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There is an etiquette to trash picking??? Good grief! I just grab and go!

I do a lot of scavenging on the craigslist free section, and I find that people are happy to pass things along as long as you're polite, thankful, and reliable. I'm also not above grabbing something off the street if it's blatantly free!

What a timely post. This came up for me just last night, while walking with a friend. I might consider knocking to ask if the items are free and to thank them. Is it appropriate to leave a $5 bill and a note of thanks?

My best dumpster-dive find is one my ex scored ... two 1970s Sansui speakers.

My father once found a great antique brass swing arm lamp. Apparently he saw the guy take it and other (obvious) trash to the curb and then walked over and grabbed it. We cleaned it up and added a glass 'shade' and its served us well for years. We should probably rewire it eventually though...

My first find was a set of cool botanical mugs. I've also found an esle, some retro night stands, wooden chair, filing cabinet, and a few tables. There's no etiquette you just take it an go the folks that put it on the curb are probably happy to see it avoid the landfill. Dumpster diving is pretty popular in austin, & if I have anything I think could be valuable to someone else I put it beside the dumpster rather than in it. The news will typically announce what areas is having bulk pick-up so that people can grab furniture & stuff off the curb.

I got a pair of art deco dressers that had been covered in many layers of paint. They were at the end of the driveway and when we pulled over to start putting them in the back of the car, the owner came out to tell us they were moving to Florida and were happy that someone was taking them. I stripped the paint off of them and couldn't believe how gorgeous they were underneath.

http://flickr.com/photos/36448194@N00/1356645949/
(please ignore the mess, it's a "before" picture))

Grab and go... that's the etiquette in NYC. In fact, if you are doing any kind of moving and even temporarily setting something down on a curb or sidewalk, you better keep an eye on it.

I the last year I got a great narrow kitchen island with a drop-leaf (actually the day I was moving into my new apt!),
a beautiful gothic reproduction side chair, and my boyfriend snagged an old school Halliburtin aluminum briefcase. It was empty but locked. He found an authorized dealer who reset the lock for free!

If you live in a college town, be mindful of when trash night is and when the terms are getting out. Treasures abound when kids have to start making decisions about what will fit in the UHaul or Civic, and what won't. Also, the swells of any town (my favorite is Cleveland Heights Trash Night!) will have good goods the night before their trash pick-up.

In terms of etiquette, don't disrupt trash too much. If a home owner has gone to some lengths to make the pick-up easier for their garbage or recycling guys, don't disturb it or leave their tree lawn a mess.

My favorite find is a small cabinet with angled legs that I got while out on a shoot. I convinced the videographer that he needed to pull over so I could get it to store LPs and sure enough, it's perfectly fitted for them. I have not, however, lived it down at the office.

For me the only etiquette faux pas are the people who take something and then.....return it. Is it just me that finds this behavior off? This has only happened once to me but I've heard of it happening to others too. Recently we put out an Ikea malm bed on the curb with a note on assembly and bundled in manageable portions. Someone took it, maybe 10 minutes after curbing it (2pm), and what do you know, it was back at around 11pm. You took it, it is now yours, and if you choose not to keep it, put it out in front of your place. What was really disappointing was that this bed was in great shape, someone else could have used it. I don't know if someone took it away in the night before the garbage men came, but the original takers wasted all those peak pedestrian hours.

when i lived in boulder, colo. the richierich students of the univ. of colorado would leave SO MUCH AWESOME STUFF by the trash piles at every end of the semester.

my roommates would go and score brand new bikes, stereos, small kitchen appliances, ski/snowboard gear... i am not shitting you!

I put a couple chairs out on my curb a week ago. Someone knocked and asked if I was giving them away. That was considerate but I kind of would have preferred he had just taken them. Long story short, the very next day I saw them for sale on craigslist! Fair game, I suppose.

@.Jacklyn.: "we put out an Ikea malm bed on the curb with a note on assembly and bundled in manageable portions" ... how thoughtful! :)

I've heard of people returning things, too. Tacky, tacky!

One etiquette violation might be... selling an item that you found on the curb at your next stoop sale. This happened to me this weekend... I saw a wicker crib that I had put out being sold my my neighbor. I can't complain too much though and I have no real objection... but it did elicit a chuckle.

My best finds? Many! shaker chair, metal faux bamboo chair, three caned prague chairs (broken cane) and a Bruno Matheson Eva chair in leather.

Grab & go, unless someone is outside, then ask. I'm a magnet for trashy finds & not embarassed to dig around.

I've picked up a repro tulip chair, diamond bertoia wire seat, a vintage medicine cabinet, metal bookcase from a school, old wooden signage, a wooden desk & stool, the list goes on!
Yesterday I got a portable 80s tape deck, mixing bowls, a mirror & a hand mixer. Most of this stuff is from the same 2 houses. Renovations!

