Sorry for the long wait!
There’s no really good reason for taking so long. I think that my attention span has taken a turn for the worst (and it wasn’t very good to begin with) since the advent of TikTok and Instagram’s answer for that style of content, “reels.” These days my brain seems to be wired so that spending more than 30 seconds doing anything feels like an eternity.
I don’t think that’s a healthy or sustainable way to live, so I’m looking to trim my participation in social media and reduce my (almost entirely pointless) screen time. I’m hoping that in time, my brain will revert to a previous form. For sharing purposes, that means more blogging and less Instagram. Writing a blog requires a lot more intent than posting on Instagram, and I’d like to live more intentionally.
In 2024, that makes me a bit of a luddite. But let’s hope my plan works out, and that I blog more going forward!
As for picking, the finds have been slim of late. This time of year is sometimes a little slow, because people do their spring/early summer cleaning early on, and then go on vacation in July or August. But I’m also creating my own luck to a certain extent, maybe I’ll get into that in a future post.
One of my best recent hauls came from these dumpsters, which popped up not far from home a few weeks ago. I remember walking by the place years ago. The door was open (or I could see inside somehow, I forget) and there were stacks of junk in the hallway. And through a window I could see more piles of stuff. So my guess is that someone’s hoard was unceremoniously dumped for whatever reason.
One of my favourite finds was this vintage mirror, which beat the odds and survived getting flung into a dumpster intact. It helped that it was near the top of the bin, so not much was thrown on top of it. Regardless, it was pretty lucky! Apparently my friend in BC inherited an identical one from his grandmother. That makes me wonder which Canadian retailer sold flamingo mirrors nationwide in the 50s or 60s. I found another identical mirror online which sold for 175$, but I think I prefer to have it on my wall.
Digging in these dumpsters can be pretty physically demanding. Each one is kind of like a layer cake, but you don’t eat the layers, you just move them around so that you can see all the various things in each layer. There is probably a better analogy (mining?) but I’m sticking with that one.
Anyways, to see something in the bottom layer, you have to move everything on top somewhere else. I don’t think I got to the bottom layer in this one. If it was like the spot in my last post, I would have moved heaven and Earth to get to that last layer, but I didn’t get the impression that getting to the bottom would be worth the extra effort. We were also in the middle of a heat wave, so digging was more taxing than it normally would have been.
Still, I spent probably five or six hours digging here over a few days and got maybe three or four layers deep. A few other casual pickers jumped in as well, but none of them went past the first layer. I think my best layer was the third.
That’s where I found a bag that was filled with coins. Nothing exciting, just modern, mostly Canadian currency, often already rolled. Some were stored inside a small Tupperware shelving unit, others were just loose in the bag.
It might not look like a lot, but the total here is about 300$, making it my third biggest cash haul ever (after the haul from my last post, and the 300$ USD I found back in 2018). It’s safe to say I won’t be hurting for yard sale change any time soon!
On the other side of the dumpster I found a small Tupperware with jewelry inside.
There was a lot of costume stuff, but also a bit of silver and a couple pieces of gold (the pearl ring and the single hoop earring). Also, that bar brooch at the top left is marked as Hermes. It looks real to me, and similar ones are for sale for about 300$ online.
On top of that, I saved a bunch of yard sale quality stuff. In all, I’ll probably earn close to a grand for my efforts here. Not bad!
While the pickings are a bit slim, I’m hoping to clear out some of my backlog. I have boxes of finds, some of which have been collecting dust for up to five years, stored at my garage waiting to finally be “processed.” Maybe I can focus on that for a while, and open up that shelf space for something else. My plan for upcoming posts is to share some of this backlog, but who knows? Another massive pile of fresh trash could be just around the corner.
Links
1. My eBay listings. Sign up for eBay (Canada, US). Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US). — These are Ebay Partner Network links. If you create an account or buy something after getting to eBay from here, I get a small cut of the profit! —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Help support the blog, or just buy me a coffee! PayPal link below.