The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on September 16, 2008, 03:24:15 AM
-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=353x2198
ThoughtCriminal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 04:15 PM
Original message
Our apartment complex dumpster
I'm really amazed at what people have been setting by the dumpster lately. We pass on most of the furniture, but here are a couple of items I salvaged in the last week.
Plastic child's desk. Almost perfect condition except for many crayon marks and what were probably droppings from a hamster cage. The latter was a big concern, but I cleaned it thoroughly with bleach, and put it in the back of my pickup to take to the carwash. While washing the truck, I gave the desk a good power washing and it looks new.
Today there was Eureka vacuum cleaner. It had obviously quit working when the brush roller became too clogged with hair. A couple of minutes with sharp scissors tp clear the roller, cleaned the filter and washed out the collection cup and it works perfectly. Not a top-of-the-line vacuum, but we sort of needed something small that would do a better job than our sweeper.
Longhorn DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
1. I think it's great that you take the time to salvage stuff like that!
I'm afraid I'm just the opposite -- I won't through anything out! I was thinking the other day how I should get some new laundry baskets because the ones I have must be 20 years old. They're cracked and even peeling but they still work just fine so I can't justify replacing them. I just wish I was handier so I could repair things.
Good for you for keeping those items out of the landfill!
Anybody remember those laundry baskets made of wood slats, with wire handles?
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 09:56 PM
Response to Original message
2. I furnished serval successive apartments in Boston from castoffs
I found left out for the trash collectors. Mattresses were iffy, so I'd haul them up to the roof and leave them out on bitterly cold nights before I'd trust them for use. I have a lamp in my living room that I dug out of somebody's garbage, rewired, and keep to remind myself where I came from. I taught myself how to redo cushions and make slip covers and reweave damaged wicker.
I've come up in the world and now my place is furnished out of thrift shops. Nothing matches and that's how I like it. If I ever want matchy-matchy, I'll just invest in a quart of high gloss paint.
Unfortunately, the pickings have been on the slim side since the 80s, both because people can no longer afford to toss good stuff and because the yard sale fad took hold as a permanent fixture.
However, if you have access to a good dumpster or two, please make use of it.
ThoughtCriminal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. In my old neighborhood this would all be yard sale stuff
In apartments, it's a little harder to arrange those. Not sure why they're not taking this stuff to to Goodwill and other non-profits. Lack of time I guess.
-
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 09:56 PM
Response to Original message
2. I furnished serval successive apartments in Boston from castoffs
I found left out for the trash collectors. Mattresses were iffy, so I'd haul them up to the roof and leave them out on bitterly cold nights before I'd trust them for use.
Am I reading this right to think this person is claiming to be a landlord of some kind and furnished apartments for people with used,thrown away mattresses? (http://209.85.12.232/7417/2/emo/sick.gif)
-
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 09:56 PM
Response to Original message
2. I furnished serval successive apartments in Boston from castoffs
I found left out for the trash collectors. Mattresses were iffy, so I'd haul them up to the roof and leave them out on bitterly cold nights before I'd trust them for use.
Am I reading this right to think this person is claiming to be a landlord of some kind and furnished apartments for people with used,thrown away mattresses? (http://209.85.12.232/7417/2/emo/sick.gif)
No, sorry, sir.
The warped primitive, in late middle age, is a nurse now living in New Mexico; she spent most of her life in Massachusetts, and is obviously talking about mattresses for her own personal or household use.
The warped primitive is one of the star primitives of the frugal living forum on Skins's island.
The warped primitive started out in life as a nice-looking little lass, but then developed masculine features, such as the square body frame, some facial hair, elongated arms, big knuckles, that sort of thing. If I were in a barroom brawl, I'd like to have the warped primitive on my side, and if I were stuck in the snow, I'd like to have the warped primitive help push me out.
The tragedy about the warped primitive is that she's a woman, and has the feelings of a woman, and has wished from time to time to be complimented as "beautiful" or "lovely," and given a flower, but that alas never happened.
And because no one ever said anything nice to the warped primitive, the warped primitive grew angry and bitter.
It's all very sad, and the warped primitive is the main reason I always take especial care to find something truly beautiful or lovely about this sort of woman, and to comment much on it. I'm talking about sincere compliments here, not flattery. I don't want others of this sort of woman to turn out angry and bitter like the warped primitive.
-
Nothing like a healthy dose of Hepatitis C from used needles or 40 stitches from broken glass to make this effort worthwhile. Anyone who would actually climb into a dumpster is insane.
-
Well I have to admit I've gotten things from beside the dumpster at the college apts....At the end of the semester alot of the kids would just throw stuff away instead of toting it back home...Most wouldn't throw in in the dumpster just set it beside so some who could use it could pick it up...
-
Well, you've heard of the "Early American" style......this must be the "Late DUmp" style.
-
Mattresses were iffy
No, they are not "iffy". This is worse than dumpster diving for food.
I've come up in the world and now my place is furnished out of thrift shops.
In the DUmmy world, this is upper middle class. DUmmy Warpy is a sad individual.
These are the people who populate threads giving advice on personal finance, politics, and career decisions.
-
Longhorn DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
1. I think it's great that you take the time to salvage stuff like that!
Here is a quarter DUmmy: Go salvage an IQ, a brain to run it on, and a spine to support it all.