Diving for buried treasure

I was browsing through the FatWallet forums and happened upon a thread about Dumpster Diving. For those of you who don't know what it is, Dumpster Diving is finding usable items in other people's trash. For example, you might find a Dreamweaver MX software user's manual in the trash behind CompUSA. Or, you might find out-of-season clothes behind Dollar Tree.

This thread brought back some great memories. When I was a kid, my dad was in the Air Force and was stationed in Hawaii. We weren't poor, because my dad was and is great with managing his money, but my folks did want to teach me the value of a dollar. So, they took me out early on Saturday mornings to dumpster dive for aluminum cans. Sounds gross, but it was a pretty cool thing to my 8-year old mind. Jump in a big metal dumpster = Fun + Money. What could be simpler? Of course, that was before society made me believe that other people's stuff is instantly taboo once it's put in a trash can or dumpster.

Since then, I haven't been dumpster diving even once, at least not with that express purpose in mind. I'm an apartment manager, and occasionally I'll "save" a chair or exercise machine from the trash heap when I see it, but I haven't gotten as organized as some people who do this for a full-time hobby. However, FatWallet forum users have made me rethink my position on dumpster diving.

So, I'm going to try it out. Circuit City probably has some awesome stuff. Blockbuster might, too. Hey, there's a whole strip mall half a mile from me that it a potential goldmine. I'll let you know how it goes.

My motivations for re-entering the world of the dumpster diver? Well, I'd say that I need a hobby, and it doesn't hurt that it's one that furthers my financial goals.