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That's great, Jeanne. Real wood furniture is getting harder to come by. I love a find like that. Good job on supporting the cause, too.

The other day I was tossing my tiny amount of garbage (i recycle and reuse everything, mostly), and I saw a bunch of usable school supplies and some nice lounging clothes in my fourplex's trash. So I grabbed it all.

There were six spiral bound notebooks with only a few pages actually written in, a binder, some sheet protectors and a few folders. I can use all that. I recycled the used pages.

In the clothes, everything was super clean and smelled freshly laundered. I got a nice warm white zipped hoody, an Abercombie anorak hoody, some flannel sweats, a bunch of white tees, and some button-up work shirts.

i took the work shirts in to donate to an animal shelter thrift store and kept the rest. Nice stuff.

Wow, Jilly, a great find for you. Amazing that somebody would throw all that good stuff away.

Thanks, Grace. I'm always shocked that people throw away good things with lots of life left in them. I don't understand that mentality. Do you?

Dan was looking at stuff at Best Buy, so i wandered out back to look at what they might have tossed. They actually bust everything up before selling, but i did find a penny in the parking lot, plus a ton of nice aluminum screws and washers, and a dozen little glass stones - they kind people put around candles.

It amazes me what people thoughtlessly toss away.

The students who live above my apartment today tossed:

Three nice three ring binders
A packet of Neosporin, unopened
A silver and turquoise pinky ring
Some kid toys (saving for my grand-niece's visit this week)
Three really nice knit winter caps (i will use all of those - i love hats)
Some christmas decor (i will donate to goodwill)
Two very warm winter coats (one to keep, one to donate)
Seven mostly unused spiral ring notebooks
A pen
Unopened packets of trailmix-type food
Some ripped old cotton tees I will use as cleaning rags
A clean tuppeware container (i will put my washers and nuts in it)
Five Euro coins of various denomination, and one coin from Israel
A nice pair of sunglasses, unscratched
Flannel sweatpants, clean, and smelling freshly laundered
Several file folders and plastic page protectors
A keychain from Mexico
A safety pin (i added it to my sewing kit)
Several books that I donated to my library already

Most of these things could have been donated to a thrift store, or given away on Craigslist or Freecycle. The clothes are all really nice, well-made brands. I guess it's just easier to toss things in the bin, then to donate somewhere?

We are such a wasteful society.

I found seven plastic/flocked tablecloths today in a thrift store dumpster.

I like to keep some in my car for impromptu picnics, or as an emergency blanket. I also put some with my camping gear to use as tent pads and to actually use at picnic tables in camp sites. They are also useful at the beach, and work well as extra drop cloths in the workshop/garage.

Jilly, those tablecloths are a real find. I lay plastic tablecloths over our bed when we'll be away, to deter the cat from peeing on the bed.

Speaking of donating to charity. Today we donated my 3-wheeler adult trike to a charity. (It was too hard for me to maneuver.)

There is a video called the Tao of the Dumpster. I saw this years ago, and now it is on youtube. Fascinating piece of commentary on life, the universe, and everything.