The best and worst thing I found in a skip was a science lab stool with a wooden seat and and adjustable back. It looked amazing but when I got it back to my college room I realised it smelt horrible. I sanded it and rubbed the wood with cooking oil (did I not know about Danish Oil? Or was I just impatient? Pass). Also, it was impossible to actually sit on. Still, I kept it until a couple of years ago, holding belts and ties in my bedroom. Then I needed space for a new chest of drawers, so I left it outside and someone else too it home.
As an American, I had no idea what you were talking about..."skip"? Finally I 'got it'...a dumpster in American-ese. I never did dumpster diving but when I lived in New York I found some great furniture 'on the street'. People pride themselves on their finds which often are bought by antique dealers.
I am a big collector of on-street stuff. I will write about my best and worst finds sometime. I can’t tell which category the enormous, completed and mounted jigsaw puzzles of goth maidens being bothered by supernatural elements would go into…
Not in a skip, alas, but on the side of the road I have found and magpied many things. Kitchenware, a set of champagne coupes, chairs, a table. But the most interesting thing was a round picnic/party wicker basket for bottles of wine & glasses. It is a very lovely object but currently just sits looking pretty without having been repurposed....yet. Found a beautiful wicker chair once but my friend took it home with them as I had no space, and I always regret not taking it. I could have made space, it was like a throne.
Not as many great dumpster finds. But so many bits and pieces of “garbage picking”… furniture, frames, paper, artwork, etc. And then from the trash-adjacent, thrift shops, junk shops, flea markets, and yard sales… so many more bits and pieces that have become decor and art supplies and clothing.
As a teenager, many years ago, we were poor so thrift stores were a necessity but I didn’t feel any shame in it despite getting comments from other kids.
The other form of free materials has always been foraging. Where we live all sorts of pieces of wood, metal, rope, plastic wash up at various beaches and those bits of flotsam find their way into assemblage of various sorts.
Loved this! Though I feel like in London you don't need a skip, just the street... I found an incredibly ornate and heavy floor length mirror abandoned on the pavement the day I moved in to my flat. I still have it 10 years on.
About six years ago, I really needed a bag. Any bag - the canvas tote I had been carting around full of laptop and library books had disintegrated. As I set out on a rainy London morning to find a bag...I passed a skip. And inside was - what I think was likely the dramatic remains of a breakup - but yay for me, as there was a brand new handbag (one of those strong totes with the horse symbol that every second girl on the tube has), a paid of heeled boots, in my unusually small size, a bra (which I did not take) and a whole bunch of melted, crushed, and disintegrating chocolates (which I was tempted to take but did not becasue I felt weirdly judged by invisible city-society eyes). It was a good day.
I've never actually taken things from skips, but I did find a beautiful wooden ottoman left by the side of the street bins and a nice sturdy bag stencilled with the words 'The Poet's Garden'. Plus a fair amount of broken jewellery in the street, which I gather and try to make into new items of jewellery.
The best and worst thing I found in a skip was a science lab stool with a wooden seat and and adjustable back. It looked amazing but when I got it back to my college room I realised it smelt horrible. I sanded it and rubbed the wood with cooking oil (did I not know about Danish Oil? Or was I just impatient? Pass). Also, it was impossible to actually sit on. Still, I kept it until a couple of years ago, holding belts and ties in my bedroom. Then I needed space for a new chest of drawers, so I left it outside and someone else too it home.
I wonder where it is now, your untameable stool
Our local skips are so boring - I need to keep my eyes peeled! Love the sound of the floral bust!
When I was young we found two go karts in a skip!
OH MY GOD! The dream
It really was!
I once saw a toy skip inside a skip. Sadly, it didn't get more matryoshka doll than that.
As an American, I had no idea what you were talking about..."skip"? Finally I 'got it'...a dumpster in American-ese. I never did dumpster diving but when I lived in New York I found some great furniture 'on the street'. People pride themselves on their finds which often are bought by antique dealers.
I am a big collector of on-street stuff. I will write about my best and worst finds sometime. I can’t tell which category the enormous, completed and mounted jigsaw puzzles of goth maidens being bothered by supernatural elements would go into…
Not in a skip, alas, but on the side of the road I have found and magpied many things. Kitchenware, a set of champagne coupes, chairs, a table. But the most interesting thing was a round picnic/party wicker basket for bottles of wine & glasses. It is a very lovely object but currently just sits looking pretty without having been repurposed....yet. Found a beautiful wicker chair once but my friend took it home with them as I had no space, and I always regret not taking it. I could have made space, it was like a throne.
Not as many great dumpster finds. But so many bits and pieces of “garbage picking”… furniture, frames, paper, artwork, etc. And then from the trash-adjacent, thrift shops, junk shops, flea markets, and yard sales… so many more bits and pieces that have become decor and art supplies and clothing.
As a teenager, many years ago, we were poor so thrift stores were a necessity but I didn’t feel any shame in it despite getting comments from other kids.
The other form of free materials has always been foraging. Where we live all sorts of pieces of wood, metal, rope, plastic wash up at various beaches and those bits of flotsam find their way into assemblage of various sorts.
Loved this! Though I feel like in London you don't need a skip, just the street... I found an incredibly ornate and heavy floor length mirror abandoned on the pavement the day I moved in to my flat. I still have it 10 years on.
About six years ago, I really needed a bag. Any bag - the canvas tote I had been carting around full of laptop and library books had disintegrated. As I set out on a rainy London morning to find a bag...I passed a skip. And inside was - what I think was likely the dramatic remains of a breakup - but yay for me, as there was a brand new handbag (one of those strong totes with the horse symbol that every second girl on the tube has), a paid of heeled boots, in my unusually small size, a bra (which I did not take) and a whole bunch of melted, crushed, and disintegrating chocolates (which I was tempted to take but did not becasue I felt weirdly judged by invisible city-society eyes). It was a good day.
This is incredible. What a find for you (although wildly interested in the backstory of the stuff…)
I've never actually taken things from skips, but I did find a beautiful wooden ottoman left by the side of the street bins and a nice sturdy bag stencilled with the words 'The Poet's Garden'. Plus a fair amount of broken jewellery in the street, which I gather and try to make into new items of jewellery.