Interesting article. Here is a tip from Karen about the best places to dumpster dive: Assisted living centers are one of the best places because adult kids are often tossing a parent's old stuff, and apartment complexes, because they have high turnover. Best days are at the beginning and end of the month when people are moving.


Here is the complete article:

When I first heard about a California woman who had turned her lifelong habit of dumpster diving into a business, I had a lot of questions. Don't you?

Although I shop for deals, and have scored some great finds at estate and yard sales, I am a profligate spender compared to Karen Berg, a self-proclaimed "junker," who's furnished her home - and others - from dumpsters.

Of course, I called her up to talk trash.

"My parents started it," said Berg, who lives in the Bay Area. "My mom and dad thought nothing of picking up discarded furniture from the roadside and repurposing it for our home. It was normal."

That lesson came in handy when Berg got married 25 years ago. "We were house-poor newlyweds. My husband was in law school, and soon we had our first baby. Buying furniture wasn't an option." However, fixing up other people's castoffs was.

She taught herself how to upcycle through trial and error. "There was no internet back then to teach you," she said. "Fortunately, that's when shabby chic was in fashion."

Soon she was cruising Craigslist daily for free items, piling her three kids in the car to run and score the goods before someone else did. Then she started hitting up apartment dumpsters. "Once I started opening up dumpsters, I'd always come home with a van full."

Eventually, dumpster diving went from a way to furnish her home to a way to earn a living. She got good at furniture makeovers, and others started hiring her to repaint and repurpose their furniture. As her business took off, she started selling her makeover projects in a rented retail space, and writing Redoux, (http://www.redouxinteriors.com/) a blog featuring the stories behind her upcycled finds.

The blog drew the attention of a paint company, which asked her to make videos for them. That connection led her to a woman who later launched a paint line for DIYers, for which Berg became retail manager. (DIY Paint is now in 250 retail centers.)

"All from digging in the trash," she said, which is just as preposterous as it sounds. For Berg, opening trash cans opened doors.

However, success hasn't dampened her love for what started it all. "I still look in dumpsters at least once a week," she said. "Some people like to play the lottery. I go on treasure hunts."

For those of you who still have questions, as I did, and who also have the courage to dive in, which I don't, here are some answers along with Berg's top trash-taking tips:

Marni: Isn't it illegal to dig through someone's trash?

Karen: Nope. Most state laws say that as long as an item is in the garbage, it belongs to the public.

Marni: Do you ever get harassed, or asked what the heck you are doing?

Karen: All the time. The funniest time was when I was mistaken for a homeless person. See, I always wear gross, old clothes to dumpster dive. (Noted). I was at this apartment complex and a woman came out with some food and a bag of clothes. She thought I was homeless. When I explained that this was my business, she lit up because she had a bunch of furniture she was about to take to the Goodwill.

Marni: What was your best find ever?

Karen: A pair of Mid-Century Modern Danish chairs worth $1,200 to $1,400 each. I found them in an assisted care center, probably some grown children had pitched out their parents' old stuff. They're in my living room. (The chairs, not the parents.)

Marni: What is the weirdest thing you ever found?

Karen: A man's life. It was as if his ex got really angry and just dumped every single solitary possession this guy had, from baby pictures to middle-age mementos, into the garbage. I got some nice picture frames out of it.

Marni: What's the grossest thing you've found?

Karen: Ugg, let this be a warning. I took a dresser home once without looking in the drawers. It was infested with cockroaches. They migrated into our garage, and then the house. We had to have a pest company out. It was awful. Always inspect the insides.

Marni: Where are the best places to dumpster dive?

Karen: Assisted living centers are one of the best places because adult kids are often tossing a parent's old stuff, and apartment complexes, because they have high turnover. Best days are at the beginning and end of the month when people are moving.

Marni: How do you decide what to take, and what to leave?

Karen: I look for anything with good lines, that is well made of solid wood (not particle board and laminate.) I don't mind if the piece is broken. That I can usually fix. I don't take big upholstered pieces, like couches. You don't know what's in them; they often smell funky, and have too many places for bed bugs to hide. I pass up cheap furniture from stores like Walmart and Target. It's not worth saving. And I don't take thick oak pieces from the 80s. You paint those and they're still ugly.

