Did you ever take furniture that someone else left out on the curb?

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The erstwhile "liberal" town I live in is a curbside commando and scavenger's dream. I have gotten my recliner-no fleas-and a nice set of 4 sturdy kitchen chairs thanks to the generosity of my fellow burghers, plus perfectly good lamps, exercise equipment, etc.

 

[Armyphotog]

My Mom and Dad were first rate scavengers. Dad refinshed and repaired furniture on the side. I was amazed at what people threw away. We mostly cruised nice neighborhoods. Don't know whether those folks just didn't have any handicraft skills or just too well off to care, but thanks a bunch! And, thanks to all you manufacturers who just used cheap glue.

 

[JTMcC]

Good on you man, a great chair is a great chair no matter where it's found. I've "liberated", recycled, rebuilt and renewed many, many things over the years.
Congratulations to your Wife for getting the lawn chair out.
Gotta love the gorilla tape. Best thing since gorilla glue.

J

 

[wheelgun28]

Ever see the show Dirty Money?

Dirty Money: Full Steam Ahead : Videos : Discovery Channel

All dumpster diving and fixin up

All fake I am sure but hey!

 

[27145]

I heard Sip sat on a curb for three days and nobody would take him!

They left him, but they did take all the beer cans for the deposit.

 

[Penmon]

Remember one mans junk is another treasure.
I found via the curb a number of useful items.
Lawnboy- lawn mower-Needed gas and a plug
Set of matched antique brass lamps-New shade and rewired
Kirby vacuum cleaner-New belt and a bag
I ignore clothing, bedding, electronic and kitchen ware.
Collection of baseball cards in plastic sleeves-Gave them to my son, who sold them for $400.00
Craftsman's rolling toll chest-Built a reloading bench out of it.

The best thing I found was,870 Remington shotgun. The lady next door had thrown it out after her husband passed away, along with his golf clubs. I asked her if it would be ok to take them and she said sure, I didn't want that dam gun in the house anyway, you want the bullets that go with it? By the time she was done I had the gun,case,cleaning kit, 4 boxes of shot shells and a slug barrel.She also asked me to clean out her husbands work shop,because I had a truck and had offered to pay her for the gun.Let me put it this way my two sons and I have more tools than Home Depot.We became friends, I cut her grass took her to the store and her doctors and my girls watched her dog when she was in Hospital.Upon her passing a few years ago she left my daughters her jewelry and me her husbands WWII footlocker.After cutting off the lock I found a bunch of cool stuff including a SA dagger.All from the old lady who would yell at my brother and I for walking on her grass when we were kids.

The funny thing is I am not normally looking for stuff, I see something and think, I can fix /use that and if I can't I will put it out with the trash.
Were you live has a lot to do with what you find, also taking a walk in the evening on trash day can be very helpful, if an item is in question, just knock and ask.At my Dads home in Baltimore (he lives in a up scale area)they throw out great stuff, also here in Philadelphia it's shopping season when the college students graduate.They, at least in my area, throw out everything .I guess it make it easier for them to move.
Penmon

 

[mike from st pete]

No Way

That's just gross.
I'd rather sit and sleep on the floor.

 

[DeathGrip]

There's a bunch of guys scraping around town.What kills me is most pick up the rain soaked and who knows what else mattresses.I've heard that some places south of me redo them basically raping them only on the outside.I saw a news clip about it and it was pretty sick what they found.

I also see on the side of the road the little signs (like about the size of a real estate sign) that advertise queen mattresses for 149.00 and wonder if there's a connection.

Busted,I misspelled WRAPPING.That's too funny.

 

[rburg]

The master of curbside/roadside picking is rburg-I'm waiting for him to chime in.

