Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Yes! I am guilty of dumpster diving. I learned it from the best… my mom. I am snobby about the location, but I have sifted through trash when it looked like someone was moving or clearing stuff out.

Sounds a bit gross, but the truth is that dumpster diving is ecofriendly. You’re finding usable goods and can recycle or reuse them and keep this stuff out of land fills. Even if you personally, may not need it, there are others who may appreciate it.

Treasures discovered in dumpsters and trash cans over the years have been a 1940’s mahogany secretary, 6 new in box, 8-track players for cars, a 1930’s wrought iron patio set, a wicker arm chair and my newest find a brand new in mint condition steno chair for my office.

The reason I mention Dumpster Diving is that Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul and Goodwill are getting so much donated stuff they are getting really picky about what they take and a lot of good items are being put out with the trash. When I was clearing out my moms place, I had to leave a walnut bookcase, a portable working dishwasher and two metal café tables in the back alley.

My top neighborhood for trash picking / dumpster diving is Beverly Hills. Here you can find gems. Junk companies regularly patrol the area for discarded goods. I have also trash picked in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Chatsworth, Tarzana and Sherman Oaks/ Studio City. I have been told that the downtown garment area is interesting, but I haven’t gone.

I don’t do it very often, but if I am driving down an alley and see something… I stop. So when you’re stuck in street traffic a cruise down a side alley may not only save you time but it may yield a couple of discarded treasures.

I am up to my eyeballs in end of school year hoopla. Parties, friends kids promotions, my daughters promotion, graduation ceremonies all across town Girls Scout Awards, end of year plays and performances, the list of events seems to be endless. Too much to do, in too little time. I think I will ignore most of it.

On top of chaos from the end of year hoopla, our home office has been besieged with a technology melt down. My brand new Mac Mini died…. Really. Can you believe it?  Apparently it was a hard drive failure. Mac was pretty good about it. When we took it in they fired it up looked at the screen and the tech said, “Yep you need a new computer”. It was all of 3 weeks old. I still have to wait several days for a new one. I am getting additional RAM installed.

But I had just got all my files and work transferred from the Dell to the Mac and it’s systems up and running when it went kaput. Several articles have been lost, leads, emails, and contact names. But thankfully, it was only a couple of week’s worth of information. When the Mac died it was enough for “the kid” to hear my extensive vocabulary of profanity. I had ceased cussing when I became a parent. But this brought all that back.

Thankfully we had kept the 8-year old dell. It is still working. My daughter’s 5-year old Sony laptop is still working. Our 1-year old IMac is still working. Our 3 year old HP laptop is still working and our contact files are backed up in our Blackberry’s. WE thought we were okay.

But then….
My husbands 6 month old Blackberry Curve died that same day too. That company was pretty good about replacement too. The problems it created are a major hassle for us. But my solid as a rock web dude handled it all in stride, maintaining his cool through the technology crisis… That is until our HP laptop screen went black and also failed to operate. Did I mention it was on the same day as the other two technology failures? This pushed him over the edge and “the kid” also heard his extensive vocabulary of profanity.

Thankfully we got the HP working again. It’s the main computer we use to send out Bargain Alerts and our weekly e-Newsletter. But we cannot close the lid or we will lose the screen again. Eventually the HP will go into the shop for repair.

I guess my daughters 6th grade promotion present has been learning Mom and Dad know how to cuss and do so in stressful situations. Not my idea of an ideal promotion present. What a week.

I hate housework. But it’s the daily chores that irk me the most. With my busy days, trying to work them into my daily routine isn’t easy.

I rise at 6am, turn on the kettle, fire up the computer and while I am waiting for everything, I do any remaining dishes from the night before and clean the sink and counters. I do not have the time or patience to wait for a product to work. I am waiting for my morning cup of joe.

We use to use fancy, expensive cleansers for our sink. But recently we went back to a tried and true old time cleanser…. Ajax cleanser. It’s cheap around $.89-$1 instead of the $2.50-$4 I was spending on the sprays.

Not ever store carries this old time household staple any more. We came home with Comet a few weeks ago thinking it was a similar product when we couldn’t find the Ajax. It is not.

In fact as cleansers go I would say Comet sucks. It took over twenty minutes of scrubbing and waiting for it to leave my sink yellow instead of a bright white and I used twice as much to get that result. Ajax cleaned my sink in under 3 minutes with minimal scrubbing and I used less cleanser.

Sometimes new isn’t better. Your mom and grandma probably used Ajax. The oldies come in cardboard containers, not plasic bottles. Plus with Ajax I use less cleanser to get the job done, so it’s easier on the environment. Cheaper, better … in my house Ajax rules.