Have you ever been dumpster diving?

[NolaMan]

Yeah, lots of good, usable stuff gets thrown away... but in order to take advantage of this situation, it helps to live around affluent, wasteful people, or in areas with a highly transitory population (for instance, as has been mentioned several times in this thread, college campuses).

When I was in high school there was a local CD store that reguarly threw away perfectly good cds, and posters etc. My brother and I would often go back there and pick up all the cds they threw away, and then take them to another local CD store who often bought the cds from us. Since we were broke high school kids, it funded a lot of activities that might otherwise never have happened.

 

[rivrrat]

I think the OP and many others were thinking of non-perishable items in the main, like the toys mentioned.

Yeah, non-perishables that are immersed among perishables.

I've not a seen a dumpster yet that I'd ever take anything out of. I've been so broke and strung out on drugs and alcohol that I lived in a shack under an overpass with homeless people sleeping on my porch and in my hallway. And even THEN I wouldn't have taken anything out of a disgusting dumpster. I've never seen a dumpster that wasn't utterly disgusting and didn't reek of rotting garbage.

But hey, I guess if you can find a "clean" dumpster, then more power to you.

 

[lizzie]

When I was a kid my dad and I would drive around the industrial parts of Toronto and he would lower me into the bins after hours to look for furniture or hardwood that had been discarded.
........... it was pretty ghetto of him.

I can identify with your Dad, because to me, "ghetto" is MDF and particle board with a plastic veneer. Hardwood is valuable.
Otoh, He probably shouldn't have done that to you. Kids are highly sensitive about their image, regardless of the good purpose, so I'm sorry you experienced that.

 

[digsbe]

I've never been dumpster diving, but I have taken things friends were throwing/giving away. Heck, sense I'm smaller than 99% of my guy friends they give me some of their old clothes that used to fit them. There is no shame in shopping at goodwill or taking another person's trash or accepting old clothes and items from people.

 

[Orion]

I can identify with your Dad, because to me, "ghetto" is MDF and particle board with a plastic veneer. Hardwood is valuable.
Otoh, He probably shouldn't have done that to you. Kids are highly sensitive about their image, regardless of the good purpose, so I'm sorry you experienced that.

I sort of enjoyed it at the time... but hindsight is 20/20 :2razz:

 

[1069]

"Will you say hello to my ma?
Will you pay a visit to her?
She was an artist, just as you were.
I'd have introduced you to her.
She would take me out on Sundays.
We'd go laughing through the garbage.
She repaired legs like a doctor
on the kitchen chairs we sat on."

Then She Did, Jane's Addiction, 1987


I guess Perry Farrell didn't mind, either. :shrug:

 

[Kali]

I think the OP and many others were thinking of non-perishable items in the main, like the toys mentioned.

Ya Think? *laughs* That was what I was thinking too.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

With the economy sliding into depression, people are searching for new ways to make ends meet.

One way is to recycle other people's trash.

www.amazon.com/art-science-dumpster-diving


Have any of you ever done any dumpster diving, either recently or way back into the past?

Nope, it's absolutely disgusting, if you ask me.

I lived in an old house a long time ago and it had a flooded concrete safe-house in the back (like a tornado shelter, it was partially underground and the door had caved it - it was moldy, flooded and the most stinkiest place I've ever had to be). Apparently that shelter was used as storage of a lot of crap. Everything from books to around-the-house items like kitchen accessories and so on for some reason. There was everything you could and couldn't imagine growing in there and living in there, too - magots and everything. It was putrid. The water was so stagnant it had a layer of scum on top where things had collected and started to rot. It was horrid.

Well, we emptied it and tore the safe-house appart, got rid of it all and leveled the mound around it.

We put the trash from the inside at the road - called the trash company and set a pickup date. Two days later that pile of years old disgusting crap was picked through adn half of it was gone, including some of the kitchen accessories.

There's no way in hell any of that was sanitary - and some things would be impossible to clean. I can't imagine the filth that some people took home on those things and then infested their homes with.

So, dumpster diving is beyond disgusting - you have no idea where some of that stuff has been or why it's being tossed out. Some things are trashed for a reason.

 

[1069]

Yeah, my dear husband, who once left me for a year to trainhop around the country and live in squats, recently called management to report a vagrant on a bike rooting through our apartment complex dumpster for bottles and cans.
You know you're getting old when stuff like that happens. :doh
I tried to convince him that the guy was just recycling and we should leave him alone, but he didn't want our garbage strewn all over the parking lot for everyone to see.
Plus there have been some recent car break-ins and stereo thefts at the complex (including one of our cars), and so he's a little paranoid about sketchy-looking characters on the grounds.

I think, when you're young, freedom is more important than security and material comfort.
But when you get older, that paradigm gets switched around somehow.

 

[rivrrat]

Nope, it's absolutely disgusting, if you ask me.

