What I've learned so far

Be prepared, or don't scrap.

I'm driving an average size car now and I thought it would be fine to use this to go round picking up small items like wires, microwaves, tv's. Well I struggled to pick up a 52" tv on a stand this weekend and yesterday I had to wrestle a washing machine into the trunk. It didn't want to go in and damaging the car seemed likely. I have a larger car in my drive, blocking the side gate to my back garden. The washing machine has convinced me to get my mpv fixed up and buy a worthy trailer so I don't have these problems again. I had to take it through the living room and kitchen to get to my garden. This is another thing I've learned. Nice areas where people look after their gardens and have nice houses don't tend to leave scrap outside where I live. I get everything in areas where people don't mind throwing a washing machine over their fence and letting it roll into the road, or outside blocks of flats (council owned apartment block type things) where my stuff us left among other garbage including food waste, etc. This means that the appliances left out here will not be suitable for dragging through the house.

So if I want to do this I simply cannot afford not to have the means to transport scrap properly and a proper work area. This isn't a hobby that I can spend a spare few minutes playing around with. Always learning.