Do you "trash pick"?

[bonjoe07]

We live right beside a Value Village, so sometimes we see good things, but rarely. However when we go outside at night we see ALOT of vehicles drive by and take the whole box of donated things.

 

[surfergirl602]

I always look in the dumpsters at our apartments. We have gotten some cool things before from there. I usually look for unused coke points adn rack up alot there.

As far as gettign things on the side of the road I have BUT i always ask just because somtimes you dont really know if its trash or not and somtimes people will get upset. Once I found a beat up pinball machine next to teh road. I asked if I could take it and they said yes. It took only 30 dollars to fix it back up and I made it look and work brand new! The strang epart is I found a huge bag of weed inside of it. I gave it away to somone I knew because I dont do that stuff but it was funny that I found it inside the pinball machine, hidden very well!

We have found cds, art, all kinds of things. The strangest I have found was a big jar in the shape of a head! I still have it.

Wait... what?!?! You found a bag of an illegal substance and you gave it away to someone?? If that person had gotten caught with it you would have been branded a drug dealer!

 

[Ephany]

I've left stuff on the curb, but haven't ever grabbed anything. Funny thing, we came home from Disney in March and there was a girl's bike in front of our door. It wasn't our DD's, much too small so we put it at the end of the yard thinking that a little girl forgot it and one of the neighbor's thought it was DD's. It somehow ended back up on our porch, so we put it back at the end of the yard. This happened a few more times, finally it disappeared. Very random.

Last week we came home late at night and it looked like one of the neighbors had been evicted. There were piles of stuff on the curb. It was there for a day or so and then gone; I wanted to look but since I'm pretty sure it wasn't the stuff's owners who put it out, I let it be. I've seen people cruising the neighborhood early in the morning on trash day before the trucks come through, so it's fairly common around here.

 

[jennifer293]

I have one of the really old singer sewing machines that have the black iron foot pedal and solid oak cabinet in EXCELLENT condition that a neighbor had put out by the curb for the trash man... It has the original oak box with all the fittings and needles in it with a date of early 1800's stamped on it. I had it appraised and it is worth over $2K...

 

[dogluva]

Well of course, used is used, but there is a huge difference between shopping at a flea market,yard sale or Goodwill versus weeding through piles of garbage that may be infested with bugs, dog feces, etc. Not my thing - thanks!

Who actually does this? I think they are talking about grabbing something on the side of the road, not something sitting in a dumpster or a trash can. Give me a break.

I think it is a good idea. The stuff is just going to fill up landfills. Why not make use of it.

 

[myprincessgirlisa]

one time i saw a set of lawn chairs out at the curb & stopped to check them out! they looked perfectly fine so i took them to my moms, who at the time lived in a house on the beach. It was a good find!

 

[CinRell]

A few years back we were getting rid of some kids riding toys and left them out hoping someone would take them... a lady who lives right down the street did, indeed.. but then she came back and started opening our garbage bags and rooting through them!! That's illegal here and I found it VERY offensive and quite an invasion of privacy. I rarely put things out for people to take anymore for fear she'll start rooting around in our bags again

 

[Todd&Copper]

I found a full toolbox near the dumpster at my old apartment - it was full of good [mostly Craftsman] tools. DH & I scooped it up and guessed that maybe a woman was tossing her ex-boyfriend's box, or maybe someone was just too lazy to donate them to the Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity.

 

[kmvand1]

Who actually does this? I think they are talking about grabbing something on the side of the road, not something sitting in a dumpster or a trash can. Give me a break.

I think it is a good idea. The stuff is just going to fill up landfills. Why not make use of it.

Give me a break! Are you kidding me?? I HAVE seen people go through bags of stuff, not just things left out in the open that may seem of value to someone else. They do say one man's trash is another one's treasure. And I would say that some people do dig and open things, not just stop if something is left out in the open for all to see and take.

 

[dogluva]

We live right beside a Value Village, so sometimes we see good things, but rarely. However when we go outside at night we see ALOT of vehicles drive by and take the whole box of donated things.

Isn't this stealing?

