Curb Picking and Repurposing Old Stuff

[mrsmig]

When I was out for a walk this morning, I noticed that a house the next block over had a bunch of stuff out on the curb for trash pickup. My eye was immediately caught by a perfectly good set of 6' metal shelves (the kind of thing I'd been needing to hold all my seedlings, which are in the hardening-off phase right now). When I got home, I commandeered my husband and his truck, and we went over to pick it up.

Amongst the rest of the curb leavings was a large metal dog crate. I remembered that in a recent gardening class, some folks mentioned repurposing them as composting bins, since they provide plenty of aeration and are easy to break down and move when necessary. I've needed a third compost heap (you always need three: one to for completed compost, one that's percolating and one that you're adding to), so I snagged that, too. I was afraid my husband was going to disapprove, but he was busy loading a professional grade KitchenAid mixer* (sans attachments and bowl) into the truck.

So now I have a free compost bin, plus the shelves, a couple of plastic milk crates and a few other items that I can use in the garden. I feel rather virtuous about it, since otherwise it would have all have ended up in a landfill.

What's the best thing you ever found on the curb and were able to repurpose?

*By the way, that KitchenAid works just fine. I'm stunned.

 

[Stytch]

Gigantic stage props that were out at the dumpster after the show was over. They were these big plywood constructions that were wired to light up. One was a giant crescent moon (on wheels!) big enough for someone to sit in and a huge arrow the size of a coffee table. They were beloved furniture pieces for several years until we had to move and couldn't take them with us.

 

[mrsmig]

I did a show once that required a collapsing dinosaur skeleton. The theater bought two giant heavy-duty T-Rex skeletons and wired one up so it could fall on cue. The second was for backup purposes, and good thing, too, because they did, indeed, have to replace Rex 1 with Rex 2 before the run was over. I asked for the skeleton when the show was over, but when I came back for it, the crew (who were all 20-ish interns) had broken most of it into pieces.

I still have a leg bone, an arm bone and the ribcage, which have been repurposed as part of our Halloween decor. Sure wish they hadn't smashed the skull, though.

 

[mrsmig]

My husband ordered the bowl, some attachments and a cover for the KitchenAid Pro we picked from the curb the other day. I'm guessing this "free" item has now cost us upwards of $200.

 

[Bitterboots]

Omg! I used to love trash day in the States. Not long after my husband and I got married we lived in a housing complex in Southern California and I almost furnished my whole place with recycled stuff. My best find was a fully functioning water feature! Went straight into my garden.
I went back to visit a friend last year who lives in the same complex. I'd done quite a bit of shopping so I needed to buy another suitcase. One night we went for a walk and I actually found an almost brand new hard sided suitcase with wheels and the groovy handle that turns in two directions. I was over the moon! It would have cost me a couple hundred dollars.
Nothing like a good dumpster dive.

 

[CMBright]

My husband ordered the bowl, some attachments and a cover for the KitchenAid Pro we picked from the curb the other day. I'm guessing this "free" item has now cost us upwards of $200.

A new KitchenAid stand mixer cost more than that a decade ago. I'm thinking it was $300-400? They're good but they are expensive. Given everything else costs more than it did a decade ago, I'm guessing a new KitchenAid would be no exception.

 

[Maryn]

When our kids were seniors in college, it became obvious one would not live at home or in her hometown again, while the other got a great deal at a local university for grad school. She lived with us briefly and we started driving the nicer neighborhoods on trash day. Wrought iron bistro table and two chairs that needed cleaning. Two mold covered pecan chairs that cleaned up beautifully. A rocker with a ruined seat cushion. End tables. Floor and table lamps. She got our old sofa and my thrift store kitchen (most of it still in use 15 years later) and was pretty much set.

 

[Chris P]

Last evening I saw where someone brought down what looks like a good sized cedar tree and left bucked up logs at the side of the road. I am coincidentally looking at plans to build a cedar deck recliner. I. Want. Those. Logs.

But. . . But . . . I live on a smallish suburban lot and can't get into the business of drying down timber in my backyard (especially as we have an old oak that's probably going to die this year or next and I might want that wood too) NOR DO I HAVE A SAWMILL! Nor do I want to buy one. Nor have the room for one. Nor am I retired enough to have the time for this type of thing.

I'm cryin' here, y'all. Cryin'.

 

[TellMeAStory]

You all want to come down here to Aged Acres. To move in, folks have to downsize from their large and interesting homes into the Home's smaller, more practical abodes. Then, when we're all moved in, we invariably look around and discover we haven't downsized nearly far enough, and more has to go. We're talking the really nice stuff we couldn't dream of parting with first time around.

 

[mrsmig]

A new KitchenAid stand mixer cost more than that a decade ago. I'm thinking it was $300-400? They're good but they are expensive. Given everything else costs more than it did a decade ago, I'm guessing a new KitchenAid would be no exception.

