Trash Picking

[karlinann]

Tomorrow is trash pick-up day, but I'm going trash picking this evening. Me thinks I've been missing out on the good stuff because I've been going in the morning and others have been getting the jump on me the evening before.

My last good find was another peg rack, but this one has a shelf on top and it's so perfect for my kitchen wall. It was originally painted an ugly dark color so I painted it out a thick creamy white and then I sanded it in spots to make it look old. It looks fabulous and if you didn't know you'd think I paid $35 or $40 for it. I have a colorful decorative vase, a Florida license plate and a box of matches on the shelf and a colorful apron on one of the pegs. Love it.

Oh, BTW, I forgot to tell you about the 2 oak end tables we got at my favorite 5 cent thrift shop. It was furniture half off day and we got the tables for $1 each. I'm serious. I cleaned them up and sanded in places and they are perfect for our living room. So glad I waited to find them.

[JoS]

Sounds like fun! Junking is a fun activity and you can get some great finds!

[determined]

My X-sister-in-law used to go out when her town had their city wide clean up and got some really good stuff. She found an iron patio table with one leg messed up (her hubby knew how to weld so he could fix it) as they were loading it into the van the lady came out and said if they would wait a minute she had the chairs that went with it. As they were driving to the next place her friend noticed that the only thing wrong with the table is that the bolt was missing from the leg. She priced it and new it was $200. Another time she got 2 huge boxes of clothes her size with the tags still on some of them.

[JoS]

Talk about a Score!

[determined]

The "town people" used to bring their left over yard sale stuff and dump it in the ditches in the country when I was little and so we would go and sort through it. Got lots of my clothes that way, Mom would bring them home and wash them, anyhow Mom had made me this pretty red velvet dress one time and I had it on when we went to the bank. Someone asked where I got such a pretty dress and my reply was "probably out of the holler, Mom gets lots of my clothes there" Then when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter Mom and Dad had went to town and on the way home noticed someone had dumped a bunch of baby clothes, they stopped and loaded both the trunk and backseat full and brought them home. Mom and I spent the next day, sorting and washing them all up.

[karlinann]

Oh what a great story determined. Are you writing all these great stories down to make a book? Even if you don't want to write a book someone in your family may want to write one some day. I do hope you will preserve those precious parts of your life in some form because they are what makes us who we are. Not only are they your family history, but they are a history of our country or region, township and village and tell a story of how they grew.

[Paula A]

What a great idea, karlinann!
When my son and his wife moved out of their Sacramento apt, they were taking things down to their dumpster. A couch we had given them, some end tables, most of their furniture from college. He said the couch was gone by the time he was going back with the second load, and a guy came up to him and said if he had more furniture to bring down to the dumpster, the guy and his wife would help him and could they have it? I love that kind of stuff! Spencer was happy to not have to lug things all the way to the dumpster and he knew I would be happy he was giving it away!

[Nalani]

I had a cousin, who was also a noted orthopedic surgeon in Honolulu and he used to check out people's trash. He once found a whole shop full of very good tools. Well he couldn't just take those without asking the owner of the house. Turned out the ladies husband had recently died and she threw out his tools. He asked if she had a son, which she did. He told her to call the son and give them to him as they were much too valuable to throw in the trash. She did. But my cousin used to find all sorts of useful stuff in the trash. He would use old mattress springs as a trellis in the vegetable garden. Things like that.

[JoGee]

Has anyone ever gone "dumpster diving"? Behind a PX in NJ, they had their dumpster up against a loading dock. Once a week, before trash pickup day, I'd go there with my kids, young teens to preschool ages. The kids would carefully slide in and go through the stuff. Oh, the finds! Good paperback books (sans the covers), Asian money (paper & coins), an almost complete baby layette still in plastic bags, toys, clothing, bed linens, and more.
Everything was easily cleaned up, and nothing was grossly dirty. I'd give the kids a hand out, and off we'd go with out treasures. It was fun!
Ellis was embarrassed to think go it. He asked, "What if the MP's caught you? Please don't say you're related to me!" (He was an officer.)
I just replied, "Don't think of it as 'dumpster diving', consider it our trip to The Hobo Mall." The kids looked forward to it, too.

When our neighbors here want to dispose of things like bikes, TV's, etc., they just put the item by the curb and tape a paper saying "FREE" to it. It's usually picked up by someone within a day or two.

[determined]

My Dad's cousin and her kids used to dumpster dive all the time, way back before stores started locking the dumpsters behind gates. They would come out with new toys, some brands are replaceable for life. She would send them to the company if there were parts missing ect and get brand new ones back, she always gave neat birthday and Christmas gifts . She would also go through trash or the "free" yard sale boxes and pick up cracked tupperware, send it back with the dealer and get it replaced.

[boffler]

When we lived in Salem, IL our trash day was Friday, and every Friday morning bright and early this elderly man and woman drove around the cul de sac going through trash, they lived down the road a piece and they had a yard sale every weekend...LOL