TwinRiverFarm

My DH knows that if he isn't careful I will cheerfully bring home anything to repurpose (and that includes wandering pets and neighbors). We love to refurnish furniture together, and I am starting to get him enthused over my old sewing machine adventures. Many quilts have been made from my thrift store finds, as well as most of the shelves and tables in my sewing room. My raised garden beds were once the deck railings , the pergola was a neighbors' pier, the brick walkways were leftovers from another neighbors construction project, etc... You really look at purchases differently once you realize how much can be done to repurpose instead.

psychonurse

That is wonderful. My kind of person to hang out with, never been dumpster diving, but would go if given a chance.

Painiacs

Thats awesome! If you want to get rid of the diaper flannel pm me, being disabled my lil dog uses puppy pads, I make my own n they would work great!!

ArlaJo

Here the Goodwill has a "discount " store. Anything that don't sell in their stores is sent there and put in bins. All soft goods ( anything fabric) is sold by the pound. Everything else is dirt cheap. I like to plow the bins.

GrannieAnnie

Twin River, you are my hero. I reputpose a lot, but I'm not where as good as you! Congrats

lclang

Love to repurpose fabrics and all kinds of other stuff. Made denim cowboy boots that were Christmas stockings for all my neighbors one year. Have been on a quest to use all my scraps in string quilts, (working on number 5 now). Have a great pile of denim, flannel, men's ties, etc. for future use or sharing with friends. Always looking for ways to keep stuff out of the landfills.

MaryAnnMc

I never heard of Goodwill offering Dumpster Dives. I'll have to contact them. Hmm, I wonder about the Salvation Army shops? They usually have better stuff.

My DH picks up stuff left out for the trash, usually lawn chairs for our bonfire. But once he found a perfectly good preformed pond, and a friend gave me one HER DH found, so I have two beautiful small lily ponds, because I love gardening even more than I love quilting.

cherrio

great idea! score for you ! I am wondering if I should kick myself now for not looking to see if our JoAnn's tossed anything worth diving for when they "remodeled" the store. I swear they have less fabric now and more junk. The fabric is mostly thinner and inferior. There is another JoAnn's about 30 minutes away and the fabrics are good quality, not thin and so much more since the store is twice the size. makes it worth the trip. We live near a lake, a reservoir, and are an hour from Lake Erie so, maybe I can find a welcoming dumpster in the spring!

JanieH

Houston has a heavy trash day for each neighborhood every other month (the alternate months it is tree/yard waste). It is so much fun to drive through neighborhoods and see what people have put out - many thrift stores/antique stores/people/etc. have regular routes and schedules to check what is availabe. We have often laughed and said by the time the city trucks come around a good portion of the "stuff" has already been removed from the curbs and that is good news for everyone.

My best score: my nephew and great nephew found a brand new cat play tower - people had moved out of the house and left it on the curb. Boy , have my 2 girls really loved it and it saved me about $200!

mjhaess

Wow..I never heard of Goodwill throwing their stuff away...Here in Charleston we have the Goodwill pound store where everything that does not sell in the stores goes to the pound store. Everything except big stuff is sold for 1.19 a pound. The only thing I hate is having to dig through everything since it is all piled into large carts. My girlfriend and I have got a lot of great stuff there...