I honestly think I have never really dumpster-dived (dove?) before. I've bought things at DI, or accepted hand-me-downs, or old furniture from a neighbor, but I have never seen something sitting by a dumpster, thought, "hmm, I'd like that to be inside of my house," and actually hauled it in.
Until we moved here. I mentioned before how it's hard to fit your belongings from one house into another. Sometimes you don't have everything you need even if your household was technically complete before the move.
Take a full-length mirror, for example. In Tucson, our closet doors were mirrors so we had plenty of looking glass space. Here in Ithaca, the only mirror in the house was in the bathroom, and with how short I am, I could see about the top third of my face and that was it.
We were at Target and saw a cheapo full-length mirror for $6. We didn't buy it right then but we thought we'd probably be back eventually to make the purchase.
Then later that same day, we saw a full-length mirror, pretty much exactly like the one at Target, except old and used and covered in little puffy anime stickers, sitting by the dumpster at the apartment complex. Bonus! We hauled it off immediately.
Here is our free mirror, in all its beauty. The anime stickers were removed by Miriam prior to this picture being taken.
What have you found dumpster diving? What have you contributed to the pile? We left an old entertainment center by the dumpster once in Tucson and before we even got back inside, we saw a Mexican family hauling it away. And I swear one of my friends told me they used to dumpster dive behind a grocery store and find unopened, expired packages of Oreos and things - and then they would eat said items. If you are that person, please comment and tell me I'm wrong about the details.