It was KerryCan who told me about a Canadian who supports himself on things other people throw out.
As he explains at his blog Things I Find in the Garbage, “I’m a professional scavenger and entrepreneur making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.” Each week he tells us how much he made on selling the castoffs.
Today he has a long post that includes: “My favourite find since last post came totally by accident. I was out walking to a friend’s house in the Mile End on Saturday and came across this stuff on Clark. It had been raining heavily. This trunk caught my eye immediately. It was beautiful and I wanted it bad – I just had to make sure there weren’t any bugs involved in its tossing.
“Fortunately, while I doing an inspection a pizza delivery guy came and rang the bell of the house. After the transaction was completed I asked the person who lived there if they were throwing out the trunk, and if it was good to take. He told me he was moving and he didn’t have any use for it, which is what I expected given the “for sale” sign in front of his house and the delivered pizza (classic moving food!). I called my friend and she helped me get it home.
“It’s a really great piece. It was made from cedar by the Honderich Furniture Company of Milverton Ontario, likely in the 30s or 40s. It has the usual trunk space but also a shelf at the bottom. There’s a few small cosmetic issues but overall it’s in amazing condition. If I were to sell it I imagine I could get at least 200, maybe even 300 dollars for it, but since it’s so useful for storage I’m going to keep it myself.” More here.
It’s a lot of work to sell things that aren’t wanted anymore. Last summer, I sold a Singer sewing machine from the 1950s on eBay, and I can’t imagine doing that for everything that I no longer use. Too time consuming. My cousin Margot sells on eBay so often she doesn’t seem to mind it. She even sells things for friends. The Canadian “garbage picker” appears to have a variety of sales outlets, including his blog.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I hope others will visit this blog! Of all the blogs I read, I may look forward to Martin’s the most–it’s simply fascinating what people throw away!
I’m probably in the group of those who throw things away that might have value, except not with the trash. My husband carts it all to the Goodwill bin. We have one near us that is manned every day. Goodwill really loves our town.
Thanks for the mention! Selling on eBay is indeed a lot of work but it gets a lot easier once you’re used to it.
Thanks for commenting. I’ve heard of a woman in town who will do the eBay selling for you, but she takes 40%. Seems like a lot, but I guess for her clients, 40% of something looks better than 100% of nothing.
This is an awesome blog! One of my favorite childhood literary characters was a man in the Lloyd Alexander books who made use of the things he found in the river near his home. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t recall that character. I bet reader Asakiyume does. She started writing to Lloyd Alexander as a child and got to know him quite well. When she grew up, she would take her own kids to see him.