My husband bought me a standard tilt-head KitchenAid just last year, and I think it was in the neighborhood of $400-$500. It came with the paddle mixer, balloon whisk and dough hook. Our curbside find is a bowl-lift stand mixer, which is built for big loads and heavy doughs. I guess I'm gonna have to make bread soon because he's dying to see how it works.

 

[CMBright]

My husband bought me a standard tilt-head KitchenAid just last year, and I think it was in the neighborhood of $400-$500. It came with the paddle mixer, balloon whisk and dough hook. Our curbside find is a bowl-lift stand mixer, which is built for big loads and heavy doughs. I guess I'm gonna have to make bread soon because he's dying to see how it works.

It's also good for whipped cream and marshmallows.

 

[Cobalt Jade]

I've truly lost count of all my salvagings. I'ii only say that in Seattle, it is truly possible to furnish a while apartment with pickings off the street.

My favorite, from just a block over, was a set of Kitchen Aid knives and a collection of bells -- the old fashioned clangy king the schoolmaster rang to call in the students from recess.

 

[presephaine]

I got a hardcover, color-illustrated copy of The Hobbit and a fabric vest/shawl type thing I think makes me look like Carly Simon!

*I do not look like Carly Simon usually and even this is a stretch but I can dream

 

[pdblake]

Speaking as someone who has an allotment, the best things I find are wooden pallets. You can make all sorts with them from chairs to compost bins. Really good hardwood usually too.

Never turn down a pallet.

 

[mccardey]

It's not curbside, but a friend of mine took me down to Reviva a couple of years ago which is the sort of recycling-shoppy-place attached to our local tip (yes, I didn't know tips have shops either, but there you go) and in the kitchen area I picked up six Edwardian sherry glasses for $2 and then found another two and the lady waved me through. Over the last couple of years I've found some more gorgeous stuff down there, but two months ago the Council privatised the place, and last week there was one Edwardian sherry glass only and it was priced at $35 and I hate whoever on our local Council made that decision to privatise.

 

[ElaineB]

Boston has "Allston Christmas" every Sept. 1. Named for a neighborhood with a lot of college students. When the apartment rents switch over--it's the biggest moving day in the area--all kinds of stuff gets left at the curb. But they are college students, so probably nothing particularly valuable.

 

[Chris P]

Just because I'm stuck in the 90s, this thread reminds me of this classic Volkswagen commercial.

Da da da.

 

[Stytch]

It's not curbside, but a friend of mine took me down to Reviva a couple of years ago which is the sort of recycling-shoppy-place attached to our local tip (yes, I didn't know tips have shops either, but there you go) and in the kitchen area I picked up six Edwardian sherry glasses for $2 and then found another two and the lady waved me through. Over the last couple of years I've found some more gorgeous stuff down there, but two months ago the Council privatised the place, and last week there was one Edwardian sherry glass only and it was priced at $35 and I hate whoever on our local Council made that decision to privatise.

Wots a tip?

 

[CMBright]

Wots a tip?

99% sure it's a Brittish landfill. Could be wrong.

 

[Chris P]

99% sure it's a Brittish landfill. Could be wrong.

Even in the U.S., where we don't call it a tip, we are still charged a "tipping fee" if we bring things ourselves to the dump.

And shops?!? Makes sense, but I can't imagine it's profitable for a dump to sort through trash for resale. But, it must be or they wouldn't do it.

 

[CMBright]

Even in the U.S., where we don't call it a tip, we are still charged a "tipping fee" if we bring things ourselves to the dump.

And shops?!? Makes sense, but I can't imagine it's profitable for a dump to sort through trash for resale. But, it must be or they wouldn't do it.

How many Americans actually dump garbage at a garbage dump? Yet the name persists and was my first thought before I changed to landfill as probably more universal.

 

[mrsmig]

My sister does. She lives in an area that doesn't provide municipal trash service, but she's single and doesn't generate enough garbage to justify using a paid service. So she takes her trash to the dump every week or so.

 

[Stytch]

Even in the U.S., where we don't call it a tip, we are still charged a "tipping fee" if we bring things ourselves to the dump.

And shops?!? Makes sense, but I can't imagine it's profitable for a dump to sort through trash for resale. But, it must be or they wouldn't do it.

I'm in a rural area where we have lots of smaller dump sites with giant metal boxes that are pulled away to the actual landfill/ dump site on a truck and then brought back empty. It's not uncommon for there to be a shed where folks set things that are perfectly good condition for anyone to pick up. Sometimes the person working the site will suggest a piece go in there rather than in the box.

 

[ElaineB]

How many Americans actually dump garbage at a garbage dump? Yet the name persists and was my first thought before I changed to landfill as probably more universal.

Like Stytch, technically I go to a transfer station, but we call it the dump. It also has a shed where people can leave off stuff others might want.

 

[CMBright]

I can't remember living in a rural enough place I had to actually go to the dump to dump trash. I'm surprised there are that many members who do have that experience.