Garbage Picking

It's amazing what people throw out. I loved living in a big apartment building. The garbage room was always magical to me. I would go down on Sunday night and always found the paper. I stopped my subscriptions and saved myself $20 a month. Then there was the stuff. I found two ottomans which I had recovered. I found a beautiful painting by a local artist. We became friends and I bought more of her work. When I first started dating my husband one of our first experiences together was stopping by the side of the road to go through someone's garbage pile. It was a Sunday and we were still dressed for church. People drove by and yelled "garbage pickers" at us. But I didn't care because these folks had actually thrown away money. I found a coffee can full of pennies which I kept and finally cashed in when I got sick. It came to more than $20. I was never so happy for the little extra money. I couldn't go back to work and I was waiting for my social security to kick in. My husband found some old toys which he sold at a flea market the next week for over $100. It helped pay his support. I didn't care what people yelled. Later my husband got a job as a building superintendant. That's where we found really amazing stuff. People threw out jewelry. I've been selling it on eBay lately. I just sold a 14K gold bracelet for $150 and other random pieces that I found in the garbage. Our success has emboldened us and we have graduated to dumpster diving. We scored a cache of Boy Scout memorabilia once for which we netted about $450. All I can say is that garbage has been good to me. One person's trash really can be another's treasure. So if you see something good by the side of the road, don't be ashamed to grab. No one will ever know or care. Like today I went to a curb alert and pulled a row boat electric motor out of the pail. It has battery clips, varible speed, forward reverse and a light. Just hook to a battery and works like a charm. 8/7/11.