Things You'll Need:
- Gloves
- Car or Truck
- Empty Boxes
- Foot Stool
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Step 1
Dumpster Diving is defined as the act of sifting through the commerical or residental trash discarded by the owners of said trash. To properly dumpster dive one must be in the right frame of mind and be prepared to come across some pretty gross stuff.
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Step 2
There is no real diving involved in Dumpster Diving but more like climbing. To begin, locate a dumpster full of trash, place foot stool in front of the dumpster, climb up onto foot stool. With gloves on, open top of dumpster and push forword until it falls open. Now, look for a good place to climb into the dumpster. Be aware of sharp objects or broken glass. Before climbing in, lean over the edge and sift through the trash in the area directly where you will be climbing into looking for anything of value. Then carefully climb into dumpster. Ignore any and all bypassers looks and comments.
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Step 3
Once inside the dumpster and out of view from passers by you are now ready to sift the trash. What your looking for is anything of value that discarded as trash. Some examples would be used DVD's, TV's, radio's, computer equiptment, cameras, old purses (to be searched for cash and jewerly), basically anything that you find of value.
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Step 4
As you sift through and make your way from one side of the dumpster to the other, toss out or remove any items of value. Place valueable items in the empty boxes that you brought with you. Once you have completed sifting through all the trash you can then exit the dumpster. Return any trash that may have fallen out, close the lid, and make sure you leave the dumpster in the condition that you found it.
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Step 5
Once everything is back to normal you will want to quickly carry your valuables that you have found and place them in your car or truck. Don't forget to get your foot stool and to remove your gloves before getting into your vehicle. Dumpster Diving is fun and can be very profitable. Many items you can sell on eBay or craigslist.
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Step 6
Some of the best places to Dumpster Dive is outside of a college dormatory the weekend spring semester ends and every student is moving out. Students can be lazy when it comes to moving things and you will find many students just throw out good stuff. Sometimes because they didn't think about how they would get the stuff home they bought during the school year or brought it from home in the begining of the school year with the intention of throwing it out at the end of semester reguardless if the item still worked or not.
Another great place is to search your local communities for Dumpster Day listings and just show up and offer to help. Then you can grab the items before they even make it into the dumpster.
Comments
jjpackrat said
on 10/22/2009 Hey if you like to dumpster dive check out
http://dumpsterdiversparadise.com/
eastcoasthiker said
on 9/30/2009 Great article 5*.
It might be fun if you are a property owner to rent your own dumpster and allow public dumping to see what treasures you may find. to rent dumpsters you could go to www.dumpstersource.com?pmc=MC
tundranut said
on 4/13/2009 Dumpster Diving for treasure 101 is a great article that taught me a lot. I just need another article on nerve. Thanks though. 5*
marielc said
on 3/8/2009 Some handy tips. I love the college suggestion.