Hello, I am here to share our dumpster-diving finds with you, but before I begin I would like to first say thank you for taking the time to read and upvote! Also make sure to follow if you enjoy my posts. it is all of you who give me my motivation to keep blogging daily so thank you from my whole heart.
Now lets begin! I will start with our first diving experience. My now husband and I were living with my mom and her now ex-boyfriend. We were 7 months pregnant and I, bored laying in our spare bedroom where the PC was kept, admitted to my husband, Joe that I always wanted to go dumpster diving. We thought about it for a couple days and watched a few YouTube videos about other divers and their finds, after that we decided to go. We dressed warmly as it was still cold in the month of January and while walking out of the house we were questioned by my mom and her boyfriend as to where we were going so late (around 11 pm) and she assumed cookout as it was our favorite place to eat. We told her our plans and were laughed at with good lucks being said as we walked out the door.
We were only interested in GNC, Gamestop and Petsmart at first. they were all right in town so easily accessible. Now its a bit hazy as it was so long ago but when I say we came back with over $1000 worth in GNC products, and roughly 50 pounds of dog food, its not an exaggeration. We were excited and hooked from the start.
We stuck with Gamestop, (Joe really wanted to find an Xbox) Petsmart and GNC for a while, but we started going out of town and looking in surrounding towns, occasionally stopping and looking in a new places trash like Barns and Noble, Staples, Dicks, T.J. MAXX... etc. We went to others and stuck to it because of the finds. Dollar tree is one, and I refuse to give up on Bath and Body although they dump their products (its still the best smelling dumpster in the world), but the best by far is Bed Bath and Beyond, at least until they got a compactor. They still throw some useful things away though that we enjoy getting.
Our route now is fairly the same and simple: Petco, Petsmart, Petco, Dollar Tree, Petsmart, Petco, Bed Bath and Beyond. We sometimes go to Tractor supply or Southern States as well, but those are rare.
Last night we decided to go diving as Joe had off from work. We stopped at a bar and played a bit of song bingo with a beer, I had a Summer Shandy, he a White Zombie. We played giant Jenga in between songs where I won but Joe refused to let the tower fall to grant me my victory sound... thanks babe... but he didn't want to ruin a little girls karaoke performance so I understand, we finished our beers and left. Now we go to a few towns so the drive is long. We left the bar at 9 and didn't get home till midnight.
The first Petco delivered a small critter keeper and a small bag of puppy pads.
Petsmart gave us a Aqueon Quietflow 75 LED pro filter for 90 gallon aquariums. and a 3 inch millipede that fell off the dumpster, he is now in the critter keeper I found at the Petco.
Petco #2 We found Dog food, lots of dog food. around 100 pounds.
Dollar tree we got a box of 11 grande wine glasses, 1 was broken.
Petsmart #2 we pulled out a 50 pound bag of dog food and saved as much as we could. we also found a FreshFlow II water fountain, a pet gate, a chew proof water bottle just missing the cap, a small dog carrier, and a cat scratching post.
Petco #3 there was nothing.
Bed Bath and Beyond yielded a Dynatrap XL bug catcher, a small picture frame, and a coffee mug that has "Raising tiny humans one cup at a time" written on it.
We also stop at a staples near a petsmart that is right next to a baby place. When I was pregnat we found a $300 stroller there just missing a bar that it didnt even need so we stop in and check to see if any other baby items are there, we found a Jolly Jumper Rocking basket stand with the basket. Staples had a HP laserjet pro 400 printer that Joe had to get. It retailed for $200-300 so he got it... we will find out if it works soon. Joe also pulled out a couple DVDS, one for cleaning and i have no idea the other one, they probably cant be used but we will find out, I will put an update in the comments when we get to everything.
We use what we find to resell for a fraction of the retail price and by doing that, we prevent more junk going to landfills and the money we make keeps my Rat colony going, ok the money helps, the food and bedding we get from diving keeps the colony alive and healthy, but the colony is another post...
Thank you all for reading!