Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Confessions of a Trash Digger

The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree they say (although I'm not sure who "they" is.) My dad is a celebrated, recognized trash digger so I grew up with my dad digging around in the neighbor’s trash to retrieve the morning newspaper. My mom would fuss and scold him for being “cheap”. My dad didn’t even feel slightly embarrassed because as he said, “Once it hits the trash, it’s up for grabs!”


Digging in the neighbor’s trash led to him going behind dumpsters to find goodies. He took us along on these “adventures”. My sister and I would come back with tangled jewelry that the drugstore through away. We worked at untangling them until we had in hand, brand new jewelry, ready to wear. (Or sell….that’s another post for another day.)


My mom would roll her eyes when we’d present our findings.


“Trash diggers!” she’d say.


“Yep! We sure are!”


Years later, I’m still a trash digger. Not the traditional trash digger though. I only go through dumpsters at random when I see something sticking out that maybe can be utilized. (Don’t want to give anyone the impression that I do this for a living or anything.)


I just discovered that at my job, the physicians subscribe to tons of magazines, and the mail room is a plethora of magazine treasures. They toss still wrapped, unread magazines in the trash just because…I dunno….I guess they can. It’s wasteful but it’s their dime. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to trash dive on behalf of readers everywhere. When I’m finished reading it, it gets passed on to someone else or donated to the library.


Are you a trash digger? If so, what cool finds have you found?

6 comments:

Amy Amy Bo Bamey said...

I am not a trash digger on a regular basis but if I see something I will for sure stop and check it out. I did score my hubby a brand new push golf cart for his clubs one day as it was left curbside. This thing would have been about $150 if I bought it but someone left it for the trash and it was new. SCORE!

Anonymous said...

I'm a stationery digger. If anyone is throwing away pens or notepads or other items of that ilk I'm there wondering if I can use it for my scrapbooks.

I'm not a dumpster/skip digger thoug

Pancake said...

My husband ,.... it is all I can do to not let him go and take peoples trash! I would have thought the couch story would have cured him, nope, 25 years later he still says, o look at those great chairs!!

Pancake said...

My husband ,.... it is all I can do to not let him go and take peoples trash! I would have thought the couch story would have cured him, nope, 25 years later he still says, o look at those great chairs!!

Unknown said...

I am a trash digger and it makes my husband so mad! Oh well. I've gotten some good stuff.

tiki_lady said...

I thought I was a trash digger until I read how you dig through the trash. I have never hit dumpsters. I don't believe I could do it, unless taught by a pro! could you plan a trip out my way??

 

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