Dumpster Diving for the Grand-kids
What the heck am I talking about? Why would I dumpster dive for grand-kids? Let me clarify, I dumpster dive to find things for kids. You wouldn't believe what people throw away. You wouldn't believe what stores throw away. It's wasteful. It's not environmentally sound. Luckily, I am. I take what other people throw away, clean it up, paint it up, fix it up and give it to my lucky grand-kids. Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's completely legal to dumpster dive in our state.
Today's find was the awesome old school play kitchen in this picture. It was sitting outside our neighborhood church with the trash. Likely, it was in their play-room. Bet those kids will miss it. Nah, they probably got some plastic contraption to replace it. It has some flaws. It needs some paint. There's a few knobs missing. My youngest grand-daughter will love it once I fix it up. It's going to be awesome.
Yes, I sometimes salvage dumpster dive food for my grand-kids.
Don't worry, we have rules:
*We salvage packaged, bottled or canned non-perishables only.
*It all has to be healthy, with the exception of the occasional package of cookies.
*Everything we won't use right away goes in the freezer to extend shelf life.
*We take nothing opened, dented or broken.
*We don't dumpster dive for produce.
*We don't take items with dumpster goop on them.
*We never leave a mess.
*We don't dumpster dive posted areas.
A few weeks ago we found a truckload of bottled brand name juice. We're all still drinking it. It's delicious. Thank you wasteful store manager.
I've found plenty of brand new toys while dumpster diving. It's amazing what stores will do to clear their shelves for next season. My grand-kids have been given just about every toy you could imagine from dumpster diving. We've found everything from squirt guns to a mini sewing machine in store dumpsters. We find so many fun toys, sometimes we play with them ourselves before the grand-kids get them.
My oldest granddaughter loves dumpster diving. Yes, I've taken her with me. Don't worry, we don't actually dive into the dumpster. Mostly we dumpster dive at stores. They have those sliding side panels. We wear gloves too. No point in taking chances. It's a true adventure. For kids, dumpster diving is like a treasure hunt. We even use the GPS to find certain chain stores we know throw away good items on a regular basis. It's better than Geocaching. Yup, I dumpster dive for the grand-kids and I'm proud of it. Otherwise, all that treasure would be sitting in a landfill for the next hundred years. Now at least it's being put to use.
More from Jaipi:
Five Reasons Grandparents Should Lighten Up
Five Ways to Keep Up with Your Grand-kids
Five Reasons Every Grandparent Should Be on Facebook
Published by Jaipi Sixbear - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
This award winning web writer is co-owner of several writing websites. She's a featured parenting contributor on Yahoo! Shine and Yahoo! Voices. She enjoys helping fellow writers maintain a positive mindset... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentMy dad taught me to dumpster dive at the ripe old age of 10. I still love to head to the colleges on break and dumpster dive when the kids are leaving and dumping stuff they don't want to drag home. If we can't use it, I'll fix it up and sell it at the next yard sale. Recently a local grocers called my oldest son who runs a youth center. "Come now and we can give you 10 flats of soda for the youth nights" they said, "otherwise we have to dump it." We're so glad they called us and we could go and grab it before they set it outside in freezing temperatures that would've frozen and burst the canned sodas. All because they were having an inspection. Thank you dumpsters. We love you!
Jaipi, We have a Pepperidge Farm distributor who rents a storage unit here that regularly needs to get rids of expired bread. Thankfully, now he just brings it to me to distribute instead of putting it in the dumpster. But with the storage facility, we have a regular crew of dumpster divers who recycle everything from used toys to salvage metal. It's great for the environment and the ones who do it regularly are respectful and neat.