X3

I don't know about curb shopping or dumpster diving but I can say that the oil fields of West Texas have kept me well supplied in various tools over the years. I've got enough pipe wrenches, crescent wrenches, screw drivers and hammers to rig out 5 trucks.

I’m always stopping at garage and estate sales, one our favorite pastimes on the weekends is going to flea markets and resale/ antique stores.
I usually have multiple projects going on at any given time, due to buying the “treasures”.
Life is good!

I have renovated three hundred plus year old houses into offices. It caught on somewhat and when the guy across the street threw this into the debris dumpster, i went, asked permission, retrieved it and still utilize it to this day.

Haha. My addiction is straps on the roadway; especially the big semi-truck ones! Drives my wife crazy that I will pull over for a $10 tie-down strap.

While I've never checked dumpsters, I have got some great deals at garage sales. The old Marantz stereo amp that we use on our home theater system came from a garage sale. I think I paid $5 for it. A high-current amp today can easily run you over $1000. It's amazing what some people will throw away just because they wanted something new.

Is that chifferobe? I once saw a movie with. One in there.
.

.

I appreciate the curb shoppers. I can set something up at the road with a "free" sign on it and it's gone within an hour usually. Which is surprising since we live in a rural area. Old furniture, broken dishwashers, broken washing machines - etc. Saves me from having to haul it off! Get it to the back door - pick it up with the tractor - and take it to the road. Easy-peasy.

My FIL will stop for anything and everything - especially 5 gallon buckets. He's got all kinds of rods and reels, spare tires, etc that he's stopped and picked up. Hell they're still using an old vacuum cleaner that I threw in MY dumpster that only halfway works. I have too much junk as it is.

We are a throw away society. It's amazing what some people put on the side of the curb or in the dumpster.
I have a friend who's in the trash business and he tells me all kinds of stories about things he finds in the dumpsters.
I too, have the scavenging gene thanks to my dad. He could spot almost anything while going 75 down the road.
We'd turn around at the weirdest places and he'd say "did you see that". It was always something of value to him.

when I was a kid growing up, the local trash dump / landfill was open to the public where we could load up junk and take to the there. As a kid it was an endless treasure chest of things that were found. I recall I used to pick up all the junk used lawn mowers, take back to my dad's shop and rebuild to piece several together to get functioning and making decent side money selling them.

Is that chifferobe? Nope, it doesn't have any drawers and was not meant to hang clothes. Just a home made cabinet that was used in a kitchen.

Yup!
Once a couple blocks over night before trash-day neighbors had put a 6hp chipper/shredder out on the curb; I rang doorbell to ask if they were trashing, and if I could nab it.
They said 'sure, take it - Oh, by the way, do you want the riding mower we're trashing too? we haven't wheeled it to the curb yet cause tires were flat' and we already bought a new one!
Two days and $10 worth of parts later, I had that rider running & mowing like new, and sold it a week later for $400 cash!

I built my reloading bench from scraps that I took from the dumpster in a new housing subdivision. When they are building new houses, they toss out lots of perfectly good 2x4's. In the past, I have picked up grills, smokers, furniture, etc. If it looks decent and I can use it, yeah, I'll dumpster dive.

I have picked up a couple of office chairs on the curb for deer blinds in the past, but I don't dumpster dive or sift through trash on the curb. I am surprised though that my local garbage men just pick up and crush everything. It does often look like there are things of potential use, but obviously they aren't interested.

Dang your recyclers must be living good to leave all of that gold behind.

When Mrs. B and I got married we had two houses full of stuff we had to get into one. She lived in Midland and what she decided she didn't want anymore we put outside with a sign on it saying Free, it rarely lasted more than a few hours. At my house I would just set stuff out behind the garage and it was gone within 24 hours.

I have done this and still do. I found a propane tank one day that was being thrown way that was half to 3/4 full I am redoing a dolly/hand truck that was in a fire next door. I have stopped and picked up tools and chains off the road way and bags of flex duct.

Just yesterday I was yesterday I was headed out and it was trash day and there was a American flag in someone’s trash. I turned around and grabbed it and will give it a proper retirement since it was tattered. I missed one a couple weeks ago that someone was trashing. This really irritates me!