I was cycling to work and saw a pink bunny, about a meter tall, in a garbage can. I strapped him (her??) to my bike rack like a hunting trophy and rode to school proudly. Later, I gave Macho Bunny a bath in the washing machine and he cleaned up pretty- looked almost new. He was so large I used a seat belt to hold him in the car seat. Sarah, a minister who runs the kids' program at church, loved him and I donated him to her for their use. She got a funny pic of me holding the bunny at church.

If anyone cares, there is a charity called Good Bears of the World who collect gently used stuffed animals and donate them to cops, firefighters, and underprivileged kids.

I'm sitting on my newest find - a chair upgrade from the last one I found dumped. This one has padding!

I have a nasty habit of hitting the brakes when driving past someone's trash and seeing something useful. I recently scored a marvellous solid-wood bookcase, a mini-trampoline - and half my house is furnished in rescued stuff.

It's quite an accomplishment - here in South Africa we don't have the throw-away society many other parts of the world have. Anything of value, anything that can be reused, repurposed or saved is usually hauled off before the garbage trucks arrive (often by very poor folk living in informal settlements).

I get a lot of food dumpster diving to help reduce waste (and then find I have extra money -- which I would have spent on groceries -- to donate to worthy causes).

Peace,
lpkb

Best find ever - A brand new Williams Sonoma bread maker!
NYC - an embarrasment of riches.

Better World Books is a site that will take your donations of good usable books for resale. You have to pay to ship them to Indiana. There are limits, of course. (No mass market, no readers digest condensed books, other stuff like that.)

Also some software.

I have bought several books online from them and their service is excellent.

I live in a building where people are building lofts, taking apart lofts and all that other stuff all the time (ah artists!)... so we tend to see a lot of wood being put out in the common area, and then disappearing into someone else's apartment to turn into something new all the time. It's pretty cool - I have a shelf I made above my closet from "reclaimed" wood.

Also, when people throw out books here, they put them in the hallway first for other people to pick through. I've gotten five or six novels from wandering our halls.

Though, Omnivore's Dilemma was a prized find. I finally gave in and bought the book new the other day (nobody I knew could let me borrow it!)... but I'm glad I finally had a chance to read it. :)

Also, Craigslist Free Section = Awesomeness.

I have found a bike, and a "new" computer in my buildings trash in NYC

NYC is a dumpster diver's dream! I snagged two nice IKEA bookcases directly from a couple guys who were putting them out by the curb. They had four and I split the lode with a dishwasher from the restaurant next door who helped me hail a cab. It took a while as most of the cabbies sped away as soon as they saw the bookcases!

My most recent find is two aluminum desk chairs from an office building undergoing reno. They need reupholstery, so if anyone can suggest a good place in NYC I'd appreciate it.

It is hard rubbish collection in my area this week so everyone is swapping their "rubbish". We found some nice cane furniture and replaced our uncomfortable sun room furniture. Our neighbours then saw our unwanted furniture and took it home to replace their outdoor furniture with it and put their old ones out. Then someone else took theirs lol it's funny.