Diving into 2017

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and started off 2017 happy and healthy :) I had a great time with my family spending a few days snuggled up in bed with my kids and husband watching movies and munching on Christmas goodies.

The garbage year started off pretty good. I totaled up all my sales for the year and I'm thrilled. I didn't count any found change this year as I didn't really find much, maybe $5.00 worth, and I also did not cash in or sell any scrap silver and gold jewellery that I found. I missed 2 town-wide garage sales this year due to family obligations and weather, but I was able to get to 2 of them, and I decided to have one of my own at home. Those gave me a total of $529.80,  and my online sales totaled up to $3731.00, for a grand total of:

$4260.80

That's $1834.13 more than I did last year, and I'm hoping that I can beat it again this year!

On new years day I had been cooped up in the house for a few days, and I was itching to get out and get some fresh air. As I was lying in bed that morning, I was thinking about how it was New Years Day and that all the stores would be closed. It dawned on me that nobody would be around, so I thought that this would be a great day to try my hand at dumpster diving. 

I've always been curious about it, and I have peeked in some dumpsters in the past, but I'm just a big chicken when it comes down to it. I don't know why, since I have no problem checking out garbage on trash days. I've seen so many amazing dumpster scores online, but I've never really found anything good in dumpsters myself. 

The first 4 dumpsters I peeked into didn't have anything but a bunch of trash bags. Some were clear and I could see mainly papers and stuff like coffee cups in them. Since I just went out on a whim and I was a bit nervous, I also didn't really come prepared. The dumpsters came up to about chest level on me and I couldn't really reach in to move things around for a better look. I should have brought a stool and/or some kid of reaching tool. 

I kept driving around, finding mainly trash, and dumpsters that had snow and ice piled on their doors so that they were either almost impossible to lift to look inside, or they were just frozen shut. One door would always be clear and open, but I just couldn't look around all the bags and boxes blocking the hole. I did manage to find one bag full of brand new personalized Christmas ornaments that I guess didn't sell, so they were just tossed out, but that just didn't seem like the big scores I've seen most people find, so I was a bit discouraged. 

I then stopped at one last dumpster before I was going to call it quits and head home. I kept the car running while I hopped out because I figured I was just going to lift the lid, see nothing, and then just hop back in the car to drive away. Instead I lifted the lid, my eyes popped out of my head, and I exclaimed "Oh. My. God." 

I pulled my van over closer to the dumpster and slid the side door open. My oldest son was with me because he wanted to get out of the house as well, and when he realized what I was doing, he asked me "What? What are you doing?" And I told him "This thing is full of stuff"  This dumpster was a bit lower so I was able to lean in over the edge. There were just boxes and boxes with products spilled out of them. I grabbed one and started filling it with whatever I could reach. When it was full, I dumped it out in my car, and went back to fill it again. My son's eyes popped out of his head each time and he kept saying things like "What?!" and "Seriously!? They threw that out??"  I ended up filling the box and emptying it 4 more times before things were out of my reach. Although I managed to save the majority of it, there were still so many things I had to leave behind. I just hope another diver was able to come along and rescue the rest.

Here is a look at all that I rescued

Some closer looks

Wow. There are tonnes of skin, hair and beauty products, nothing is expired or open, it is all sealed and new. The food all had "best before" dates of, the latest, 2 weeks prior. These dates are just manufacturer suggestions, and this stuff will still be good and fine to eat for at least a few more weeks or even months. Anything else was probably just tossed to make room for new stock. 

I gave a lot of it away, and nobody cared that it came from a dumpster, they were just shocked and amazed that this perfectly good stuff was just thrown away and not even donated or anything. Honestly, the dumpsters were a lot cleaner than I thought they would be, I really didn't see anything gross, just a big rusty boxes filled with bags and boxes. I was pleasantly surprised, but none the less, everything was wiped down with disinfectant wipes just in case.

On the not so great garbage side of things, I did miss out on the first large pick up of the year for a few towns because of the weather. We ended up with an ice storm which knocked power out for a few days to the area. We were lucky however that we have a generator to help us out, and that our neighbourhood was only affected for 24 hours. 

In any case, we're warm and healthy and that's a great treasure in itself :)

Wishing you much happiness for 2017! Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!