We weren't all born rich. Caje just has to keep reminding me how poor I was (and am.) Not a lot in the upstairs of my wifes new house (aka our retirement cottage on the river.) She's kind of embarrassed about my impoverished ways. 40 years ago we lived in an area of hospitals and a university. I was still a student, she was a new RN. They were remodeling the complex and replacing all the nice wood doors with metal (so the thieves couldn't kick them in.) One day I went out to the construction dumpster and "harvested" two of the better front doors. I cut the one that became the table top right at the eye hole. Then again stripped off the doorknob hole. Those pieces became cleats for the legs, which were made from 29" sections of the other door. I know that because one is gone, and I need another 29" leg. The top is still my workshop table.

This stuff embarrasses my wife beyond belief. But she has hobbies, too. And she covets my sturdy table (and I won't give it up!)

But last winter I got a phone call from her at work. I'm retired remember. They were remodeling in her medical building, and were throwing out a bunch of really nice office doors. So I got my oldest and away we went. I've got enough door wood to make 4 full tables (remember code says front doors in offices must be at least 3-0 so I can again strip off the knob hole. What embarassed her even more is I scavenged all the industrial quality hardware. Ball bearing hinges! and nice levers instead of knobs. But she wants the doors for sewing and for her stained glass hobby. Solid wood doors are so strong you can drive a truck on them.

I worked for the last few decades in a consumer products company. We tossed out everything after we couldn't sell it. I have no pride, but I did have keys to the dumpster yard. Just tonight I gave away the last of my copper scrap. The deal is my neighbor needs my 2 sticks of 3/4" copper pipe (I don't, the new house has PEX). He's going to scrap all my copper and give me the money, he gets to keep the pieces he needs. It includes a 6' length of 4" A/C tubing, probably weighs 50#. All scrounged.

No one would belive how impoverished I imagine myself to be. I do know my attitude pervades my life. I feel poor, so I scrounge. I never pass up a yard sale, either. I do my best to find junk and convert it to money, or better junk. Sometimes I just hoard junk.

Insanity is hereditary. I got it from my father. He lived thru the depression, so he felt poor. I grew up having it beaten into my head that someday, I'm going to wish I had that old bolt or screw. But if you need a bolt or screw, you've got to drive to Home Despot or Auto Zone. I save the fuel and go to the garage (then spend more time looking than you spend driving, buying, driving back and making your repair.) But if its Saturday, I win.

Pride is foolish. If its free, its also mine!

 

[ladder13]

I heard Sip sat on a curb for three days and nobody would take him!

He's high maintenance

 

[bitstream]

I've gotten a few good things over the years, but one of my favorites was a small table stand sitting out across the street once. It had a cigarette burn on the top and was loose and swaying. I took it home, stripped it, sanded it out, fixed the legs, and refinished it in cherry stain and 6 coats of poly sanding between each coat. I've had people ask where I got it and how much it cost because they admired how it looked

 

[jkc]

Oh sure, I pick up all that roadside/too-big-to-fit-into-the-dumpster stuff --- that's why I have my various houseguests --- fleas, cockroaches, lice, bedbugs, silverfish, scorpions, etc. --- and perhaps too personal to mention, but there's this kinda reddish itchy-scratchy-rashy thing that seems to be getting a little worse day by day, that seems to have shown up about when I snagged that not-too-stained mattress ...

Hey! People "throw out", "discard", "dump", "get rid of", stuff for many not so apparent reasons. Scavenger emptor!

 

[Superflywimpy]

I once took a Vacume that was fairly new

One day on my way home from work as I was coming down the street where I lived, I saw lots of stuff setting out on the curb with a sign that said "free". What caught my eye was a very nice looking vacume that was almost new in appereance and was a hepa filter type ta boot. I snagged it and took it home. It needed a rubber band and the roller needed to be cleaned. Once done it worked fine. I ended up giving it to a receiver at a target store in Ventura Calif who had bad dust allergies. She was a single mom. She said it worked great and was very greatful. No more red watery eyes. I have also taken pots and pans for the sole reason of having something to shoot at at the river crossing at cherry creek in los Padres national forest. Shooting paper is ok but hitting a metal is alot more fun as you can hear the strike.

