Dumpster Diving

I go dumpster diving every week now. It's not the gross dirty ones behind stores but the Hope bins we have at the store. When other departments think something isn't worth selling or it's been on the shelf for too long, it will go into the bins. Really what I'm doing is getting things into boxes or trash bags as Hope requires. It makes it easier for the driver who picks up every week to load the truck. I also remove the things Hope won't take. Because of this, I see what's been tossed.  I find "good stuff" all the time. Most of the time items were priced too high and the volunteer in charge didn't want to change the price. Sometimes they don't know what they have and tossed it. This victorian vanity mirror was one of those things. Yes, the mirror isn't in perfect condition but it's interesting enough to resell. One of the unspoken rules when we dumpster dive is not to pull something out and tell that department we should try and sell it. There was a reason it got put into the bins. We get so many sets of fancy china (3 to 4 a week), we can't sell them fast enough. Everyone thinks they can be sold for top dollar but it's very rare for someone to buy a whole set. 

Being a crafty person when I saw the round tin with a clip in the bins, I knew it was an accessory to hold water for an artist palette. I was also surprised when I finally got the other tin open, it's a mini painting palette! I think it was originally designed to be an ash tray (Temu) but some company converted it to a traveling palette. Just another thing to add to my crafty "someday" collection. Maybe now I'll take the trip to the beach and paint. :)