What's the best "trash to treasure" item you've ever recovered from a neighbor's curb on garbage day?

Question

My 3 best:
A quilt rack shelf that I painted black. It is the centerpiece for my living room wall with all my french poster art.

A large Bissell Shampoo Vaccum. I gave it the lady who cleans my office who is starting her own cleaning company. She was thrilled.

2 very comfy lawn chairs!

I don't make it a habit of combing the curbs, nor am I a hobo :) FYI :)

Answer 1

I have found two T.V.'s perfect condition, work great, I found the most beautiful doll house, complete with a large baggie full of the little people and furniture!! I gave it to my niece, and she plays with it to this day!! Bird cages, a nice bookshelf, and a large fruitcake tin full of the most beautiful, old fashoined buttons. But I would have to say my luckiest find was a complete set of China!! Actual China so thin you can almost see through it!!

God I love living in a apartment complex. It seems like I find things all the time.

Answer 2

No matter what state I've lived in, the BEST trash to treasure items i've seen done over and over again is a Washing Machine and a Dryer! Everytime I've ever put out a W/D to be picked up by trash collectors, it's gone during the night! Apparently, those things can be fixed for basically pennys on the dollar and resold for hundreds!

Answer 3

Have never picked anything out of the trash but we've been given lots of stuff for free....

an almost brand new card table with 4 folding chairs
a rocking horse for our son
a 3 cushion sofa with two reclining ends
two weed eaters that needed minor tweeking
a riding lawn mower with minor tweeking
a push mower my father in law fished out of the trash and fixed

the best one was a large iron coffee table with an unfinished marble slab on the top....the owners weren't going to have room for it where they were moving to.

Answer 4

I found a Lubbock High annual featuring Buddy Holly - not signed by him, but his senior year, in a neighbors trash. Sold on e-bay for 1400$. [Note: this was just prior to estate sale- my long-time neighbor died and a relative threw out many items -the annual included. Other note: Buddy Holly is neither well known nor well appreciated as a founder of rock-n-roll in Lubbock, TX]

Answer 5

I picked up a brand new foosball table from the dumpster at a local park. The next week, I scored a brand new grill (one of those big, stainless-steel monsters). Nothing since then though.

Answer 6

~a huge solid oak bench
~a patio table umbrella and lawn chairs
~dresser
~kitchen table and chairs
~living room chairs
~coffee table
~electric snowblower (and it worked)
~garden benches
~bicycles
and there's tons more. I'm a curbshopping addict. :-) Why pay for stuff if you can save something from a landfill, clean it up and give the item a new home?

Answer 7

Dumpster diving is an art! I found a metal toddler bed for my son that had a BRAND NEW mattress with it. I also found my kitchen table and chairs, with a little sanding and some stain, it looks brand new and beautiful!

Answer 8

I saw a landscape print in a tacky beat up frame. I liked the picture so I grabbed it up. It turned out to be an Ansel Adams!

Answer 9

The only thing people put in trash around my area is garbage, you are so lucky. Green with envy or is that spinach from neighbors trash.

Answer 10

hmmm i never went threw trash but once i put a bear skin in my trash, sat it right on top so when the trash men came ( some cool black dudes) to pick it up. it scared the sh!t outta them, made my day! the bear skin had the head and the claws on it.