I retrieved enough pallets last year to pay for our holiday goodies. $700.00 worth of dumptered pallets over the course of a year. I live 5 miles from a pallet company, and they purchase them from me to be sold again.

On a smaller scale I have discovered an electric trimmer for the lawn, some pots for flowers, birdies for the kids to hit with their rackets, an autumn scarecrow who greets our visitors at the front door this time of year.

Sadly, last year I even found unopened boxes of toys from a shippers dumpster. My wife and I kept what we could use and donated the rest for Christmas presents.

one evening when I was picking up autumn leaves for the garden/compost heap, I got a whole bag of spider lily bulbs.

Some geraniums that had been dumped out of their pots but were still in their soil. Gotta do some overwintering/propagating experiments with them. They're nice big ones too. A coreopsis loaded with seeds--I buried this in my lasagna bed just to see if any of them grow.

My dear, dear friend has filled countless living spaces, his own and others' with garbage from dumpstering. Now, this is not only his lifestyle and how he survives (clothing, items for trade/to sell, some food, blankets) but I've gotten some pretty sweet items from his efforts myself. The problem being that he goes out with a couple backpacks and a flash light and scours the dumpsters of the neighborhood at night, with little to no discretion at WHAT it is he's grabbing. Then he drags it back to his current "nest" and looks through it, taking what's valuable and putting it to use and leaving the rest of it to pile up in a garage/spare bedroom or what have you.

I've just been subjected to having to clean up after him too many times. I've let him stay with me a few times and he's capable of filling a one car garage from floor to ceiling with garbage in less than a month. Then his loved ones are left to sort through it for recycling, salvage, etc.

It is quite the task, bittersweet at that. On one hand, I'm able to save a lot of items from going into a landfill and even getting a lot of useful or otherwise valuable things. Then there's the issue of not knowing what to do with things like a full set of 1972 encyclopedia's with year books up to '77 that I can't bear to throw away, but are taking up valuable space either on my book shelf or otherwise. Not to mention that it's not very fun to have someone else fill up your garage with a bunch of crap then leave it for you to clean up after you've taken care of them for a while.

To give him credit, the last time he stayed with me, he actually exercised incredible restraint and I was very proud of him. This time I only have a pile that would fill a small u-haul truck to sort through...

Not to mention the 1,000 a month they pay to the storage facility, since they've filled up all their houses.

My rule is that if I can use it right away, we snag it, if I dont know what to do with it, where to put it, or its broken, leave it. NEVER dumpster dive for something "that somebody might use someday"

Dont let yourself get caught up in "cant bear to throw it away", just TOSS IT, its theraputic.

On my Sunday afternoon "leaf-lurking" expedition yesterday (Sunday afternoons are a good time to pick up leaves for the compost pile, since a lot of people do their yard work on the week-ends), I found a bunch of nice laminated particle board shelf boards.

brought 'em home, laid them across the steps of a pool ladder, voila, plant shelf.

Have also found countless batteries, 35 mm film, hoagies, bread, stained glass lamps and wooden chests from pier 1 imports, halloween candies, you name it.

Dumpster diving is the best.

M

When they have more donations than they have room for...
they pitch the overstock in the dumpster.

She showed me some precious velveteen Christmas ornaments, a little trinket box shaped like a high-heeled shoe, & she had already taken 4 jigsaw puzzles to the VA hospital that week!

I found a tiny puppy in a dumpster. I kept her. She proved to be a Doberman crossed with Irish setter, grew up to look like a Gordon setter--beautiful dog, and a wonderful companion. We were together for sixteen years.

Thrift shops throw away the old stuff when they get new.

Our animal shelter gets dog shampoo in 40 gallon plasic barrels and leaves them next to the dumpters so people don't have to dig through dog poop and shredded paper they use for bedding. I got 2 for rain barrels.

mica

Whenever possible , please ask . Often , you will receive even more when the owners tell you - Oh, thank you so much for asking . Would you also like ....?

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