Me:

I REALLY do slow way down for any yard sale I see, and although I have yet to go as far as Marie here, I have snagged a bamboo chair abandoned in an alley, rescued a galvanized sink set out by a nursery dumpster( after asking) and spotted a couple of nice sandstone stepping stones laid near another dumpster. You HAVE to keep your eyes open, right?

TRUE CONFESSION: When taking my daughter, now a young mother, to school on Fridays, our neighborhood trash day, I would actively cruise through the better neighborhoods on my way home, searching for cast off goodies. I found days beds, cement pedestals I could barely lift, wheelbarrows fancy scroll worked screen doors,…oodles of old windows and old wooden lawn furniture.

One Friday I came home from getting quite a few treasures and looked up to see my friend and neighbor man come out of his house with a quizzical look. I cheerily said Hi (thinking Yeeps, I’ve been found out). Seeing the stricken look on his dear face as he glanced at the back of my little truck, I’m sure he thought to himself, ‘Glad I’m not married to HER!’

Feel free to confess your scavenging experiences. Make me feel better!   🙂 Sue

You:

Teresa-  I, too, must confess…I am guilty of this….Love it….”One Man’s Trash…….Another Woman’s Treasure….” Just sayin…….

Sandra Oh I am not ashamed to say that I have found many treasures this way…an antique drop side table, a brass lamp with milk glass globe, and lots of other things…and my daughter that used to cringe and hide now does the same..

Cathy But every woman I know is smart enough to wear pants to do so!

James  Guilty! I also keep a link to free craigslist stuff on my phone!

Bernie  You are all my kind of folks.

Theresa  LOL..it’s in the genes!

David I found 2 nice mahogany end tables on the street. I drove around the block twice but was too chicken to stop. That evening my mother called and said she found some treasures. She had MY end tables. LOL!

Lori  You know you’ve stopped at plenty of garage sales when you 4 year-old starts to bargain with people at the sale. He asked for a discount because a car had a broken wheel. Gotta love it!!!

Dale  I got a beautiful stained glass fireplace screen sitting on the side of the road for trash pick-up. I knocked on the door and asked first.

Peggy  i love this FMG, seems like I’m spending most of the time on your site!!

Kathy  I was REALLY naughty once…while on the clock, stopped with the company van and picked up an old wooden handmade dollhouse that someone set out by the curb for the garbage man. I drove it all the way home, dropped it off and went back to work! It put me in the GREATEST mood the rest of the day knowing I had got it!

Janna  She REALLY needs to dress appropriately…

….and that means underwear and jeans for crying out loud. Gimmee a break.

Cece  have been a “scavenger” all of my adult life. While my Son still lived @ home, I know it embarrassed him at times when I’d stop the car/truck at the side of the road and pick something up that I knew I could use/salvage. He stated so more than once, but it did not stop me. I did feel a bit guilty of his embarrassment but I continued knowing that our home would benefit from my ‘finds’. I was able to shed my guilt (finally) one day when he was a bit older and living on his own. He phoned me and said “Guess what I just picked up off the side of the road!”. He had driven by a home that had placed a working Generator out for trash! (Yes, he went up to their door, knocked and asked just to be sure). Like Mother – like Son? You betcha!

Kathleen  Oh, Janet, what have we become…scavengers of the highest order, perhaps? ..or green thinkers long before it was in vogue? Either way, life’s a treasure hunt and you never know what you’re going to find or where you’re going to find it. Carry on I say, recycle, reuse, reinvent…artists continually amaze with how they view the world. Thank you for this one, seems to have struck a chord in many of us..

Kimberly  I must confess, I do the same thing – cruise neighborhood streets looking for ‘treasures’, shop garage sales, thrift stores, & junk stores, and ‘rescue’ unwanted items left by dumpsters. And I love every minute of it!!

Sarah  About her outfit. …

…the seriously awesome finds cannot be planned! I’ve been at work in dressy work clothes when I found a treasure. Nice clothes shouldn’t stop the hunt. Lol if I waited until I was dressed “appropriately” I would’ve missed out.

Cheryl  I LOVE old doors….one day, many years ago….I saw that a neighbor across the street was throwing out two, 5 panel wood doors, complete with crystal doorknobs…YIPPPEEEE!!! I went and asked my son (who was 7 at the time…now 22) if he and his little friend could help me with something….(mind you, I already had several old wooden doors at home, being used as screens) , so he said, “Sure, Mom”….we walked out to the road, and when my son looked up at our destination, he was mortified in front of his friend….He turned to his friend, Nathan, and said, “I’m really sorry, Nathan…..my Mom collects old doors….” Being a trooper (albeit mortified) he and his friend grabbed one end, and I got the other…today, one of those old doors is a coffee table in my living room….and the other has been made into several chalkboards….aaahhhhh….sweet memories!!!!!

