Intro

So, what can I tell you about me? Well, if you haven't already guessed...I'm a garbage picker.

Ever since I was a kid, it's been really hard for me to see something still useable and totally awesome sitting at the curb waiting for that truck to come by and bring it to a landfill. Over the years, I picked things up here and there when I came upon them by chance, always happy and proud of my little treasure that I found at the curb.

This summer I really got serious about my garbage picking after driving around with my little one (He loves car rides when he's cranky) and seeing how much stuff was being tossed. After going online and being inspired by a few forums and other blogs that I came across, I decided to start trying picking regularly. I have listed and mapped all the garbage days and times in my area and tend to go out daily for about an hour or so to do some "curb surfing".

The amount of usable, historic, and valuable stuff being thrown away everyday is just staggering. In this day and age when things are so expensive as well, it just frustrates and saddens me to see people trash their stuff because of ignorance, selfishness, or just plain laziness.

I tend to still be a bit on the shy side when hitting a pile at the road. I am a recovering agorophobic and still have anxious tendencies, so getting out of my car to investigate gets my heart racing. However, I think the "thrill of the hunt" is what makes this hobby exciting to me.

Whenever I spot a pile that looks interesting, I try to untie any garbage bags or make a small hole at the top and peek inside. If I see potentially good stuff inside, I'll just throw the whole bag into my car to be sorted out later at home. Ripping that bag open at home gives me that same feeling of giddiness I had as a kid when I got home from Trick or Treating, dumped out those halloween treat bags people put together and I excitedly tore into them thinking "Ooo! What did I get? What did I get?!"

Whatever I bring home gets sorted out into several piles: Keep, Sell, Donate, Recycle & Actual trash. I've only done 2 garage sales this summer, and I have yet to set up an Ebay and/or Etsy account, but I have already made just over $200 selling stuff that was headed for the landfill. Anything I don't keep, or decide to sell, gets donated to local second hand stores that I frequent often (Second hand stores & garbage piles are my ultimate weakness!) Just because something isn't my taste, or not something I think I can make money on, doesn't mean that someone else won't love and/or need it.

The Lazy Trashers tend to just shove everything in garbage bags, so I also make sure that any loose papers, and anything else recyclable ends up in my blue bin. Broken stuff, or anything incomplete, ends up in the actual trash if it doesn't fit into my other pile categories.

So that's pretty much all about my garbage hobby in a nutshell, so far my pictures for the blog aren't that great...I need to take the time this winter (when garbage hunting slows down because of the weather conditions) to make myself a decent little lightbox set up. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading about my garbage adventures!


*You can also click on the album links on the right side to see more treasures I have picked up before I started this blog.*