FREE beautiful Dresser on the side of the road

[fletchers5]

I am not sure if this happens in your area or not...but people are always throwing away furniture and such along side of the road.

Well I am the type of person that will look at something and think " with a coat of paint...."

Anyways...the other day the neighbor threw away an old dresser. I made my husband go get it. He loves doing this..lol.

So yesterday I painted it white and then put antiquing on it. Had the paint and the antiquing supplies at home.

Violla....looks like a brand new dresser.

Now I can either use this dresser or possibly sell it. All it cost me was my time.

Hope this gives some people an idea.

 

[Colleen27]

DH & I do that from time to time. He's more into woodworking/building from scratch, but once in a while we stumble across something that just cries out for refinishing, sometimes in the trash and sometimes at yard sales. We've sold a few pieces that didn't fit into our home and have given others as "housewarming" gifts as our younger siblings have moved out of the parental nest.

 

[MrsPete]

In college I took two small dressers out of a dumpster. They looked like they belonged in a 1950s boy's room: butterscotch color (but very dirty) with brass bullseye knobs and spindly legs. I knocked off the legs, painted them white, changed the knobs, and added a hand-painted embellishment.

They were dressers for me while I was in college.
They became large nightstands after I was married.
Now they're stacked on top of one another as drawers in my walk-in closet.

 

[ceecee]

We used to do this at our old house (residential area with lots of traffic). I would put stuff out early the day before we had large item pick up hoping someone could use it!!! DH used to tape the manuals or paperwork to the items so they would have them. We got rid of old computers, table and chairs, love seat, microwave, tv....tons of stuff. Our dresser was so heavy, DH had to help the guy get it in his truck. Then I noticed people going by getting cans out of the recycle containers so I started keeping them in a bag seperate from the other stuff so they could get them easier.

 

[seashoreCM]

One day I became a much despised cut through driver. Nice suburban neighborhood. Saw some almost antique chairs someone had left at the sidewalk for the trash man. Stopped and picked them up. Sold them via a want ad for about $100.

More recently have stopped to find that the dresser wasn't as beautiful as it looked from a distance or the desk was made of tawdry shelf paper covered particleboard or the computer already had the hard drive and memory stripped out or was ancient.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/disney.htm

 

[indimom]

We've gladly taken used items and refinished them. DD's dresser is a hand-me-down we refinished and DS's desktop is a large bathroom cabinet door It's absolutely gorgeous, but wasn't perfectly square (you'd never know) so the builder replaced it for the homeowner. They gave the door to us when they were clearing out their basement and we asked about it.
But our craziest experience was when a guy threatened DH over a giveaway item. We had a large older oven (with the extra warmer section) that came with our home. We had planned to use it, but it ended up not fitting into our newly remodeled kitchen. So we set it out on the front porch with a free sign. A man stopped by and asked about it, and DH repeated several times that "Yes, it was free" "Yes, it worked" and "Anyone who wanted it could come get it at any time." The guy left. A few days later another gentleman stopped by, asked a few questions, picked up the oven and left. The following weekend the first guy came back and was LIVID that we gave HIS oven away! Screaming at DH on the front porch. Apparently he felt we had a verbal contract for a free oven???? Crazy! You can't even give something away without getting grief!

 

[4Seasons]

But our craziest experience was when a guy threatened DH over a giveaway item. We had a large older oven (with the extra warmer section) that came with our home. We had planned to use it, but it ended up not fitting into our newly remodeled kitchen. So we set it out on the front porch with a free sign. A man stopped by and asked about it, and DH repeated several times that "Yes, it was free" "Yes, it worked" and "Anyone who wanted it could come get it at any time." The guy left. A few days later another gentleman stopped by, asked a few questions, picked up the oven and left. The following weekend the first guy came back and was LIVID that we gave HIS oven away! Screaming at DH on the front porch. Apparently he felt we had a verbal contract for a free oven???? Crazy! You can't even give something away without getting grief!

