Excuse me?!?! Dumpster Diving

[MarleesMom]

I finally did it! It wasn't so much as diving, but more peaking. I went with some friends and didn't find much, but it was a Saturday. I did find an unopened memory game, 3 perfect condition plastic chairs and a cute purple lamp for my LO's room. Found all of those behind Marshall's.

Any suggestions on a good day to go? Or is it more luck? I have tried to go to the Goodwill one 2 times and one time there was a car, the second time a cop. UGH. It's really a lot of fun.

[suereal]

I just bought a pair of blue heavy duty gloves with an attached sleeve that go all the way to my shoulders (and I have gorilla style arms, so that is a long way ) for cleaning (and ousting the many spiders that live every where due to a lack of inhabitants for nearly 3/4 of a year) the fixer upper we just bought  They will be my go to for any dumpster diving I do in the future.  They only cost around 7 bucks at Freight and Harbour in the States

[dewshinesdopp]

People here (Tampa Bay Florida) get really weird about it.  They throw stuff away, but get really mad if you try to take it.   I have seen people put trash by the road with signs saying how much they will charge if you take it. 

On the upside, the recycling gods have been super good to me lately.  Someone has left me some kind of reusable item at my mailbox 2 days this week:  A yard snowman- needs some work and electronics- and what appears to be the entire film from a VHS movie.  Not sure what I will do with that. 

[shashaveli]

I must admit to well, borrowing bits and pieces...For example I noticed one day that the neighbours had prepared a wardrobe wall for the trash and I thought to myself, what a waste, so I turned it into a kite shield . I did not shy from prying away leather from old chairs too...Hell, leather is expensive you know!

[nonesuch]

One year my boss got an enormous fir wreath to display.  He didn't want it, so I took it home and put it on the side of the house.

After the holidays were over, I opined to the husband that the frame for that wreath was great,but that unwinding all the wire that held the greenery to it was too much trouble. He appeared in the doorway about twenty minutes later, frame in hand.  He had taken the wreath to the middle of the driveway and set it afire.  Snipping the wire off was easy. 

The frame with fake greens decorated our house for several years.  Then  I took the greens off and built a pine cone wreath on the frame.  I donated it to the local animal shelter's Chinese Auction.  My mother won it, offered it for display in her church. After the holiday, the church raffled it off.   Everybody wins.

[apis_melis]

My sympathies to Tulane divers and those whose schools are similarly nonsensical. I used to get great free stuff at end of semester when I lived in a university town.

To add to the ridiculousness, a professor friend told me of a student in his program who was fired from a work-study job cleaning out dorms because she took some stuff home. Yup - it was going in the trash.

As if the indignity of getting paid minimum wage for hard work and having it called financial aid wasn't bad enough...