I lived in an old house a long time ago and it had a flooded concrete safe-house in the back (like a tornado shelter, it was partially underground and the door had caved it - it was moldy, flooded and the most stinkiest place I've ever had to be). Apparently that shelter was used as storage of a lot of crap. Everything from books to around-the-house items like kitchen accessories and so on for some reason. There was everything you could and couldn't imagine growing in there and living in there, too - magots and everything. It was putrid. The water was so stagnant it had a layer of scum on top where things had collected and started to rot. It was horrid.

Well, we emptied it and tore the safe-house appart, got rid of it all and leveled the mound around it.

We put the trash from the inside at the road - called the trash company and set a pickup date. Two days later that pile of years old disgusting crap was picked through adn half of it was gone, including some of the kitchen accessories.

There's no way in hell any of that was sanitary - and some things would be impossible to clean. I can't imagine the filth that some people took home on those things and then infested their homes with.

So, dumpster diving is beyond disgusting - you have no idea where some of that stuff has been or why it's being tossed out. Some things are trashed for a reason.

Not to mention, you can't exactly SEE if things are infested with lice or bedbugs or fleas.

Screw that ****.

Anytime I have had anything worth re-using that I didn't have the time or energy to donate, I put OUTSIDE the dumpster. With a note: Free for the taking.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Not to mention, you can't exactly SEE if things are infested with lice or bedbugs or fleas.

Screw that ****.

Anytime I have had anything worth re-using that I didn't have the time or energy to donate, I put OUTSIDE the dumpster. With a note: Free for the taking.

Yeah - if I think something *is* takable I put a free sign on it, too - I've gotten rid of furniture, lamps, desks - all that stuff - I put it by the road and not with the trash adn label it as such.

 

[jamesrage]

Have any of you ever done any dumpster diving, either recently or way back into the past?

Hell yeah I do a little dumpster diving every now and then. I have gotten file cabinates, bifold doors, coffee tables, shoe racks and all kinds of other things rumaging through trash,especiall if there is remodeling going on in one of the downtown buildings.

 

[RightinNYC]

In college we got most of our furniture off the street. Amazing what one can find in NYC.

This was exactly how we furnished the pit of despair I lived in during undergrad

1) Find sofa on street
2) Bug bomb it
3) Place sofa in living room until it gets rancid from parties
4) Place sofa on roof of building, repeat

 

[Mell]

Is this embarrassing? Not in the least.

The people who should be embarrassed are those who condemn and/or do not restore/reuse/recycle.

Yes, I too love the idea that I am recycling.

I not only dumpster dive, but I take a bag full of my books and clothes and toys my daughter is finished with, when I travel to countries where these things will be appreciated. Books are appreciated by expats and travellers in any non English language country, and my daughters things are appreciated in any third world country where parents are struggling to feed their kids, let alone buy them toys and clothes.

 

[Mell]

I have so much stuff that has been given to me, that I cant even use it all. I wish somebody would want a great marble bottomed with a glass top coffee table which I have had in my cellar for 5 years. It was given to me by a neighbour. I cant use it myself, because glass topped tables and kids dont combine well. It is is such a nice table though, that I hate to just toss it in a dumpster. I have a bunch of other stuff down there too, which was given to me. It will sadly probably be dismantled and put back in dumpsters.

It is easy to get dumpster treasures here, but impossible to get rid of them. People rarely want anything secondhand.

 

[Caine]

Nope, it's absolutely disgusting, if you ask me.

I lived in an old house a long time ago and it had a flooded concrete safe-house in the back (like a tornado shelter, it was partially underground and the door had caved it - it was moldy, flooded and the most stinkiest place I've ever had to be). Apparently that shelter was used as storage of a lot of crap. Everything from books to around-the-house items like kitchen accessories and so on for some reason. There was everything you could and couldn't imagine growing in there and living in there, too - magots and everything. It was putrid. The water was so stagnant it had a layer of scum on top where things had collected and started to rot. It was horrid.

Well, we emptied it and tore the safe-house appart, got rid of it all and leveled the mound around it.

We put the trash from the inside at the road - called the trash company and set a pickup date. Two days later that pile of years old disgusting crap was picked through adn half of it was gone, including some of the kitchen accessories.

There's no way in hell any of that was sanitary - and some things would be impossible to clean. I can't imagine the filth that some people took home on those things and then infested their homes with.

So, dumpster diving is beyond disgusting - you have no idea where some of that stuff has been or why it's being tossed out. Some things are trashed for a reason.

Like, O - M - G. GERMS! So Gross!!! Like Totally!

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Like, O - M - G. GERMS! So Gross!!! Like Totally!

Germs :shrug: not really what I was thinking of. If germs were the only concern that could easily be killed off with a proper washing.

It was the microbial infestations, fungus and mold spores, magot larvae, mites, ticks and other things that I would lean on to declare something impossible to clean or foolish to actually take inside a home.

There's a difference between being a little dirty - and being a safety hazard.

 

[winston53660]

Nope, it's absolutely disgusting, if you ask me.

