Dumpster Decorating: Recycling at Its Finest

One of the wonderful things about college life is that it’s okay to be broke. In fact, college students are expected to be low on funds and thus frugal. College is a time when you actually are applauded by your friends (and parents) for finding inexpensive solutions or alternatives to the norm. In many ways, the college years offer great life lessons in creativity. For example, where else would you learn that some cool things can be found in the dumpster?

Dumpster diving, and particularly dumpster decorating, are alive and well on college campuses everywhere. Many a treasure has been unearthed from inside (or outside) a dumpster, particularly dumpsters at college apartment complexes around the end of the semester.

Many students choose to toss their old furniture or apartment décor rather than moving it to a new place. For that reason, a peak in your apartment dumpster may yield new treasures that are being tossed simply out of convenience.

If diving into your complex dumpster isn’t quite for you, the same concept applies to curbside “recycling.” Not only college students, but many homeowners will put furniture items out on the curb, knowing that either someone will come by and take the item (for free) or the trash man will pick it up.

Cruising the streets in residential neighborhoods on trash day may seem a little weird at first, but the first time you find a great chair or book case that someone else has tossed aside, you’ll be hooked. Best of all, you don’t have to wait until dark to nab the goods. If it’s on the curb, it’s free for the taking.

Before you move your new dumpster or curbside finds into your apartment, make sure they are at least relatively clean. Stay away from old mattresses or furniture that has sat out in the rain, and remember the first rule of dumpster diving: whoever sees it first, gets it. In other words, if you snooze, you lose, so if you see something good, grab it before anyone else does!