Dump Shop July 14, 2006

It really irks me when lifestyle TV shows and magazine articles show off multimillion dollar houses and they go on to describe how fabulous, beautiful and opulent the houses are. I mean, of course, after all it did it cost a few million to build and furnish? The question really becomes, ‘How can a multimillion dollar house look so ugly?’ Featuring that would be worth watching.

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If I were to produce a reality show I would have teams of two building a house and furnishing it from scavenging in dump (recycle) shops, kerb side pickups and the ‘giveaway’ section of our local the Saturday’s paper.

Where I live our local councils have kerb side pick ups that basically asks all residents to dump all their years of junk that they have accumulated in their garage and shed onto the footpath, and a council truck would along and take it away. The beauty of this system for me is that I would go along with my trailer just before the council trucks and go through this stuff and pick off the stuff that I like. The only problem is that a few thousand other people have the same idea and it gets to be quite an afternoon entertainment sitting on your front veranda watching people fight over your junk. Is even more exciting when you are the scavenger fighting off other leeches.

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Needless to say my favourite places to shop are recycle shops, and in particular, a dump shop about 10 km away from my home. This dump shop is located right next to the dump. The theory of ‘one man’s rubbish is another’s treasure’ is practically applied as no sooner people throw away their rubbish it appears for sale at the dump shop. The list of bargains I been able to pick up is endless. The thrill for me is finding a bargain. Like the multimillion dollar house anyone can buy anything new at a shop, but to find it at a bargain is the thrill and the challenge.

Take, for example, my golf clubs. I managed to get a full set of clubs, the golf bag and the buggy for less than $25. Admittedly, it took some 3 months and over 4 different recycle shops to find all the clubs and accessories and a few weeks more to clean and buff them up, but in the end my golfing would not be better if I were using a thousand dollar set. And I reckon it is cool that no two clubs are made by the same manufacturer!

My daughter loves the dump shop and would share in the same excitement as me whenever we visit. But I think it is the ice cream that I bribe her with when we get that that she is excited about.

My wife, on the other hand, thinks that all the things I pick up are junk.

It is hard to live with a non-collector.