Yeah some people get totally insane over free stuff! I remember several years ago, I was giving away my daughter's twin waterbed on Freecycle. I made sure to put in the ad "first come, first served". The first email that came thru, I called the lady and she came out that day and picked it up. Got another email about 1/2 hour after the first, told her that someone was on their way to come get it but I'd gladly contact them if she didn't show.
The person ripped me up and down in a reply email saying she was SURE she was the FIRST PERSON to email me because she responsed immediately after my email went out, so I basically screwed her over?!?!?! I was like OMG you are kidding me!? I had another write that she'd take it off my hands and proceeded to email me her apartment address that was over 20 miles away and said she'd be home after 6 pm that day we could drop it off.....??? It was free, but I never said free with delivery included!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I had a large shelving unit that my dad made many years ago (like in the 70s). We used it in our townhouse before we had kids and had 2 spare rooms. We then moved to a new house (with kids) and found we didn't have a place for the unit. I asked my dad if he wanted it back. He said no. It was made of cheap particle board and pretty old and he suggested I just junk it. I put it out near the street and a car pulled up within 5 minutes. This guy jumped out and proceeded to try to stuff this 6 foot shelving unit into his little hatchback. He got it about halfway in and he kept pushing and pushing for several minutes. He finally left the hatchback open and drove away very, very slowly. I was waiting for the sound of splintering wood on the road but I never heard it!

 

[squirrel]

My dad loves picking up items people leave out on the road.

I left my shower doors and the track outside for someone. It took a little longer than I thought it would for someone to cart it away.

My best find was when I lived in a condo. Someone must have been moving out and they left a Little Tykes toy box full of toys. I also found a full case of 1 L tetra packs of Soy Milk and another half box of Light Soy Milk.

 

[hsmamato2]

in the last week I found 2 resin adirondack chairs,a small side table (for the deck) and a lovely wicker armchair- a few cans of various colored spray paint later, I have new porch furniture!

 

[fletchers5]

WOW...it sounds like you have all found some pretty nice things. It is alot of fun finding stuff for free.

My husbands favorite is wood cut up alongside the road. Great for the fireplace or camping.

My boss found two battery operated motorcylces that WORKED...even had the chargers. He gave them to his grandkids.

I will be on a mission this summer to find more furniture.

 

[ceecee]

WOW...it sounds like you have all found some pretty nice things. It is alot of fun finding stuff for free.

My husbands favorite is wood cut up alongside the road. Great for the fireplace or camping.

My boss found two battery operated motorcylces that WORKED...even had the chargers. He gave them to his grandkids.

I will be on a mission this summer to find more furniture.

I wondered why anyone would take wood...we put out our old privacy fence and someone stopped within the hour. DH said no one would burn it because it was treated wood. I tried to give away our basketball hoop on Craigs List and got a bunch of weird people who responded. One lady wanted it for sure so I turned 3 people away and she didn't come!!!! We only have the large item pickup in our new neighborhood once a month.

 

[pjlla]

I am NOTORIOUS for "treasure picking" on the side of the road. One of my best finds.....

a kids writing/drawing desk with built-in light box and task light. But it was missing the wiring for the light box and missing the drawers. But still functional.

A few weeks later DH was at the dump and found the same table... in worse shape but with wiring and drawers. He brought it home, took out the parts we needed, installed them in the better desk, and brought the remainder back to the dump. That desk sat in DS's room for YEARS and he used it a lot. Sadly it is VERY outgrown and will be heading to a yardsale this summer.


A few other finds include things like a wooden kitchen table... cut down the legs and use it for a tv table for the playroom....... many plastic Little Tyke and similar outdoor toys (golf set, trucks come to mind), few assorted book shelves... not beautiful but good enough to hold reference books in a rarely-used home office.

Most recently... (just this week in fact)... leftover in a "free" post-yardsale pile... a very slim wooden medicine cabinet. I plan to remove the doors and use it for scrapbooking storage. Similar storage item sold at Michael's and AC Moore goes for $79.99.

What's better than cheap?? FREE!!!!!!.......................P

 

[fletchers5]

ceecee: the wood my DH gets is usually from someone that had a tree cut down..although he has gotten pallets before. We use our fireplace alot during the winter months and I will say that we have never had to pay for wood before.

Love getting stuff for free..and I also love taking a piece of furniture and refinishing it.

 

[krcit]

I put out stuff by my curb and it is gone within hours. One time when I was pg with my ds, I decided that I needed a new highchair because the old one was old and yucky. I cleaned it like crazy and it looked brand new. I put it on the curb, walked into the house and said 'What am crazy? It's ggod as new." Went back outside and someone was already loading it into his car