I try to put out good Curb Karma & instead of selling some things, will leave them for others. They are often snagged by the little Chinese lady across the street who then puts them in her weekly yard sale of found crap.

nature strip?

As for the good curb finds, I don't see 'em. Students leaving don't have much that's good, and that's what they take with them. I don't so much believe in curb karma. There's time to be expedient and throw things out that don't matter too much, and there's time when you want someone to hopefully get some good use out of a thing you no longer need. I could not depend on the curb to transport my still-useful things to people who scavenge curbs, so I bring them to goodwill unless I don't have time.

As for the etiquette, the main concern, I think tossed items are tossed. If you can use it, take it. If you change your mind, it's your trash then. I think if people are lining up the sidewalk for moving in or out, you have to be aware and courteous of that. To be honest, the few times I've seen something worth snagging it was because it was actually in the moving limbo and not trash at all. I am not really into turning trash-finding into a career right now, so I'm not digging into the potential treasures, I just see the crap on the surface that's already been overlooked, I suppose. My other theory is that people tend to keep their good things and only throw away junk.

On a side note, my father is of a generation (or philosophical agenda) that purposely will destroy any usefulness out of a thing if it's bound for the trash. I don't really understand this, but you won't find anything you can use after he throws it out. He will not even ask me if I wanted something before he whacks it to splinters and shards.

great tip kdkaboom! Maybe I'll go troll the university just before Christmas break!

Once I put out a wicker chair that was starting to unravel. I was in my car getting ready to head out when I spotted a woman checking out the chair in my rear view mirror. She grabbed the chair, walked a few feet away then left the chair in the middle of the sidewalk. If she didn't want the chair she should have just put it back where she got it instead of leaving out in the middle of the sidewalk! That was incredibly rude!

Art schools are definite places to hit up during move-out. All buildings clear out their racks at the end of every year, and people moving out of dorms will leave scores of canvases, free for the taking. At my school, I knew a custodian/painter who had a field day during move-out weekend.

The better paintings can be hung, the least desirable ones can be painted over.

Be careful! We're having huge problems with bedbugs in Vancouver & the used furniture I see in the alleys could be covert attempts by the bugs to get a "free" ride into my apartment!

If I leave stuff out, I always try to put a card on it that says "Works" or "Does Not Work." We put out a 32 inch TV that worked, but had a slightly furry picture. We noted that. It was still taken.

I picked up a nice rotisserie, which I cleaned like crazy before using. Makes great pork loin! Luckily the person included the instructions and a small cookbook with it.

What a find! I'm a Chicagoan, and this would be right at home in one of our incredible vintage / urban antiques shops.

http://strangeclosets-vintageshopping.blogspot.com/

Specifically, it has Scout written all over it. All I find in the alley is partially destroyed particle board furniture.

Bedbugs, never thought of that.

Yes, the good old grab and go works for me.

After college, I furnished nearly my entire apartment with found items (I avoided upholstered items for bedbugs). It's amazing what you can find! I've always assumed that if it's on the curb or by the trash, it's free. My favorite item was a beautiful hardwood bed frame that I fixed up a little, and sold a couple years later for $100 on craigslist!

I used to live on the fringes of the wealthy part of Providence RI. Brown U. students always left plenty of good stuff on the curbs and dumpsters at the end of the school year. Our trash pickup day was Monday and on Sunday evenings, I routinely encountered pick up truck and cars roaming the neighborhood, slowing down/stopping to look over interesting curbside piles. As for etiquette, if it's on the curb/in the dumpster, go for it. But if someone has stacked up their trash neatly in piles/boxes for the trash pickup, it's really tacky to root through this, taking everything apart without then restoring the unwanted items to their boxes/piles. My acquisitions were usually got under cover of darkness, the best find was a collection of four English china cups and saucers.

My university trashed several original, yellow Eames shell chairs. They didn't even know what they had. Now I have one at home and one in the office (I am thinking about taking it home and making a set of them). I found an antique sewing table in an alley when I lived in Chicago a few years ago and turned it into a dressing table for my partner. The chair she uses with it also came from our university trash pick-up area. Our dresser was originally a dumpster find, as is our current (and soon to be re-curbed) dining table.

Ah, the life of the... typical student.

People would be ashamed?!?! Keeping things in use is helping all of us by not destroying awesome things (like that chair -- jealous!) and reducing waste.

I've not found a ton of awesome stuff, but there are a few and they're awesome.

The only rude thing I can think of was when I set a disassembled table out with a free sign and someone took just the legs. But I can understand that.