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What was your best 'trash pick'?  

post #1 of 33
7/18/07 at 11:02pm
Thread Starter 
Mine...

http://www.littletikes.com/toys/toys...Product+Search
post #2 of 33
7/18/07 at 11:18pm
oooh! That's great.

We found our high chair- a nice old wooden one in great condition- on the side of the road downtown. I'm glad we got there before the trash man!
post #3 of 33
7/18/07 at 11:20pm
niiiiice!

i used to dumpster dive a lot when i lived in nyc. people would put out perfectly good furniture on trash night. i retrieved a really nice sofa and ottoman from almost right outside my apartment building. also a great wooden bookcase that i ended up painting.
post #4 of 33
7/19/07 at 9:04am
we were just getting ready to move out of state, but I really wanted to get DS a play kitchen. We decided to wait until after the move so it wouldn't get banged up from being moved. I really wanted a pricey Elves and Angels set.

A week or so before our move, we found a little MDF/wooden kitchen at the curb with a free sign on it. We scooped it up, cleaned it up a bit, and DH replaced the fridge and freezer doors on it. I thought it would keep DS busy until we could get our new one.

He was 15 months then, and is now 3.5. That kitchen has been our most used toy BY FAR!! He plays with it almost every day, and for a while, he played with it for hours to the exclusion of everything else. While part of me would love a new, prettier kitchen, it has been cool to give this one a new life, and DS still likes it and doesn't complain a bit

eta: ours wasn't necessarily a trash pick since it had a free sign on it curbside, but trash was the next day so I imagine that's where it was headed.
post #5 of 33
7/19/07 at 10:11am
My two favorites were a nice small desk my dd spotted when she was about 5! and wanted for her room. My next favorite was a very nice oak dining room table to be used for crafts/projects with the matching chairs.
post #6 of 33
7/19/07 at 10:44am
I think it was about 7 months ago that we finally got rid of our last dumpster couch. Currently the monitor for the kids' computer is a trash day score (been working for 3 months so far, better than the old "fuzzy" monitor)
post #7 of 33
7/19/07 at 11:55am
I've really only found art pieces, (one I still adore) and small random things like pots for my container garden. This year however, I found a really big and nice clay pot for my garden. IT was sooo heavy to pick up. DH had to help with that one.
I've also found a sweet vintage schwinn bicycle a few years ago. ITs been sittin in our garage, needed alot of love but to many other projects for dh to get to so we sold it for $50! Just a few minute ago
post #8 of 33
7/19/07 at 11:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShaggyDaddy View Post
I think it was about 7 months ago that we finally got rid of our last dumpster couch. Currently the monitor for the kids' computer is a trash day score (been working for 3 months so far, better than the old "fuzzy" monitor)
We have a dumpster couch. All I did was sew up a couch cover to cover up the horrid looking fabric. Was in amazing condition but ugly fabric/patterns.
post #9 of 33
7/19/07 at 12:02pm
That Little Tykes set is a fabulous score! I haven't kept much, but my best haul was a cumulative thing from neighbors who were moving out. I was able to Freecycle some crutches, an aluminum walker, a wheelbarrow and a vacuum, all from one house!
post #10 of 33
7/19/07 at 2:50pm
Our stroller! It's a slightly older version of the Combi Savvy Soho and was in perfect condition once we ran the seating pads through the washing machine a couple of times to get the cat hair off. The wheels had barely had a chance to get dirty, it was so new, and just sitting on the curb in a residential district with a sign saying "FREE" on it.

