Quote:
Originally Posted by Formula413
Not exactly re-using trash, but I often repair things that most people would throw away.
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Now yer talkin! A man after me own heart. I love tackling the salvage/repair/refurbishment of stuff that others have given up on. Not that I can't afford to buy truckloads of new crap like everybody else...I can, but I like the challenge, I like keeping good stuff out of landfills, I'm cheap... I guess I'm old school too.
It never ceases to amaze me what people throw away! My latest success story is a DVD player I found in a dumpster. Grabbed it, played with it, went online to find troubleshooting instructions, fixed it quickly and easily without buying a thing! Only "bad" thing is, I don't have the remote for it. Oh well... it is identical to the one I'd already bought and the remote works on both of em. I bet if I keep my nose to the ground, an appropriate remote will turn up sooner or later. Also found one of those "atomic clocks" in a dumpster and snagged that. Cleaned it up, put a new battery in, programmed it... works perfectly! A $27 clock for the price of a battery! Why was it thrown out in the first place? Someone was too stupid to replace the battery or program it I suppose.
(Sidenote: My bicycle computer button cell battery finally died after many years. Went to WalMart and the usual places to see what they had for batteries... over $4 for one?!?
Sure- I could have bought that... but I thought, how stupid! Ended up at the Dollar Store on the way home and get this- 8-packs of button cell batteries for $1!!!
Got home and was amazed at all the stuff I had that needed those batteries once I started thinking about it- my digital calipers with the weak display, quite a number of calculators, mine and other people's, and so on. Only two batteries left now and I'm sure they won't go to waste.)
I now have three full-suspension mountain bikes, one has an aluminum frame. Two were junked and one came from Freecycle. I have all of them all fixed up. One has new tires gotten from barter. One has new cables that I already had laying around. That is the sum total of new parts it took to fix em up, the rest of the stuff I already had or I went out and bartered for. All three are now in
perfect working order except I need to get 1 pair of brake shoes. Why were they in the junk???
A cheapie fanatic? Yes, and proud of it. I haven't bought paper towels or napkins in years. Why, when they are there for the taking? Seems when I go out to eat with others, for some reason most of them grab a huge handful of napkins- why? Are they planning on eating like Cookie Monster? Seems like one is always enough for me?
So when we're done and that stack of napkins is still sitting there, I pocket it. Got as much as I could ever want and then some for the cars, shop, and home.
Made window plugs from styrofoam sheet, for winter. Yeah, styrofoam is cheap... but why buy it at all when they toss it out
en masse at furniture stores? I got all I want for free- just go down there and ask for it.
Oh, I could go on and on, more than I already have. Bottom line is, I hardly ever go shopping for new stuff and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. There ain't much that goes from me > landfill.