Something that has been impressed on me recently is that culturally, our relationship with money is somewhat mysterious and varies widely from person to person. I tend to agree with the idea that we exchange our life energy for money and it isn’t how much you make that matters but what you do with it.

Ever since I left the hustle and bustle of my full time Silicon Valley technology job, I have been passively exploring other forms of revenue. By passive, I haven’t been spending too much time on it but if an opportunity comes up, I might experiment. This is a story about one such experiment. After reading a short article on dumpster diving by John Hoffman from the book The Simple Life I started to wonder about the possibility of finding household goods or other items that might have resell value in dumpsters.

One morning while taking out the trash, I noticed what looked like the top of a wooden table and a chair inside of the dumpster near my apartment. When I looked further I realized that the dumpster contained the top of an Ikea kitchen table, two matching chairs and four legs. After I fished them out, I realized that it looked a lot like the table we have and so I wondered if the other two chairs where close by. Sure enough, when I looked in the adjacent dumpster I found the two matching chairs. I pulled them out and carted the set back to our apartment.

The only thing that was missing were the nuts and washers to attach the legs to the top of the table. Otherwise, the table was in great condition. I decided to grab the hardware necessary to attach the legs and sell it on craigslist.org. The table retails for $120. My wife and I decided to sell it for $55.

It took us two tries (two posts) to finally sell it but we eventually did. It can be difficult to work with craigslist sometimes. Those who express interest don’t always come through and often change their mind. In spite of this, I think if you are patient and the price is reasonable, you will probably eventually find a buyer. It can take time though. In all, I think I probably spent about three hours getting the hardware, posting the ad, and coordinating with buyers. That comes out to about $18 per hour.

I noticed though that I felt a twinge of guilt when selling the table. Was I somehow manipulating the system or receiving payment for something that wasn’t mine? After some encouragement from Alice, I felt better about it. Ultimately, I took the time to retrieve someone’s trash/waste and provided a kitchen table in good condition to a young couple that needed it. The exchange reclaimed waste, met a legitimate need, and allowed me to exchange 3 hours for $55.

Here is a picture of the table:

I could see this as a hobby that could help save money and reduce waste. I’m sure there are countless household and business items that are costly and are also frequently thrown out. What are your thoughts?

Tags: finance, frugality, simplicity, culture, sustainability