Different Hats

Dumpster diving is probably one of the coolest hobbies that I have. It’s exciting, dirty, and the most important – everything is free! For the longest time, I would occasionally scroll through videos and come across people who have the balls to jump inside and out of the dumpsters. Sometimes it’s nothing inside and other times these people are pulling out bags and bags of thrown away items. I’ll be the first one to admit that I was very skeptical of this concept. It seems to easy to just walk up to a random dumpster, have a look inside, and pull up a huge white bag filled with snacks, chocolates, sweets…and not even spend a dollar.

I’m an open-minded woman and I like to try different things. I started doing my own research because why not? The first thing that I did was I joined a dumpster diving group on Facebook. What’s cool about this group is that it’s strictly for our state only – no outside BS to confuse the process. This is something that I would recommend for people who want to begin dumpster diving themselves. But fair warning – most people are ruthless and will not share locations or their spots. You have to do your own homework. After a while of reading stories and looking at the photos of what people are finding, I was hooked. If these people are doing it then why shouldn’t I?

My first time going dumpster diving was a total BUST. I went with my boyfriend, he drove the Jeep and kept lookout, and I jumped in the dumpsters. We visited about 15 dumpsters, all different stores, and I found not a damn thing! Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled, but it was the outcome that I was expecting though. Usually I have shit luck. I took a week off to wait it out – I wasn’t about to toss the towel because of one failed night.

The next adventure out, I brought my Mother. Now she was just like me – very unconvinced by the photos and videos of others but willing to give it a try. We went back to the exact same 15 stores, drove behind back of those buildings and I started digging again. I was more thorough this time – opening a bag at a time and scanning the items inside. I checked all the white colored bags and the black colored bags. I picked up the bags and moved them all around, checking underneath everything to make sure that I didn’t miss a thing.

I hit the jackpot! I found home and seasonal decorations, slim jims, beef jerky, doritos, takis, hostess cakes, cheetos, twizzlers, lollipops, sweet tart ropes, sour patch kids, gummies, and all sorts of chocolates. I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at – hundreds of dollars in products that’s just tossed away. There was nothing wrong with any of the things that I took. Either it was close to expiring or a few months past the expiration date. And the things that were past the date tasted just fine. It really is true, there is treasure in the dumpsters and I’m obsessed.

All of these photos that I’ve taken of the things that I’ve found took about two weeks. That was two weeks of being dedicated to the dumpsters and checking them every night. The hard work paid off and the rewards were just delicious! The best part of all of this – FREE. I’m a froogle person and we have a family of 5 here, money is always tight and this was a great way to start saving us some dough.

So now I’m a full-time dumpster diver. My house is filled with snacks, sweets, and decorations. We give to our friends and family, and we even donate to a local church who accepts where our food comes from. Recently, we have learned that we are providing food and toiletries for over 8,000 families in our county by donating to this church. I’m thankful that they accept what I do and that we are helping hungry bellies.

I’ve been diving for over one year now and I have learned quite a few things on my own: the best times to show up and stay away, the legalities, equipment that is needed, keeping the dumpsters clean, which stores are off-limits, and the stores worth diving in. I’m still an amateur at this – I’m not an actual professional dumpster diver. This hobby makes me so happy though that I’m never going to stop!