I was tossing some boxes behind the strip mall around 11 PM and spotted this matte black 26oz Rambler sitting right on top. No dents, no scratches, just some sticky soda residue on the lid. Brought it home, scrubbed it with hot soapy water, and it looks flawless. Anyone else ever score premium brand stuff that clearly got tossed by accident?
I was walking home from my shift last Tuesday and saw this beat up bread machine sitting by a trash can with a free sign. Honestly, I laughed at first because who actually uses those things besides grandmas? But I hauled it home anyway because hey, free is free. Cleaned off the caked on dough and gave it a test run with some basic flour and yeast I had around. That loaf came out perfect, better than anything I've bought at the store in months. I've been using it twice a week now for sandwich bread and pizza dough, and it's saved me like $20 so far on bakery stuff. Has anyone else picked up something they were totally skeptical about and it ended up working great?
I drove 15 miles out of my way for years hitting up the ritzy curbs until last month I found a practically new Breville in a random plaza behind a thrift store and now I'm rethinking my whole route what's the weirdest spot you've scored something good?
Pulled up to a GameStop dumpster last Tuesday night and saw a stack of old gaming chairs sticking out. Grabbed one thinking I could clean it up and resell it. Got home, spent 3 hours scrubbing stains and fixing a wobbly armrest. Turns out the foam was shot and the gas cylinder was busted beyond repair. Tossed it back out the next morning. Anyone else grab something that looked good but was totally ruined?
I've been grabbing old grills, broken lawnmowers, and random metal stuff from curbs for a while now, but I didn't realize how much I'd collected until I weighed it all in. Turns out I hauled 500 pounds of mixed metal to the scrapyard just in October, and that got me $87. Has anyone else kept track of how much weight they pull from free piles in a month?
He was loading up his truck at 6am behind a Kroger in Phoenix. Said apartments just have old furniture and trash, grocery stores toss out good pallets and shelves. I drove by a Safeway the next morning and found four solid metal shelves, saved me like $60 at Home Depot. Anyone else got a specific type of place they swear by?
I used to grab every piece of wood furniture I saw on the curb, thinking I'd refinish and flip it. A guy who runs a vintage shop near me told me to stop wasting my time on particle board stuff and focus on solid wood with dovetail joints. Now I only pick up pieces where I can check the drawer construction before hauling them home. Has anyone else gotten good advice from a seller or flipper that changed your dive strategy?
Last month I was hitting the strip mall dumpsters near Easton and found a Target one that was packed full of returned bedding sets still in their plastic. The security guard told me I had to leave because it was their policy to wreck everything before throwing it out, I think he said they slash the plastic and dump bleach on it. Now I check for signs of tampering before I even bother pulling stuff out, has anyone else run into stores that deliberately ruin returns before trashing them?
I spent like 6 months always going behind Best Buy and Target thinking I'd score big. Best I ever found was a broken keyboard. Then one night I stopped behind a Publix on my route and found a whole case of protein bars with the packaging slightly crushed. Like 40 boxes. Nothing wrong with them. Had enough bars to last me 3 months. My buddy who's been doing this for years told me grocery stores toss stuff for stupid reasons - misprints on labels, seasonal packaging that's 2 days past, dented cans. He said I was wasting my time chasing electronics. Has anyone else made that switch and seen way better results?
I used to be pretty casual about grabbing anything that looked half decent from the apartment complex dumpsters near my place. Then my neighbor saw me pulling out a box of cereal and said 'you know that's been sitting open for three days right?' and she was right, I hadn't even checked the inner bag. Now I actually open everything before I take it home. I check for bugs, moisture, weird smells, that kind of stuff. It takes an extra minute but it saved me from bringing home a bag of flour that had weevils in it last week. Also started bringing a little flashlight because some of those dumpsters on the north side of town get zero light at night. Has anyone else changed up their process after getting some real talk from a friend or stranger?
I drove past that same curb pile behind Furniture Row for like 8 months thinking it was just broken junk. Last Tuesday I finally pulled over and grabbed a Steelcase chair that just needed a caster wheel replaced. Anyone else find decent furniture that just needed like 10 bucks and a little work to be good as new?
I used to just snag any old cool-looking chair off the curb near my place in Philly, but last month a guy at the transfer station pointed out that pre-1970s stuff often has lead paint and said I was 'bringing poison into my house.' He showed me a pic of his test kit turning bright pink on a vintage dresser and I realized I'd been totally clueless. How do you guys quickly check if something is safe to sand or refinish without buying a whole testing lab?
I saw this nice wooden ladder on someone's curb last week, thought it was a steal at $20 from the guy dragging it to his truck, so I bought it instead of grabbing it for free. Turns out the rungs were rotted on the inside and the third step snapped right under me, cost me a bruised tailbone and a trip to urgent care. Has anyone else gotten burned buying something that was clearly meant to be free?
I was pulling usable lumber out of a construction site bin behind a strip mall in Tucson. Some older dude walks up and says 'you're gonna get the cops called on us taking that much, grab what fits in one trip and leave the rest.' I thought he was being a jerk but he was right. Now I only take what I can carry out in one go and I leave the site looking cleaner than I found it. Has anyone else had to adjust how fast or how much you grab to avoid getting kicked out of a spot?
I used to only hit up grocery store dumpsters behind Kroger and Publix, and I'd find okay stuff like bruised fruit or day-old bread. But last month I checked the dumpster behind a local Italian restaurant in my neighborhood, and it was a goldmine - whole bags of unopened pasta, sealed jars of sauce, and even a box of frozen meatballs that were perfectly fine. The restaurant tosses stuff way more often because of prep waste or overordering, while grocery stores usually compact their stuff tighter. Has anyone else noticed restaurant dumpsters are way more consistent than grocery ones?
Pulled out a bundle of brand new cedar fence boards that still had the plastic wrap on them, maybe 40 bucks worth of wood for free, has anyone else found decent lumber this way?
Somehow I passed 100 trips behind stores and apartments since January. I counted them all in a notebook after I found a working Xbox controller in a Petco trash bin back in March. My garage now has 14 lamps, a stack of board games with missing pieces, and a weird metal thing I think might be part of a printer. My wife says we look like hoarders but I keep telling her it's all free. The real milestone was realizing I've saved about $400 on stuff I would have bought anyway. Does anyone else track their finds or am I just being weird about this?
I was digging behind a Petco last Saturday and grabbed this Linksys router that looked perfect. Took it home, cleaned it with alcohol wipes, and it actually powers on fine. But man, the smell is so bad it fills up my whole apartment when it runs. Has anyone dealt with electronics that smell weird after a dumpster find? I tried leaving it in a bag of baking soda for two days but no luck. Should I just scrap it or is there a way to get the smell out?