision as to what is right or wrong to be in the cache. IMHO the cache owner should be doing periodic maintenance on his/her own cache and they can add/remove anything they darn well want to. Just yesterday I was reading a geocaching thread talking about the large quantities of caches that various people had placed. I agree it's admirable that people have the time and resources to plant that many, but the first thought that came to my mind is - I wonder if they also maintain their 40 or 50 caches? Too many caches are being initiated and then mostly or totally ignored by their owners. This is one of the main reasons for junky, trash-laden caches. My motto has been Don't plant it if you ain't gonna maintain it. What do you think?

There....now I feel much better

---

 

Some things are generally seen as inapropriate. The hider cannot always be there in a real timely fashion. So I will do what I can to improve the cache. I try to trade up. I'll remove obvious junk. I've even brought new cache containers to replace ones that I know have been damaged. It's not that hard to help the caching community out by doing some light-urgent maintainance while you're there.

 

Just my .02

 

Bluespreacher

 

"We've got the hardware and the software, the plans and the maps ..." -- Citizen Wayne Kramer

[+Roadster]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dasein:

We have removed several Power Bars that were 1 to 2 years past 'expiration.' Yuck! Also have removed cigarettes twice. Last summer during a long dry spell we removed a baggie with fireworks and matches in it; the cache was in the middle of an area surrounded by dead and dried grasses.

 

Temporarily French Polynesia's most prolific geocachers!

---

 

Ahhh... You reminded me of one other thing I found, a month ago I went on a night cache that hadn't been tried since October 2002 and the cacher that found it last placed a pair of Hollywood Theaters movie passes, when I saw that those were in there I told my caching partner that I want the tickets, so when we found the cache I pulled them out and thought I better look to see what the expiration date is, and sure enough they were pass the date. In fact they expired 4 months before the cachers placed them in there! The dates are right on the front easy to read, they knew that they were outdated.

 

http://www.mokancachers.com

-Does anyone have some cache on them?-

[swanlakers]

I have started a related thread:

http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=5726007311&f=4016058331&m=14460035

 

Swanlakers

[+GOT GPS?]

The same people who trash their lunchrooms at work, probably trash caches also.

 

(Sticky floor, Tables, and chairs, even holes in the ceiling.)

[+TEAM 360]

I had a moral dilemma the other day, when I opened a cache and saw a bic lighter...I opted to leave it in there, what if by some chance someone needed it for an emergency?