My friend Virusdoc has a cool post today about acquiring stuff that other folks throw out. Although not as 'active' as he, I too appreciate the joy of finding gems in other's trash. Some of my finds:
- Back in junior high school, a friend of mine had no bike, her family didn't have the money to buy her one. Well, our neighbor was throwing away a bike that needed some help. I snatched it up and either I bought parts for it (not likely, how much $$ does a 6th grader have for that kind of thing?) or just patched it up with stuff I had and gave it to her.
- Right after we moved into our first apartment with a washer/dryer hook up this avacado green washer and dryer showed up at the dumpster. I quickly dragged them into our basement. The washer turned out to be no good, but a $10 belt and and afternoon of work and the dryer was just fine.
- When we moved into that apartment mentioned above, the previous tenant had left a bunch of stuff behind. They were moving out of state and there was no room on the truck I guess. Unfortunately the guys painting the apartment got some of the better things like a CD boombox and microwave, but we got a stuffed chair and ottoman, office chair with casters, wire office cart and a large file sorting tray, sort of like a mega in and out box.
- The best one, however, was a few years ago. I was delivering newspapers in the AM to bring in extra money to allow Maria to stay at home with our 2 kids. I learned that a woman at church was about to junk her '88 Subaru wagon. She got a new car and didn't feel right about selling the old clunker and it's troubles to anyone. I offered her what the junkyard would give her ($30 - $50), but she said if I wanted it I could have it, but warned me it was always overheating. I got it home, put in a gallon of water and drove it for over a year on the paper route, adding water every couple of weeks. The only thing it needed during that time was a timing belt, which I changed myself for less than $50. The belt broke a second time when I was done with the route and I donated it to charity. It brought $75 at auction.
I must admit, however, I am a little self conscious about riffling through stuff at the curb. Most of my 'finds', like the car, haven't been that public. I've past by some stuff because I didn't want to be seen out 'dumpster diving'. Still, it's nice to get free stuff and give it a new life.
Of all my recent posts, you decide to trackback my dumpster-diving entry! That's what I call a good friend...
(BTW, I do all the scrounging under cover of darkness. I have some small inkling of pride left. But not much.) ;)
Of all my recent posts, you decide to trackback my dumpster-diving entry! That's what I call a good friend...
Ouch! The truth hurts. The good news is my big project at work is over the hump. Most of the data has been released to the client so my life will be returning to something closer 'normal' and I'll be able to be more active.
In college, we would wait in the parking lot of McDonalds. Every half hour or so, they would throw away the hamburgers that sat under the heat lamp and didn't sell. We would search every new bag they brought out until we hit pay dirt. We would feed ourselves for a couple of days in a row this way. Obviously, I have no pride by mentioning this, but the tale had to be told.
Paul,
That's just plain sad. I guess folks do a lot of stuff in college they're not too proud of. I'm not sure why you feel it had to be told. I think I'd have been content to let that one be left untold. :-)
My son takes pride in surviving on what he gleans from dumpsters. In doing so, he's being environmentally friendly and also not contributing to capitalistic greed. He feels good about combating our throw-away over-indulgent society in his own small way. And often his finds are used to make meals for the homeless and to clothe and equip those less fortunate.
I'm proud of him too.