Ever rescued anything from the Curbside?

[Amorphous02]

If there is anyone who believes in helping poor students and single moms, there is one thing they can do: make dumpster diving more acceptable. Curbside alerts and rescues are the best. They are free. they help revent landfill. I once found some great patio furniture. I repainted it and gifted it away to some one who asked for it. No germ can survive the bleach i have...HehHeh..
Please share your Curbside Rescue story to encourage environmentalists like me.

[jodi]

We took a leather-type recliner from a curb in college and patched it up - it lasted through several years of dorm rooms until we get something better.
I also hit the dumpsters at college one year after everyone had left - got a few things (some plastic storage bins) before DH (then my boyfriend) pulled me out in embarrassment. Sheesh.
My brother pulled a red plastic wagon from the dump. My kids had a ball with that one, pulling each other around. They still use it all the time.
I'm sure there are many others that do not come to mind right now...no shame here!

[starving_student]

craigslist.com has a free section where people give away stuff (usually they are moving and leave some furniture behind etc...) there is also a website freecycle.org which connect people that have stuff they don't need anymore with people who might need it.

I did pick some left over at garage sale but will feel akward to wande in other people garbage...

[MairGrif]

My uncle made an art of curbside trolling in college and afterwards. Then again, his desk for years was an old door on top of two saw horses. Hey, it worked. I personally have never done so, but my uncle to this day finds some good finds on occasion. I think recently he rescued something he used in renovating his house. Don't remember what, but his wife is picky, so had to be something good. Anything we can't use, and can't find a home for goes on the curb in our neighborhood. If it is truly useable, it is usually gone before the trash collector gets there. There is no shame in using honest means to live within your means. Enjoy yourself.

[sarah4554]

Near my local grocery store is a drop off for the salvation army. They are very slow at picking things up and almost always things are just overflowing into the parking lot. I never actually go in the Salvation Army dumpster but anything that is just lying next to it I think is far game. I got a little tykes kitchen set and a few baby toys there.

I also live on a well traveled road. I often put things out on the curb labeled free. Most often they are gone in a couple of hours. One time I didn't even get the chance to put up the free sign before it was gone. Image my amazement to come down to the curb with my sign only to find it gone!

[Amorphous02]

So good to know that, MairGrif , Sarah and SS..I regretted not picking up a hard disc discarded by the Comp Sci..It could have worked as a server.

I find great furniture but DH turns his nose up.

[sakigt]

My dad was going to haul away and old and abused desk to the Salvation Army. I suggested leaving it on the curb and in less than an hour it was gone!

I wouldnt mind dumpster diving, but I never see anything

[MairGrif]

Sakigt - I love your icon!

[Ima saver]

I rescued my dog from a broken down barn. I have put a canopy bed out by the curb. Never took anything myself.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Probably half a dozen chairs, a steel picnic table, a bench, a stepstool, a wood kitchen table, a free-standing coat-rack, craftsman style windows, eight tall tomato cages of concrete re-infocing wire (towed these home one at a time on my bike!), two boat motors, a roll of chicken wire, a full length door mirror, numerous plant pots and some yarn plant hangers, a lawn mower, a kid's bouncy riding horse toy, a hardware storage cabinet with multiple wood drawers, a lot of curtain rods that I used as plant stakes, hefty oak posts that I used in making a garden seat, also a waterbed frame used in the same project. That's all I can think of right now.

I do not take what I cannot use, but leave it for someone else. I don't look much these days, because I do not need anything. I've been at it for years, and do not live in an area where many people have much spare income to replace things frequently. I understand the curbside shopping is more fruitful in neighborhoods with more income, but I've never tried.

I think curbside shopping (alley shopping, here) has become much more socially acceptable in recent years, just as has shopping at GoodWill and the like. I also sometimes get to supply the store, so to speak. Things go much quicker if I just attach a paper sign that says "FREE, please take." That helps remove any stigma and people can know that they really are doing me a favor to take the doghouse, the beautiful back pack, the extra gas can, the unused paint, etc.

[Hina]

The most recent thing I remeber is the flattened boxes of Diet Pepsi that some one in my neighbourhood set out on the curb for Recylce pick up.
That was when Diet Pepsi was running a Promo where you enter the codes from the boxes, online and reedem them for Movie tickets.