I lived in an old house a long time ago and it had a flooded concrete safe-house in the back (like a tornado shelter, it was partially underground and the door had caved it - it was moldy, flooded and the most stinkiest place I've ever had to be). Apparently that shelter was used as storage of a lot of crap. Everything from books to around-the-house items like kitchen accessories and so on for some reason. There was everything you could and couldn't imagine growing in there and living in there, too - magots and everything. It was putrid. The water was so stagnant it had a layer of scum on top where things had collected and started to rot. It was horrid.

Well, we emptied it and tore the safe-house appart, got rid of it all and leveled the mound around it.

We put the trash from the inside at the road - called the trash company and set a pickup date. Two days later that pile of years old disgusting crap was picked through adn half of it was gone, including some of the kitchen accessories.

There's no way in hell any of that was sanitary - and some things would be impossible to clean. I can't imagine the filth that some people took home on those things and then infested their homes with.

So, dumpster diving is beyond disgusting - you have no idea where some of that stuff has been or why it's being tossed out. Some things are trashed for a reason.

I had a crazy rich Aunt that did not take the trash out of her mansion for roughly thirty years. Boy that place was a mess.

 

[rivrrat]

Yeah - if I think something *is* takable I put a free sign on it, too - I've gotten rid of furniture, lamps, desks - all that stuff - I put it by the road and not with the trash adn label it as such.

When I was moving from Cali, I was just so overwhelmed with packing up my whole place by myself that I didn't take the time to take things to Goodwill that I wanted to get rid of. So, I put a bunch of stuff sitting outside the dumpster area with a note above the pile, stuck to the wall that encircled the dumpster area. It was ALL gone the next time I went to the dumpster, which I thought was awesome. And, if I'd ever seen anything I wanted that was presented in the same manner, of course I would take it. But to jump into a disgusting dumpster and rifle through what could easily be ridden with lice, ticks, mites, bedbugs, mold, and who knows what else? I think not.

 

[Cephus]

I've never done it for cash or anything of the like, but as a kid, there were times I'd be walking down the street and see something interesting in someone's trash can and I'd take it home. Haven't done it since I was about 10 though.

 

[Mell]

''Mom and dad now regularly visit the loading dock of that store after dark, to collect lettuce and tomatoes and whatever else, which they feed to their chickens, which produce eggs for them and their neighbors.''

My parents pick up pieces of coal and wood that fell off trucks, which were delivering fuel to peoples houses. They have an open solid fuel fire place. They also buy fuel, but they would add to it with what they could find.

 

[earthworm]

18% state that dumpster diving is filthy,count me out..
I say that waste is much more so, and there is far too much of this...
And I'll bet the "greenies" are just as wasteful and anyone else.
I started diving before there were dumpsters; 20 years ago, I dove for wood(heat and projects). There is nothing dirty about this.
Kudoes to those who do employ this method of economic survival.

 

[earthworm]

Sanitary?
How many know its definition?
Those people who dive do know what they are doing.
And I for one would love to go through the "crazy" old aunts so-called junque.
IMO, the true crazy ones are those who live in fear.

 

[UtahBill]

Yeah - if I think something *is* takable I put a free sign on it, too - I've gotten rid of furniture, lamps, desks - all that stuff - I put it by the road and not with the trash adn label it as such.

A friend told me that he put something on the side of the road with a FREE sign, and it stayed there. So he took off the free sign, and put up one that said FOR SALE. Someone stole it the next night.
Nowadays you can use Craigslist. When I have something I no longer want, a CL ad in the FREE section will usually do the trick.
When communities have their annual junk pickups, there is a LOT of stuff put out. In our AZ neighborhoods, there will be trucks galore cruising the streets with people picking out the good stuff.
We have a night stand and an entertainment center we got that way...
Add in thrift stores and yard sales, it is easy to furnish a house as long as you aren't too fussy about things matching...

Won't do mattresses, tho.....those have to be new, and comfy.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

Last year, I was driving through the ritzy neighborhood where my brother lives, and saw a practically new toilet by the side of the road waiting for the trash guys to pick it up, and made my kids help me put it in the trunk. My boyfriend was rehabbing his ghetto shack* and toilets are expensive.

When I was 22, my girlfriend and I rented an apartment in salt lake city and furnished it totally out of the leftover furniture from the apartment complex's storage area. We both slept on used mattresses, we had a used kitchen table/chairs, used hideous scary couch (that we covered with a blanket) and used coffee table. We didn't have a television between the two of us, we were young and poor and right out of school working entry level jobs.

I didn't think much about it, that stuff was a lot cleaner than couches I'd slept on at frat houses in my friends' rooms. Now, I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it, but I have bought used stuff at garage sales and goodwill. My bed frame is used, as is my kitchen table and coffee table at my house. I have a brand new high def LED television sitting on a used cabinet I bought from goodwill. lulz. Nobody even suspects, I think. But the couches, mattresses, etc. are all new except for the one in my son's room. He sleeps on a brass bed that my grandma slept on when she was a kid. Same mattress and everything. It was in my parents' house for 30 years at least.

*he refers to it as an investment property.