Marni: What do you wish more people knew?

Karen: That they don't have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful home. If you shop garage sales and Craigslist, are patient and put in a little effort, you can get a great look for nearly nothing. I also wish more people would use what is right in front of them instead of throwing away good furniture. Take another look at that piece from your grandmother, and imagine what it would look like in another color.

Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson is the author of three home and lifestyle books, including Downsizing the Family Home - What to Save, What to Let Go (Sterling Publishing). You may reach her at www.marnijameson.com.


https://www.nola.com/homegarde...an_who_furnishe.html

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Interesting article. Here is a tip from Karen about the best places to dumpster dive: Assisted living centers are one of the best places because adult kids are often tossing a parent's old stuff, and apartment complexes, because they have high turnover. Best days are at the beginning and end of the month when people are moving.

College dorms after spring final exams are a great place too. Lots of kids have a ton of shit that their parents bought for their dorms rooms back in the fall, and that they don't feel like hauling back home for the summer.

I got a ton of stuff for my first apartment when I was moving out of the dorm for the last time. Lamps, mirrors, a coffee maker, floor speakers, a brand new microwave still in the box, etc.

What a bargain. All the free furniture and bed bugs you will ever need.

Back in the 90s a friend furnished her first apartment curb shopping except her bed.
On Wednesdays in the town we lived in it was bulk trash day.
Any thing that was to big to put in your garbage can went to the curb.
A friend once found an almost brand new gas grill at the curb. The retail price on the grill was over $600 dollars. The only thing it needed was propane.
In the town we grew up in people would put almost brand new furniture,TVs,refrigerators, washers and dryers to the curb just because they bought new.
My first TV as a kid I brought home from the bulk trash day at the curb.
I once found an older style pinball machine at the curb. Before we moved to Florida I sold it for several hundred dollars.
My uncle found a large pile of 2x4s he brought to my house. I used them to frame out a rec room in my basement.
You would be amazed what people throw out.

Her dumpsters must be considerably nicer than those here. In hot weather the one across the street from our house stinks so bad it about makes me puke when I open it.

quote:

Originally posted by Fundman:
What a bargain. All the free furniture and bed bugs you will ever need.

My family owns a bed and breakfast at the shore. One year a neighbor threw some shit out and my dad saw a nice end table that he grabbed to put into a room. The thing looked to be in great condition...we found out a few weeks later that it was infested with bed bugs.

We ended up throwing out 15 beds and just about everything that was unwashable from each room. It was a nightmare.

quote:

Her dumpsters must be considerably nicer than those here. In hot weather the one across the street from our house stinks so bad it about makes me puke when I open it.

Yeah must be more upscale than me. A better idea is to shop the Thrift stores for clothing in the ritzy part of town. Good deals to be had there.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Interesting article. Here is a tip from Karen about the best places to dumpster dive: Assisted living centers are one of the best places because adult kids are often tossing a parent's old stuff, and apartment complexes, because they have high turnover. Best days are at the beginning and end of the month when people are moving.

College dorms after spring final exams are a great place too. Lots of kids have a ton of shit that their parents bought for their dorms rooms back in the fall, and that they don't feel like hauling back home for the summer.

I got a ton of stuff for my first apartment when I was moving out of the dorm for the last time. Lamps, mirrors, a coffee maker, floor speakers, a brand new microwave still in the box, etc.

When I was in grad school, we'd walk down the streets in the 'hood right off campus where a lot of kids lived (largely a commuter school) as soon as the year ended. The curb was full of everything from kitchen appliances to electronics to furniture.

One year I just filled my car trunk with computers, toasters, DVD players, etc. to shoot up at the range.

I personally never took furniture (had my own family hand-me-downs) but I know those that did...and bedbugs followed. Pass.

I picked up a hardly used Concept 2 rowing machine next to a dumpster. I also got an office copy machine that had 132 copies registered. The only reason that I can think of why they tossed it is because they couldn't figure out how to properly load the paper and it was all jammed up. I still have it. I was at the dump a few days ago getting rid of a rotted swing set and this man offers the guy next to me some free copper wire. He refused it so I said I would take it. He gave me almost 100 feet of 3/0 power cable that was leftover from building his house.