Dumpster Diving 101: Get Free Furniture, Appliances, and More

Its coming upon graduation season here and all over town Uhauls, pick ups, and (cars stuffed so full they might just explode) are parked anywhere and everywhere. Really everywhere, no matter how illegal or inconvenient. Its college students though, you can't really blame them, they haven't learned to read for comprehension yet.  I also see them make questionable choices when tying down their junk. Either they don't and it comes flying out or someone is holding a mattress on the top of a small car with their arms....

It was a dark and humid Wednesday night, we approach a maze like apartment complex to drop off a friend. Cars seem to appear and disappear without consideration to speed limits or good sense. All I can hear is the bass from a local party, and can only assume all those cars are drunk driving. There are of course the requisite amounts of beer cans, Busch Light is the poison of choice here, and according to my brother in law, with the right amount of wind those cans will rise gently in the breeze and deposit themselves miles away. I am sure there is a secret beer can fortress somewhere north of campus.

We slowly pull around the complex trying desperately to get out of that hell hole and suddenly I spot a shadow near a dumpster. Full stop. We try to back up but there is a car right up our bumper. But its furniture, I am sure of it, so we turn around and to go investigate. I wait for another car to leave, I am not super into getting run over, I don't think roadkill is my best look. I go over to the dumpster and peer around the corner. To my surprise what do I find? Its a freaking piano...seriously an upright piano. Nothing to be done there, cool though. Really...who leaves a piano by the dumpster and who has a piano in their pre-furnished apartment? Oh, the mysteries of life.

Anyway, this means that dumpsters everywhere are now filling with all kinds of awesome stuff. A lot kids here throw away almost their entire apartment when they move. They do this for a variety of reasons, either they are moving across the state, possibly out of the country, back into their parents where the stuff won't fit, or maybe moving into their partners apartments where their stuff is no longer necessary. This creates a plethora of aweosme sitting on or near dumpsters both on and off campus.

I realize that this is not legal in some places and quite possibly not very safe. I am neither encouraging or nor discouraging this behavior. This is information only, what you do with it is your own business. I am merely informing you of a yearly phenomenon. I am sure that those of you that live in college towns are probably quite aware of this.

Now lets say for the sake of science that it is legal in your area. Or at least that the apartment complexes really do not want to pay to haul away stuff so they will let you do it for them. What do you do then?
First you should locate different key areas where there are high concentrations of college students and dumpsters. This would be on campus and in those large multi-apartment buildings, the ones that are always blaring music and have beer cans around. Yep that sounds about right. After locating those you can do a preliminary drive by of these areas to see if there is stuff visible on or around the dumpster.

So you spot a particularly enticing dumpster, what now? Personally I would never actually climb into the dumpster. That is both spectacularly unsafe and unsanitary. It certainly is not for the faint of heart. If this is your thing always wear appropriate clothing. That means no shorts, sandals, or short sleeves. You will want as much of you covered as possible and possibly safety glasses. I mean you are dropping into something that could have glass, needles, caustic slime...Sasquatch. I mean anything could be in there. I really recommend that you do NOT actually go into the dumpster. But if you do, bring a friend that can pull you out or at least call for help.

Ok so without actually entering the dumpster you will still be able to find some cool stuff. When an apartment of 4 or 5 people are moving there tends to be accumulation. Lots of that will be on the top of the pile,within reach or piled around the base. I like to look for furniture when I am cruising by. This indicates that someone is moving and that particular dumpster may have other goodies. It is important to wear gloves if you touch anything in the dumpster, you never know whats on that stuff. If you find furniture make sure it will fit into your vehicle, never try to shove a desk into the trunk of a small car...it will break and you will be sorry. Always team lift and lift with your knees. Never get in the way of the garbage truck and really, really do not be in the dumpster when its garbage day, or you will be going to that sweet garbage pile in the sky. It is not advisable to put charcoal barbeques in your car, I have seen people do it and they are sorry afterwards, its messy.

There are some people that actually make money doing this. I see people with trucks and I have friends that cruise dumpsters regularly for furniture and other big ticket items like Televisions, kitchen appliances, and other cool junk. They then either keep or sell these items on Craigslist or other sites like that. You can make decent money on that if you have enough storage space for junk accumulation. So things for free and making money on the free stuff, doesn't get much better than that.

Things I have found on or near dumpsters: that piano, lamps, couches, chairs, a full knife set, expensive, unopened sauce pot, skateboards, roller blades, folding table with chairs, exercise bike, desks, bookcases, ottomans, lounges, kitchen tables, side tables, televisions, coffee tables, barbeques, mattresses(but really don't, do you want STDs???), rugs, backpacks, luggage, tons of other random stuff, and of course lots of broken stuff and garbage. But the best thing that I have ever found near a dumpster: A giant black velvet painting of a pirate ship, really I kid you not, its beautiful.
Happy Diving!