go dumpster diving

Pizza, salad, and chicken wraps! Sealed, clean, and two days before the exp. date! Awesome!

more of the same. I’d actually found better stuff down at work. So I really left with nothing at all worth cluttering my space with.

That stunk, I was really hoping for a good find. Desk lamps and microwaves was about as good as it got. But maybe there were other things hidden deeper inside bags. I don’t dig.

But I made several good finds during the week at work and seemed to not have caused any problems when one kid called security on me. Must protect the garbage. I left when asked and that was the last time I did it so far. I may do it again if I get a little more free space and think I can find something good somewhere.

I don’t know what it is about me lately but I’ve found myself doing things that before I would have been scared to do.

I work at a university, and I have a lot of hobbies. A few months back I started taking photo-copier misprints out of the trash bins at the computer labs to use as scrap, note and drawing paper. Then there was the day I found hundreds of empty manial envelopes unsealed and only having a name at the top that could be crossed out. somebody was using them as file folders.

So I snagged a small percentage, what I could carry one handed.

Then a week or so ago somebody chucked some kind of metal and plastic stand where some of the plastic had broken. The rest was in gret shape and provides more then enough raw materials for one or two of my projects on this list, many times over. So… Yoink.

Then in the last two days I just bit the bullet. Many kids are cleaning out their rooms to go home, and the school brought in these giant fire truck sized bins for each dorm hall. So I’ve aquired a sheling system a shower shelf setup. A standing floor lamp, a table lamp, a maple folding tv table, two milk crates, a tool box, an iron, and a dvd player.

I also took several components of things that could be used for projects. I wish I had more room as there are some things I’d like to take and store because I know I could resell. I’m headed back tonight and see maybe if there is anything new, and to use what is left of my tiny little cars space to take a few things I will try to unload at a yard sale at my local storage place coming up. There was a toster and a crock pot, a microwave and tv, there where many of those silly grill machines (I was hopeing for a hot plate) but I really don’t have the space to keep these things long term.

One of the bins looks so sweet but there isn’t a way to get to it’s contents. Seriously, they are all eight feet high, by eight feet wide by twenty or thirty long with an open top. Some of them have reinforced ledges around the sides so I can get up onto them and pull stuff out. and some are so full that they are just pileing it next to them.

The fact that I have done this now makes it easier for me to do so again. But I’m headed to visit mum this weekend and she live near a local college whos people are likely going through the same process of deciding what they want to pay to mail, load in the car or just plain chuck. so I plan to make a round through there this weekend.

My cousins and I used to do this all the time when we were kids. They lived by a huge apartment complex and every Tuesday we’d go look for stuff. We found tons of new toys, books, movies, games, etc. It was hard to believe people would throw some of that stuff away. Now, though, I like to just shop at Goodwill..at least the things are clean and you don’t have to worry about diseased needles or rats or condoms…

I’ve succesfully sold my wife on the idea, of going dumpster diving. She’s agreeed to be my get away driver, and flashlight holder. She also made it clear that she’s not promising that she won’t run away and leave me in the dumpster if the cops come. But it’s a good start

for books: try large, used bookstores.. i picked up some classics this way (with the front cover ripped off)

for stereos, TVs, computers, etc, try dumpsters near university campuses in May (especially frat houses)

I think this go’s well with my desire to build something. I’ve been checking out the dumpsters at a local college, and i’ve noticed tons of stereos, appliances, computers, all sorts of good stuff. So i’ve marked my calendar for their last day of classes for the winter and spring terms, and even gotten a map of all the resident halls on campus. I have a little over a month to organize my first attack

that I need to enlist a friend for; initially atleast. I’ve been reading up on this and alot of people suggest taking a friend to help, especially if one goes at night. Not that dumpster diving is dangerous exactly (though it can be… but that’s like most anything else, really) but it is easier and more convenient to have a buddy around, if only so you have someone to hand off things to while you rummage through stuff.

...in the College Town that i live in, September marks a huge exodus / influx of apartment dwellers. Thus, labour day weekend trash day becomes a day when the streets are lined withDumpster Diving Gold
:)

so, i was driving around, perusing the piles & PILES of things lining the curbs (‘saw so many perfectly good couches—wished i could magically pack them up & send them to New Orleans)......when i came upon someone carrying books, records and movies to the trash. ‘Couldnt believe it; stopped, got out & spoke to the guy to make certain he wasnt just about to load them into a car or truck later on. He said no, (for whatever reasons), he just couldnt take them along with him…and seemed glad that they were going to be taken by someone who could appreciate them…(i told him “youre gonna make me cry, watching you part with all these !)

But a great treasure trove: I got the movies: a classic edition of “The Third Man”, “Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon”, and a MST3000, along with a whole huge crate of classic records, that included a bunch i’ve long looked for. In the books, i got a “Herodotus: the histories”, a Thomas Hardy & a Franz Kafka – Modern Library editions, a travel book on Italy, several books about movies & movie-making, several coffetable books on “Flemish Tapestry”, “Front Page of the NYTimes 1920-1976”, Catalan Photography, The Illustrated London News for 1930”, etc, etc.

what amazing finds….!

the list:

• one 5 drawer solid oak dresser

• one solid pine dining / kitchen table

• 3 chairs, one ash, needing to be recovered, one desk chair, needing repainting & a minor repair of a spindle-support, and one dark cherry dining room chair, solid, but could use alittle strengthening of joints

• an antique (est 1930’s ?) styled 4 drawer night stand/ dresser, possibly mahogany wood, with glass, pull-knobs & authentic dove-tail joints in the drawers…

like i say, i never can believe what people put out for the trash !

_{photo of the antique styled 4 drawer night stand, prior to restaining}