We get our trash picked up twice a week. Today I walked up to the corner store and on my way up there, I noticed someone had a computer moniter & printer sitting on the sidewalk waiting to be picked up. Had me wondering...have any of you brought stuff home from someone else's trash? What was your best trash teasure?
a few years ago, when the college students left school for the summer, they threw everything away, ive got a dvd player from one, and at least 4 gallons of boose
The hubby brought home a great tv It was 30 something inches can't remember how many he said it was exactly. He said it was setting on the curb for the trash the owner was out side so he asked what was wrong with it the guy said nothing he had it for a year and it was time for a new one. Must be nice to be able to throw money away this time I am glad it was in our direction best tv we've owned.
I live in a college town, and it seems that dumpster diving is quite a popular sport, especially when school gets out for the summer. It's amazing what people will throw away, so I'm all for re-using it. One person's trash is another's treasure...
From a dumpster outside my local auction room hundreds of books many first editions a complete set of decline and fall of the roman empire all very saleable . I asked the owner of the auction room why they were being thrown out he said that he had taken a collection of books to sell but had not been able to contact the owner, held them for a period of time and as he couldnt sell them without the owners permission and couldnt find the owner , no longer wanted them stored in his auction room so he was dumping them.
Those days are over here, we now have wheelie bins so no more stuff sitting out on the street! In the past Ive had bikes, fishing rods...
No, I've never taken anything out of anyone's trash, but a few months ago when I was going for a walk, I saw a really cute child-sized wooden picnic table that appeared to be in really good shape. I found myself thinking about stripping and repainting it, putting it in my backyard for my kids, because it was just super cute and wood, which I loved, since most of the childrens' picnic tables I've seen have been plastic. But...I didn't take it. Kind of kicked myself over that one too. When I came back down the street ending my walk, someone else had already beaten me to it. We put out a lot of good, reusuable stuff to the trash that we simply can't use anymore for one reason or another, and we make it visible so that people who DO dumpster dive take it intead of it merely going to a landfill. And they always do take it. Usually pretty quick after it's been put out too. We live in a busy area, and on Sundays, there are people who drive down the streets scoping out the trash. We see them every week.
Dumpster diving is great...Just please be cautious with any furniture that has cushioning, or with any boxes..A neighbor at one of my old residences gave the whole building an infestation of german cockroaches that way.
oh yeah, I once grabbed a small run for a pet rabbit or guinea pig or something, planning to use it to cover seedling in the garden to stop the birds getting at them
Me and a couple of people on acid got about 5-10 pounds of candy from someone else's yard/trash. I got sick later that night unfortunately That was picked up about a year ago and I think someone still has some of it left over.)
I went dumpster diving and found a Physicians handbook once. I have found pails with handles on them tham were perfect. I found some good books once also.
I've reused stuff from the trash all my life... not good to waste. Most of my furniture has been someone else's first. I steamed cleaned the futon, and wiped down the surfaces of the furniture with clorox water. We've 3 dressers from the trash, 2 solid wood oak end tables, a cubicle armoire made from trashed wood, chairs, a table made from an metal door gleaned from a dumpster and placed on some wooden saw horses left over from some student's projects at the carpenter's union hall (we needed another surface to place dishes on for thanksgiving)... We always keep an eye out at our apartment complexes dumpster because we know most ppl here rather throw something away than re-gift reuse recycle or even donate something... Last summer we scored a BRAND NEW 8 person tent because it appeared that they couldn't figure out how to re-zip the bag closed, I've gotten a red wagon (hubby replaced the broken wheel) saved from some teens that were about to destroy it because it was just there. I also got one of those lil' tykes play kitchens for my kid. There's a fella in the neighborhood that makes the rounds weekly, sometimes he even brings a car to help him with all of the scores. We don't go for the food though.... we've been tempted when they recalled all the spinach... but discovered that the supermarkets have started using a non accessible containment system.... Probably saved me from sitting on the potty too much from food poisoning... my justification for looking for eatable recalled spinach was that I'd cook it first. Try Freecycle.org... it's a blessing~
Where I live, the city plans a few days a year to allow residents to put non-landfill items out on the curb. Just about anything goes. It's a junk-collector's free-for-all. My roommate and I have picked up furniture this way. Every year we see people driving around their pickup trucks, some of them with trailers, and they're packed full. Something that someone thinks is used up gets extra use from someone else. Not everything gets "recycled" by the residents. Some of the stuff put out on the curb is obviously junk, but hey, at least some of it gets recycled back into the community.
i'm going dumpster diving in the next couple of days. i need furniture for my home that i'm moving into in the next couple of days. We need chairs and things to sit on. You can find amazing things that people don't want anymore.
Wheelie bins are not the end! Black bin bags still sit outside peoples houses! And you can find the things people dump in Ditches! Best I've scavenged is a TV... a VCR recorder... and a bag of computer mice.
Dam those wheelie bins! Now up here youre not allowed to leave anything on the street as the binmen wont pick it up
Wow, I've found so many things. Some of the 'bigger' things: Bikes (almost 10 now), Computers (4 or 5 if not more), Monitors (18), TV's (16), VCR's (22), tables, chairs, books (11), BRAND new clothes from Marks Work Warehouse, and the most recent was a Verbatim thumb drive. Brand new, found it in a dumpster. It's only 128mb but can't complain for it being free...and seeing how I paid $30 for 128mb a few years ago. of course not everything has worked that ive brought home, however it's still worth trying the things out! i don't think ive purchased anything major in years now.