I'm praying that we'll find a decent dumpster couch when all the student leases are up this August 15th. There's such good trash picking on that day that the whole town goes downtown to take part and they call it "Hippie Christmas". I've got my van cleaned out already
post #11 of 33
7/20/07 at 2:45am
A portable sewing machine. All it needed was a good cleaning and it still works like a champ 18 years later.
post #12 of 33
7/20/07 at 3:06am
wow-u all have found some nice stuff. i guess my best finds were some painted canvases that I gessoed and repainted
post #13 of 33
7/20/07 at 4:31am
My husband finds strange and interesting things. The oddest one was a seat from inside a school bus - you know, kinda narrow seat, really high back, in that forest green naugahyde they do. It served as foyer seating for shoes-on-&-off by the front door of the house we lived in when he found it; in our next place it was garage seating; for the first couple years we lived here it was again foyer seating. Just last week though we rearranged the greatroom and made it into dining-area seating - we have a 1950s green Formica table with aluminum legs, so the bus seat looks like a diner banquette! It's very cool.
post #14 of 33
7/20/07 at 10:03am
Several months ago I circled the block to come back to a house with a ton of stuff on the curb. I got a big, solid wood doll's cradle I should put on CraigsList, a bunch of working christmas lights, a new Ikea curtain, a new in box roll of scented drawer liner paper, some baskets, a small laminating machine & box & other stuff I don't recall now.

Not trashpicked but $3 at a thrift shop got me a wooden kitchen set from a nursery school. It was so heavy I had to get someone to help me put it in the car. Scrubbed it up & dh made a special decal for our granddaughter that said Granddaughter's Kitchen & it was a great birthday present.
post #15 of 33
7/20/07 at 10:30am
Thread Starter 
There is such a thrill from getting a useful item for free!
post #16 of 33
7/20/07 at 9:57pm
My mom got me an awesome wooden chair that I use in my craft room from a dumpster.

We also dumpster dived behind a bookstore that was closing one day--we got reams and reams of tissue paper, really cool stickers and ribbons, some kids coats (we washed them and donated them to the charity program), and some other random things. Seriously, it was so cool.
post #17 of 33
7/20/07 at 10:28pm
I have gotten loads of stuff from curbside shopping

Hippie Christmas... that is great!

Trash Picking runs in my family I think. The best things? I dunno if I can beat that awesome play set, but...let's see... I got a little tyke's cosy coupe years ago (maybe 8 years ago). The kids played with it until it fell apart last year, and even then they begged me to fix it. For the last few years it was missing everything but the wheels and body. I got a bunch of great plants and planters from an office clean out in the complex I used to work in. I got a really cool rattan coffee table with a glass top (still whole!) and gave it to my SIL a long time ago. Dh brought me home a truck load of those bags of mulch, potting soil and manure they sell at big DIY stores from a dumpsterdive he did all by himself last year . My mother brought me two brass lamps, two metal futons with like new matresses and a bunch of other things from clean out day at the shore (when all the summer renters leave and dump their stuff, she worked at the office so this stuff was not really "trash picked" but headed out that way). We got a bike from the neighbor's trash pile that was irrepairable, but I was able to use the good bits and add them to a bike we already had to make one "new" one

One time I saw a bright sky blue leather sectional out for the trash. It was HUGE and in really fantastic shape, even if it was a crazy color. I could not imagine where I would put it or how on earth I would get it home though, or we would have it .
post #18 of 33
7/21/07 at 1:33am
WOW.
I dont know may people who could toop that, short of some gourmet food or something! just..wow.

again with my question..how do you find out if its legal where you live...without calling somewhere preferably? (like...to not make someone alert to someone wanting to, kwim? yes, im paranoid.) is there anywhere online that would have this info? or a better search phrase? ive been searching about an hour and a half and only found a lot of articles, especially about freeganism. :sigh:
i dont want cops trying to haul me off with a 2yo and 2 week old...and i cant take anyone else with me, ive got a 3seat ram.
post #19 of 33
7/21/07 at 2:02am
$900 speaker with a minor defect that my audio engineer husband can fix! The only problem is that I want to sell it and he wants to keep it to put in our car! LOL.
post #20 of 33
7/21/07 at 2:12am
The sidewalk gods are smiling on me this month. So far I have found and taken:

-A like new kids wading pool. My 4 year old is in heaven.

-A nice drying rack

-A non-electric, non-gas lawn mower. The kind in the credits from Pete and Pete. An eco-friendly choice that we were going to spend $100 on. I figured it would need a sharpening ASAP but it works fine without that. Anything bigger in our townhouse yard would be insane, so it is good.

-A cooler to take camping. It needed a washing but is otherwise fine. The same Coleman cooler sells for about $40.

-A bookcase that matches exactly the one we already own. They are clearly from the same set.

I have seen a number of things I did not need, including a nice couch and several dressers and tables.
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