Dumpster Diving

We keep our eyes out for junk that people throw out or leave on the side of the road. One of my retirement activities is woodworking and if we find something relatively nice we pick it up and refurbish it. Then it will usually go to Karen or Christy.

We bought a sleeper sofa for Christy for $75 in a furniture store next to Winn Dixie and when were out behind the store loading it into our trailer we noticed a set of 3 dining room chairs in the dumpster. We took those too.

That dumpster is now a regular stop for us when we go by Winn Dixie. We drive around back and check it out. Usually there are 3 or 4 square, stacking dairy crates there. I use them as platforms for cutting plywood or for painting. I’ve got about a dozen of them now. Over time we’ve also found several yards of a linen-cotton material, a small patchwork blanket, 2, 6-inch thick uncovered foam sofa cushions and yesterday the dumpster was full of hundreds of fabric samples. Evidently the store is getting out of custom fabrics for sofas and windows business. Each cloth sample is 12x 18 inches with a grommet in one corner. There were also 20 or 30 12-inch square leather samples. I don’t know yet what we will do with these, but with Penny’s interest in quilting who knows.

If nothing else, I’ve got hundreds of classy paint rags.