 

[OLDFED]

Old Stuff?

I've put it out and lugged it home and damn proud of it! Decades ago, people tossed some really fine antiques. My oldest daughter grew up in a solid mahogany four poster bed. This is the ultimate recycling; saves money and is fun!

 

[Class III]

Picked

From the curb, a 27" TV that only needed a new plug, my first couch, a wrought iron glass top patio table and four chairs.

From the dumpster behind my office, 21 cubic ft freezer that was just dirty on the inside (Still running after 13 years), Wusthof Trident four knife and steel kitchen set with oak block, 3 or 4 drills, Skil saw, dishes, glasses, chain saw (Minus chain and bar), screw drivers, hammers, pots and pans, kitchen table and four chairs, coffee grinder/maker... Most of the stuff from the dumpster is stuff that people had in a mini storage facility that is behind my office. The freezer, knife set and chain saw are at my house. The rest of the stuff has been relegated to the farm house so we don't have to bring "Everything" with us.

Class III

 

[Class III]

Almost forgot the best thing I ever "Picked". I own an residential and commercial window tinting company and was leaving an estimate about ten years ago and saw the fairer half of their neighbor putting all kinds of "HIS JUNK" out at the curb. They had just divorced and he had not picked "HIS JUNK" up by the court mandated date. I asked the ex-wife if I could look through what she was putting out. I got four reloading presses, about twenty-five sets of dies, an untold number of boolits, brass and primers, about ten pounds of powder in unopened cans and about five pounds of open powder that was used to fertilize the garden. I sold two of the presses and about half the dies, calibers that I don't own/reload. Still using one of the presses to this day.

Class III

 

[quneur]

He's high maintenance

I heard it was because of fleas.

 

[JcMack]

The company I retired from last year rented out an area that was fully enclosed and had it's own separate access with an overhead garage door. Area of this space was approx 20X50. The first three years I was there no one accessed this area. One day a rather unusual pair showed up in an Escalade to inventory what was in there. The guy was white mid thirty's with his hair done up in real long "Rastafarian" braids, his girlfriend was late 20's, obviously of multicultural descent, and really pretty. Later we found the pair ran a Yoga school in an upscale area down the road. It turns when the guy was in his 20's he and his Dad did gun shows. I wandered over there and the place was packed with uniforms circa WWII, Viet Nam, and Desert Storm. There were about 10 helmets spanning those periods. Lots of posters (Lot's of old John Wayne and WWII repros.) The guy's father had died and his Rasta son wanted out of the Gun show thing. Over the period of 2 months this guy parted out and sold most of the stuff. The last few weeks before he was to vacate the space he had a very large dumpster delivered and was throwing some "good junk". One of the women I worked with and I used to dumpster dive for treasure. I wound up with some posters and paid the guy for a couple unissued helmets. He had one unissued Luet, General Desert Storm camo pattern helmet I wanted but it was too much money and the cover could have been fake. The couple eventually vanished after they vacated trhe space. I really missed his girlfreinds visits.

 

[handejector]

Did you ever take furniture that someone else left out on the curb?

I did.
It was fabulous antiques and high end stuff.
We was too slow, though.
The big ol' boys what came in the moving van came runnin' outa the house, whupped us pretty good, an' took it all back.
Real disappointin'.

 

[ladder13]

There's a bunch of guys scraping around town.What kills me is most pick up the rain soaked and who knows what else mattresses.I've heard that some places south of me redo them basically raping them only on the outside.I saw a news clip about it and it was pretty sick what they found.

I also see on the side of the road the little signs (like about the size of a real estate sign) that advertise queen mattresses for 149.00 and wonder if there's a connection.

That was big business around NYC during the 70's and 80's, and probably still today, wrapping a new cover around an old mattress/boxspring.