On bulk trash day I found a walnut Mid Century Modern daybed (almost perfect condition) in an alley near my house. I couldn't figure out a way to get it home. I came back with my tiny car and convinced a guy off the sidewalk to help me strap it to the top of my car. I drove home with the down cushions sticking out the windows and this huge daybed upside down on the roof of my car. I had put a quilt on top of my car to not scratch the roof and it was flapping in the breeze. The darn thing has been in my storage locker for 2 years awaiting somehow cleaning of the down and recovering of the cushions!

A friend of mine spotted this great low-slung solid wood with cane (unbroken) inserts on the side of the road, and we moved it all over creation until it came to its current resting place in my guest sitting room. I rigged up a mattress/cushion thing with a piece of plywood, eggshell foam mattress pad, and lots of pillows. It looks great, and is in perfect shape.

Just yesterday I took out the trash only to find someone moving in/out had dumped a whole bunch of stuff in our dumpster. Most of it I recovered to give to charity, but I also ended up walking away with an incredible assortment of items on my wishlist, most of which were nearly new. I recovered a swooping floor lamp with Chinese lantern lampshade (which just hours before I was telling my daughter I'd like to buy!), a Christmas tree with stand, an Eddie Bauer air mattress for camping, large assortment of car organizer accessories, unopened bottles of bath salts and Armor-All, wine glasses, closet shoe organizer, a new pilates bench, still-in-the-box Liz Claiborne earrings and necklace, laptop case, Christmas ornaments, envelopes, gift boxes, speakers, a floor mat, a lava lamp, giant lawn ornaments.......should I go on? The dumpster gods definitely provided yesterday!

I have never seen anything remotely attractive or functional curbside or near the dumpsters in my neighborhoods. Well, aside from sofas, which I will never bring home due to too many scabies/bed bugs/roach horror stories.

I agree. I won't bring home anything with fabric for fear of bugs. But I have found an old 1940s banker's chair, tables and vanity chairs from the 1950's, and an enormous mirror. But my best finds are always books. I'm a voracious reader, so that is always a delight.

Some of my favorite items in my home are things that I found curbside.

My favorite thing is an old wooden drawer that I set on the side and use as a table for my record player and storage for records on the bottom.

Let's hear it for dumpster diving!

That poster is awesome. It totally makes the room!

Right now I guess a wooden bookcase.

I have brought home upholstered chairs, which turned out great.
I brought home a sofa that belonged to a smoker. I tried for months to get the smell out, but could not. I eventually put it back out on the curb.

I lived in a college town where good furniture appears on the curbs at the end of the semester. International students that bought new furniture when they moved in, decide not to ship it home. Instead of selling it which takes time and organization, they put it out on the curb.

An old cork dartboard that uses metal darts. It has a baseball game on the back. Now I'm awesome at darts.

Eh, the only thing I've found is an 8x10 picture frame and a pack of unopened dark blue tissue paper.

oh, lundia cupboards, a racing bike, big tins (like 30 liters) great for storing cat food, dingtable chairs, a sofa bed..

The Dance
by William Carlos Williams

In Breughel's great picture, The Kermess,
the dancers go round, they go round and
around, the squeal and the blare and the
tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles
tipping their bellies (round as the thick-
sided glasses whose wash they impound)
their hips and their bellies off balance
to turn them. Kicking and rolling about
the Fair Grounds, swinging their butts, those
shanks must be sound to bear up under such
rollicking measures, prance as they dance
in Breughel's great picture, The Kermess.

I have found a number of wonderful things free on the curb. I have a small antique entry table with two pull up leaves that I use as a desk, an antique coffee table, and an antique side table/small cabinet, as well as a wooden Ikea chair that I use for the desk, and a little vintage metal stool that I keep my fan on. I am not afraid of taking things off the street, though upholstery is a bit iffy

My folks owned several rental units near the campus part of town. The things students leave! A quality touring bike. An oak desk (needed repair, but still...)

thorndale, I love your comment about wanting something so bad you willed yourself to bring it on home. I've done that with solid wood coffee tables, a mirror, resting it on my foot on the walk home, a bookcase we now use for art supplies, piles of books...