Keep your junk at home where you got it, no one else wants it. Remember, we are supposed to trash out, not trash in. If you can’t trade up or even, then dammit, don’t trade at all! If you have been caching long enough to get two or three finds under your belt, then you have seen the problem with cache degradation. The owner of the cache, when they placed it, filled it with decent trade items: a calculator, emergency blanket, insect repellent, geocaching logo items, new hot wheel cars, play dough, etc.

Then, a month later when they go back to do cache maintenance, it’s discovered that it’s now full of junk. The original items have now been replaced with, a dirty golf ball, a pair of sunglasses missing an ear piece, expired coupons, a pinecone, a broken figurine, etc.

An average cache filled with decent swag cost anywhere between $15.00 and $25.00. A month later, the only thing left of value is the container itself. Now, there are people out there who believe that it’s the cache owner’s responsibility to keep removing the junk from the cache and replacing it with decent trade items. If you follow this reasoning of thought, it would cost you about $20.00 per month to maintain every cache you have. I, however, fail to see that it’s the responsibility of the cache owner to be a shopping mart for the rest of the caching community.

The only responsibility that the cache owner has is to make sure there is a weatherproof container, a logbook, and a writing utensil. It is also the cache owner’s responsibility to investigate and correct any problems with the cache itself, such as damage, a full logbook, it's missing, etc. This is where the cache owner’s responsibilities end and the caching community’s begin.

Keep your junk at home where you got it; no one else wants it. Remember, we are supposed to trash out, not trash in. If you can’t trade up or even, then dammit, don’t trade at all!