Tracy  Two of my best finds: one was a complete (in pieces) old cast iron stove, pale mint green with pale yellow trim, sits in my 1888 Victoria house kitchen. And a super large box of 1960’s Barbies and clothes. About 35 in all !!!

Linda  I can’t drive past a load at the end of a driveway waiting for pick up without slowing down to make sure there isnt something they put out that has some life left in it. Yes, a few times I saw something that just had to come home with me!!

Sydney  I know a school bus driver who scouts the curbs on her routes and goes back on her way home to pick things up. The back of a school bus can accommodate sizable treasures.

Shocking!

Amy  I do this also but I keep my eyes peeled all the time but the best time to do it is if you live by a University, do it around May 15th-31st also June 1st to the 30th when they all leave. I have found so much doing this. They don’t care they just put what they can in their little cars n throw everything else away. I love that time of year!!!!

Louise  Picking through “trash by the side of the road” I came home with enough metal to finish off the deck roof with some left over. Good deal if you ask me.

Jodi  Picked up a 4 foot diameter glass table top from the curbside. It always amazes me what people throw out.

Peggy  I was a young army wife in Germany, and the town I lived in had a big “trash” day where they set things on the curb to be picked up. My husband and I drove the streets and picked up a wonderful quilt, and some odds and ends. One house had a bunch of really cool looking canning jars, filled with really old contents. I rushed to pick all of them up. The old German ladies were looking out their windows, pointing at us and shaking their heads….surely thinking that those poor american service people were going to eat the contents. We dumped the contents and cleaned them up, and sent them home when we left. I use them to this day.

Cheryl  LOL!!!! I’ve found my new profile!!!! HA!HA!HA! This is so me!!!!!!!!

Come on Cheryl, this is Dumpster Diver Anonymous

Sidney  A European curb pick up would be anybody’s dream cache.

Peaceful Valley Farm  Too funny! When we’re driving along and I see something good in a trash pile or side of the road, I say, “did you see that?” And my kids all say “Noooo” at once. Then they help me load it up!

Vicky  My house is filled with all the wonderful finds over the years. Once, in several 5 gallon buckets out in the trash along the road, I found what looked like brass spindles and parts. I thought if anything, the brass could be cashed in at the recycle center for $. But instead, I took it to a brass refinisher where he re-assembled it back into a full size bed. It now proudly sits in my guest bedroom.

Marie  LOL!! I think you have me mixed up with my Rusty Sister Nancy K. Meyer! I don’t wear shoes like that.. or pants! Oh wait.. I do wear pants… jeans! That must be Nancy’s dumpster diving outfit so it’s more flexible in a moments notice! I’m not blonde!! LOL

Tracy  We would make wonderful friends!!! One night my husband and I were looking through a dumpster that was filled to the top with goodies, I’m in the dumpster and all of a sudden I hear a noise and I peak out of the top only to see pretty red and blue lights flashing. The kind officer gets out of his car and says “There have been some break ins in the last few nights back here” and before he could say anything else , as I am climbing out of the dumpster I say to him oh my, you mean we could have been killed?? I guess he didn’t know what to say after that except ,license and registration, please. When he got to the truck he saw we had a sleeping baby in a car seat and changed his mind and just told us to be careful!! What a night!!

Patty  It’s so exciting when you find something good! Once I found one of those push lawn mowers. You know, the kind that the blades go round and round while you push. Looked almost new and it worked great!

Stephie  I remember my nephew finding a purse with a diamond ring inside — in a dumpster behind our favorite restaurant, and next door charity shop! I was a “junker” influence on him, I’m afraid! Sorry, nephew!

Tracy  Not only did I read every comment but I enjoyed them and got a chuckle from a few. Love it!!!

Rebecca  It’s called “curb shopping” we. Do it the nigh t before trash pick up!

Carol  I found the nicest oak bench with cast iron arms and legs, and an angels face carved out. It was just sitting on the curb next to their trash can. I couldn’t lift it…called my neighbor. Didn’t realize it was so big, luckily enough he brought his truck!!!! People throw out some lovely treasures!!

Lavonne  I would love to drive around helping you! Sometimes it takes two to get it into a pickup!!

Patricia  We live in a college town and when each semester ends the students throw away a ton of good stuff. When the kids were younger we found a bunch of toys and a orange an yellow riding car in a dumpster. My husband held the youngest by his feet so he could pull stuff out. Another memorable find was a 5 pc set of good metal patio furniture throw down a tiny embankment over by the lake.