 

[dogluva]

Give me a break! Are you kidding me?? I HAVE seen people go through bags of stuff, not just things left out in the open that may seem of value to someone else. They do say one man's trash is another one's treasure. And I would say that some people do dig and open things, not just stop if something is left out in the open for all to see and take.

I have seen it to but who here said they going digging through bags and dumpsters? I find that very gross myself. I don't remember reading a post that said anyone does that.

Taking something out in the open that you need is called recycling. How is it really different than buying something at a flea market or a gargage sale? You don't know where that stuff has been either. However, a little soap, water and maybe some bleach does wonders.

 

[MEM]

Isn't this stealing?

It absolutely IS stealing! Many of these drop-off sites have signs posted to that effect.

 

[MonkersMama]

I have scored in the past: a Fisher-Price kitchen and a Little Tikes art table and chair with working light....nothing a little bleach and Magic Clean Eraser couldn't handle (separately, not together).

 

[newtodis]

I guess I need to move! I would love to find any of the little tykes stuff y'all have found! No such luck - not even at a garage sale! I'm sure it's because that's the stuff I'm looking for! LOL When my boys are teenagers it'll be all over the place I'm sure! We too put stuff out and it generally takes a day or two but it always winds up long gone which is great! it's good to know we're helping someone else out. Hopefully that karma will come back around someday.

 

[CathrynRose]

Who actually does this? I think they are talking about grabbing something on the side of the road, not something sitting in a dumpster or a trash can. Give me a break.

I think it is a good idea. The stuff is just going to fill up landfills. Why not make use of it.

It's the ultimate 'being green'.

Taking something out in the open that you need is called recycling.

 

[Ephany]

We used to have a guy down the street who'd trash pick for extra money. Everything he found, he'd clean up and resell. They usually had a garage sale twice per month, sold at the flea market once every 3 months and his wife did ebay. Just because you bought it somewhere doesn't mean the seller didn't pick it up off the side of the road.

 

[Pembo]

Last night I had to drive to a city near an Amish community. There was a flat bed buggy with Amish kids running to and from the curb checking the trash. The scene just struck me as amusing. Even the Amish are "trash pickers".

 

[purpletiger]

I sit my "trash" out for the following day pickup and if it is not in a bag you betcha someone will pick it up. Sometimes we bet on how long it will take for someone to pick up our stuff. One time we had replaced our fence and set the old 20+ yrs pickets out and low and behold a truck pulled up about 20 minutes later as I was carrying around another load and I told them there was a bunch in the backyard and help themselves. I guess people drive around on the eve of trash pickup looking for a good find.

 

[neatokimmo]

Just a few months ago someone left an elliptical outside our condo dumpster. It weighs, I don't know, 100 pounds and it took me 20 minutes to rock, slide scoot and push that thing across the parking lot and into the elevator lol


It is from Sears, works perfectly and is currently being sold for $299

I wouldn't pick up anything with cloth on it, but I would totally pick up a lot of the stuff you all are talking about. In fact I'd love to find some wooden dressers I could paint and use for tool storage in the new house's garage.

Now I when I lived in Orlando, no way would I touch other people's stuff. I didn't even yard sale. The PP comments about bugs is so true, they are everywhere.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I went to pick up an oak train table in a subdivision near our house. On the way there, I saw someone throwing away an entire bedroom set! It was pretty nice. I picked up my train table (about 3 houses down) and went back to look at the dressers (one tall dresser, one shorter longer one). I asked the guy who was setting them out if I could have them if he was throwing them away. He said sure. Then he saw the license plate on my van (we have vanity plates) and told me to tell Jonathan (my DH) "hi." Apparently my husband has worked on his computer at his house. When I was trying to figure out how to turn the train table to make room for the dressers, the guy said he would drop them off at our house...

It was the first time I've ever had my trash to treasure find delivered directly to my house My husband even liked the dressers My mom is quite happy to take our old dressers off our hands for us.

Then some college kids came along who were doing a contest called bigger and better. They started with a quarter and were trying to trade up to something bigger and better. When they got to me, they had a Sony DVD player with no remote. I ended up giving them the headboard to the bedroom set (they delivered the entire bedroom set, even though I just wanted the dressers). I figured a college kid might be able to use it.