Movies are fun but a free movie is Great fun

[Saving in So Cal]

I live in an older neighborhood with a lot of DIY types. It is not uncommon to see usable, but unwanted things left on the curb with a "free" sign attached. My husband and I have done it at least a half dozen times as we remodel our house. Nothing has ever lasted more than a few hours.

[shengmei]

All of our furnitures came from the curb. When we get rid of something, we repaint it and put it at a prominent angle facing the street.

Everything gets taken quickly.

[shelbylovesmelby]

I've only gotten a vase & a toddler rocker so far. My dh does & doesn't snub "road kill" it depends on his mood.

My uncle who's a flea market guy gets alot of things that way.

[Amorphous02]

Joan.of.Arch,
thats so very cool! A steel picnic table! I am envious. Now I might not send you that Country Music coupon!!! you have saved much . Its such good recyling Karma Though.
DH is better: he fed 6 stray cats for 1 year. They were his friends.
I have recycled so many items being thrown out by labs... Over $2000 worth! but now i am out of school....
Good for you Joan.
I hope these links help:
www.craigslist.org
www.freecycle.org
www.thethrowplace.org/
or www.throwplace.org

[Ima saver]

My husband's uncle owned a huge garbage business (complete with yard)in Detroit. His wife sold lots of stuff every week that she got for free.

[Amorphous02]

Trash to cash, ImaSaver. You must be proud!!
(FYI, in my eyes dogs are better than people. )
BTW, my brother the theoretical physicist is a very clever handyman. He has repaired so many things for mom. To date, they have saved $7000..and counting.
This is why I watch "Decorating Cents" on HGTV. Its my dream to get glass from salvage yards and use it for shelving. I want to place tiny bulbs under each one to create a very hi-tech shelving /display unit..just a dream.


If and when i do so, i will post a few pics and treat myself to a mani-pedi.

[kealina]

no snubbing here...if we saw something we needed we would take it... if not, we leave it for someone else... unfortunately we usually have better luck at yard sales because in our area the maintenance guys and their carts get to all the good stuff first...

[puppypal]

Oh, my when I was a single mom I felt that anything that was waiting on the trash man at the crub was fair game. Actually I will never forget one time one home owner scolded me because she had left a little tikes car in the trash pile because a wheel was missing. Well it was near Christmas and that was exactly what my child wanted. I pulled up and politely asked her if it was ok for me to take it. She said, you people make me sick! YES! Always wanting something for nothing.
I am like were you not going to give it to the trash guy in the morning to be thrown away? She said, well yes....But he isn't going to keep it!
I just let her go on and on and put the car thing in my car.....Since she said yes! BOY! Did I get a talking tooo about you people! LOL But it was worth it! I called the co and they sent me a replacement wheel shipping and all for 7 dollars and change.

[Pollyanna]

I used to live a block or so away from a florist; I loved their discards! I'm still using the 3" pots to pot up cuttings and plants - and I moved from there in 1990! They also tossed candles from weddings - I'd cut three of them off to fit the height of a veggie can; then melt the cut off ends and pour around them to make emergency candles for the cars or for camping. Petals from discarded flowers made great potpourri, and I was able to fashion small decorative swags for each of my porch lights from the wreath discards they put out.

Where I live (the farm I grew up on) it used to be fairly common to find "dumps" on isolated roads or gullies. We were able to scavenger a good oven burner from a gas stove to use in switching our homemade grill from charcol to gas. We pulled enough racks from old refrigerators to make shelves for all the benches in my greenhouse. We found a stack of old guttering and brought it home, drilled holes every few inches and laid it uphill of each row in our garden. On laundry day, we used a sump pump (that had been discarded, that Hubby repaired) to pump the used laundry water up and out the basement window and into the guttering - our garden loved it!

When I was pregnant with my daughter, a friend who had a little girl a year older gifted me with three trash bags full of baby girl clothes - that her mother had purchased at rummage sales.

One year, when we were terribly poor at holiday time, we found an old child size school desk discarded. We brought it home, cleaned it up and painted it, and filled it with inexpensive art supplies and "school" items for our pre-school daughter; she used it for several years before we passed it down to another family with a little one.

I don't have as much time to dumpster dive now, but I sure do have fond memories of past finds!