Brief Overview: How I got started:

About 15 years ago, my dad and I arrived home in the wee morning hours after having been out all night playing bingo.  As my dad manuevered his truck up to the curb in front of the house, he spotted an old ugly snow blower at the curb with the rest of the garbage next door at the neighbors house.  He got real animated, and said " Teresa, go get me that snow blower"  Well I was horrified, and felt so embarrassed about becoming known as a garbage picker that I just started laughing.  Well good ole' dad was already out of the truck and marching next door to grab that snow blower, making much racket dragging it up the street and all the way up the driveway and into the garage.   Come Saturday and our first day off work, he went out to the garage and immediately began taking the machine apart, and running to the hardware for the parts to fix it.  I felt his enthusiasm so I did what I knew how to do, and began cleaning this beast, rubbing the rust off it, and making it look as good as it could.  Well Dad got it fixed, it ran good as new, and he let me paint it, said any color I wanted so we had the only hot pink and lavender blower on the block

You talk about a proud feeling of accomplishment.  I wonder sometimes now how I could have ever felt embarrassed.  After that the hobby of garbage picking grew, and still continues to grow.

Getting Started, Finding Enthusiasm:

Over the past 15 years it is impossible for me to even give a close estimate of how many items we saved from our overflowing landfills.  Even living in an upper middle class neighborhood we were fully aware of people in need.  People who honestly struggled and could use nice functional cleaned up items, and I bet that most of the people have never even guessed that what they received was actually someone elses garbage.  I do know it is up in the many hundreds of item that we have sent to the Salvation Army, and that is where you find the enthusiasm.  There is no better feeling than knowing that you are helping someone somewhere, not to mention, helping our environment by keeping it out of the landfills, and just as important, it is pure and simple fun.  The thrill of finding is cool.  The thrill of fixing it up and putting your own small signature on it is cooler yet, but the thrill of giving is heartfelt.  It also gives you an inner giggle when someone compliments a piece of garbage in your home too.  I remember my cousin thinking my new ceramic lamp was the prettiest lamp she had ever seen.  She still doesn't believe me that I took it from someones garbage.

Skill Level:

No special skills are needed.  You can walk or ride your bike throughout your own neighborhood on garbage pickup morning, and spy items sticking out of garbage cans or boxes.  If you find a big item such as a table, tool box, or any item that is too clumsy to pick up and walk home, you may need a vehicle.  A flashlight is a great thing to bring along to be able to inspect the item, before you decide if its worth fixing.  A spouse, friend, parent or older child to come along and assist is always alot more fun too.

Where to find discarded treasures:

  A.  The curb....once you get started and feel like branching out, you may want to keep a notebook with different subdivisions pick up days.  My own personal experience has been the ritzier the neighborhood, the busier the occupants are, and they tend to be careless about throwing things to the curb.  But I have found neat interesting things in lower income neighborhoods as well.

  B.  Business garbage dumpsters... Yep, here is where the diving comes in.  Take a strong beam flashlight for the dumpsters, and only get in them if someone is with you, and if you can see the contents.  Do not bother if appears to be bagged normal trash.  Nice items like lamps, toys, office supplies, discarded sometimes damaged, sometimes not store merchandise will be easy to spot with a high beam light.  One example I will give you is currently there is a cabinet shop on the outskirts of town here that I hit up twice a week for their scrap lumber.  The walnut, oak, maple and exotic woods, and cabinet grade plywoods sell like wild fire in the small craft size pieces.   Oh and take rubber gloves and wear rubber sole shoes for diving.  ** DO NOT DO DUMPSTERS ALONE.

  C.  The Landfill...our local landfill will let you in to look around if you are looking for something specific, such as scrap metal for art projects.  You will have to check the landfills in your own area for their rules.

  D.  Local parks...for people that have the can deposit laws, the local parks are great places to pick can and bottles out of the garbage drums, and sometimes off the picnic tables.  There is alot of money to be made at 10 cents a can.  Have found many a stray baseball and frisbee there too.

How to Care for your Finds:

Most people have at least a few basic skills, mine is cleaning, painting and sewing.

** First thing is to CLEAN your item.  De cootie ize it.   My favorite tool in this category is BLEACH, undiluted bleach.  I do most my cleaning outdoors, with bleach, steel wool, and the garden hose.  Once the item is clean....

**Assess any damage, and make a list of what it needs to be functional again.  Example: linens may need a needle and thread.  Stuff toys and dolls, may need hair care, new stuffing, and new clothing.   Toys may need a part or two that can be gotten on line now through the manufacturer..  Wood items, can be painted, or touched up with wood pens/markers.  Metal items, rustoleum is great.  Whatever it needs make a list and shop Lowes or any hardware for the parts.

**Fix the item.  I have found that my girly tool box with simple tools have most times been all I need to repair any item.  I recently got a quilt rack at the end of our street that had one bar broke loose. I found a screw, a tiny bit of wood glue, and a plug, and it was as good as new.  I got a fantastic wicker hamper one time that had the lid standing straight up inside of it.  Oh it looked super after it got cleaned, I got new hinges, and it is beautiful.  I kept this one :)

**Donate the item, sell the item at your garage sale, or give it to someone that needs it.

Always be safe and have fun:

There are many items being discarded every single day that could be fixed up so easily.  I'm telling the truth here when I tell you that very few of our finds needed much more than cleaning, and you will be surprised how quickly bleach cuts through that greasy dusty gross buildup.  This has been the most rewarding hobby I have ever had.  I will write a part two and give you a run down of some of the cool stuff we have found and fixed. 

Don't ever feel embarrassed...If you see something sticking out of someones garbage...STOP and check it out, throw it in your trunk.  I have openly taken things right in front of people, and surprisingly people talk to me, I had one guy tell me to hang on, while he went into his garage and brought me back the molded plastic grass collector that went on a lawn mower I was inspecting at his curb. 

If you ever aren't sure because something looks too good to be garbage, go ahead and ask the people if its a respectable hour.  Theres more surprise in that too, once in awhile you get the people that say "oh yes honey, and if you will take that and can use it, I have a old lamp that needs a cord, that you can have", thats just one example.  People are often way too busy to deal with small flaws, and will go buy new other than fix up what they have, and for absolutely sure, it will be someone elses treasure.

GOOD LUCK and HAPPY GARBAGE PICKING...LOOK FOR PART TWO COMING SOON :)