Dottie  I can so relate…

Sherrie  Nice nails for a dumpster dive

Lois  been there & still do that…..

Nancy  I need a bumper sticker. “I brake for JUNK”!!!

Myra  I was a junk lover long before it became cool. My mother was also. We loved finding a treasure in someone’s trash that we could give new life. My daughter’s also inherited the junk gene, and we all drag stuff home for each other. Most recently I got a beautifully made wicker chair from a mansion I pass enroute to work, and beautiful carved door from another house I pass going to work, two more wicker chairs, old barrel hoop, and some lumber. I love finding things that other people no longer want, and creating something neat out of them. It gives me a feeling almost like Christmas as a kid. It’s a high I guess. I confess, I am a junk addict! If there is a 12 step plan, I’m not interested.

Kim  I will only buy a vehicle that I can fit my found treasures into. I have found many beautiful chairs, Tables At the very best find was when my husband Found some real cut crystal facets from a chandelier that had been thrown away. He said he knew I would never forgive him if he didn’t get them for me!

Marilyn  I really blew it a couple of weeks ago, tho – I spotted an abandoned metal wheelbarrow which would be perfect for a Pinterest idea I saw using a metal wheelbarrow as a firepit. I tried to get it in my PT Cruiser, but it didn’t even come close to fitting, so I put it on its side in what I tho’t was an inconspicuous spot and intended to come back some time and wheel it on home. I kept my eye on it, thinking I’d come back when the weather wasn’t so icy, but to my dismay, it has disappeared! I should have gone back that very day (sob!)

Cheryl  We have Spring Clean Up every year in our county. This is a blast! Everyone places there junk out on curb. Good time to replenish my pile or get rid of the unneeded. Usually the trash trucks dont have to worry bout hauling much off!! We cruise every nite for a week trying to beat the other collector to a great find! Its almost like a parade going by in the evening!

Jeannie  My husband is a first class scavenger. We once stopped on Hwy 66 to pick up a coconut that must have bounced out of someone’s truck. Since then every time we see something “valuable” alongside the road the standing joke is “looks like another coconut!”

Teresa  We have a all town curb day every year and it is a free for all with great stuff to be had. People go around with trucks and pick up stuff. WE call it “curbin”

Ellen  Reading all of these comments I got excited about all the finds..Germany has the best stuff..my friend and I would go looking and she found a box of porcelan dishes and a set of six plates of Hitlers porcelan plates..she sold them to a collector in US for a100$..mind you that was in the 60’s alot of money then..

Toni  Yes, been in the dumpster. Hit the thrift shops every chance I get. Had a friend ask me the other day if I go to thrift shops every week and I told him “Not every week, just every chance I get.” Our local flea market will open up again in the Spring.

Penny  Looks familiar..might be me!

Shirley  Love this Sue..

Shelley  luv this…

Gail  I’ve been known to do that myself! Love those treasures

Debra  Karen came to my mind when i read this!!!! Love ya yard sale queen!

Ella  I think that is me…

Duanenet  I come from a long line of scroungers and I am proud of it! Keep on hunting fellow Sista!

Jeanne  I knew I wasn’t ‘alone’ … but this is so much fun reading these comments! Hey, we are all ‘soul’ FMGers

Kristy  I’ve been able to read a 3 by 5 index card that read, Yard sale since I was in the womb. Thanks Mom and sisters!!!! I will pillage and rummage through anything for a deal or free bargain. And yes, I do brag about my findings. I hope my children do the same. I’ve been a mother for 18 years. If you ask my older children what my main rule is for them bringing a girlfriend home they want to marry is. They will tell you. ” my mom says the girl must be down for yard sales” that’s just how I roll!

L A   You are in GOOD company!!! I do the same and I’d probably do even more if I had a larger vehicle. Where I live we call it “Alley finds” and “Dumpster Diving” I don’t care what you call it, I just LOOOVE treasure hunting!!!

Larry:  “Jackie? Jackie! Jackie, get the hell outa there!”

Mary  Frank’s Nurseries used to be behind my house. When I moved in, my neighbors told me they “garbage” pick there. I had always wanted phlox and was coming home from a trip up North one Sunday evening and decided to see what was in the dumpster. Imagine my surprise when I counted 8 flats of phlox. I knew I had to crawl in to get them and to make a long story short, fell backwards into the dumpster when crawling out. Just my feet were showing above the edge. As I crawled back in and checked for injuries, I heard a voice say – Mary? Is that you? It was my neighbor coming over to pick.

Jan  “Of course I wouldn’t do this. I carry a small ladder so I can get it and out.”