A 24" Sony TV that worked perfectly for several years (back when such a thing was quality item).
A nice tan suit that actually fit me, pressed and hung up on a hanger.
A TV stand not dissimilar to this one. The wood paneling was frayed and peeling in one corner.
A handful of end table-type pieces.
2-3 office chairs, visibly used but overall in good shape.
Other assorted odds & ends.
We’ve never suffered an infestation of bed bugs or creeping death mold. In general I wouldn’t be too worried about that sort of thing, though of course it is possible.
I stop short of food…NEVER…and no upholstered items, but heck, some good stuff gets tossed,routinely …my parent’s retirement community is an awesome place for that…as a lot of the folks die, their children can’t be bothered to sort or sell what yet don’t want…so some high end old quality furniture is routinely dumped…
There is always furniture parked next to the dumpster at my apartment building, the end of every month when people are moving out. I have a lot of it in my apartment.
On rural roads in Florida, there are public dumpsters every few miles, We always used to go out and check them a couple days after Christmas, for perfectly good appliances that had been upgraded. Blenders and Microwaves are always easy to find, the kind of space-wasters that nobody wants two of…
I used to walk around University City around school closing time in the early 90’swith a buddy and we’d find all kinds of stuff including Macintosh computers (Drexel required students to have them), sizeable TVs, and other fun stuff. Eventually the schools, junk companies, and freecycle put most of an end to that.
Just last night I was watching Antiques Roadshow. A guy had a very nice diamond broach that was appraised at $6000. He said he’d found it lying next to a dumpster 40 years ago, and gave it to his mother.
Labor Day weekend is well known in the Boston area as the weekend to get rid of furniture you don’t want. Put it on the curb and POOF, elves or grad students will have taken it away.
The flip is Labor Day weekend is the best weekend to score free furniture.
That was my first thought too! 
My best dumpster finds (really curbside trash finds because I don’t have any dumpsters near me to pick through):
A Columbia Grafonola phonograph(needs a couple of parts and refinishing but there’s a local-ish guy who does that)
A 1920s Royal typewriterwhich I paid a shop $100 to clean and replace the rollers and feet and give it a new ribbon
This reminds me of a few years ago in a well-to-do neighborhood, everyone was piling really nice furniture, sporting goods and belongings outside for the garbage. I spotted a lovely hope chest that I would have loved to pick up.
I didn’t, although many others came picking. The reason for my reluctance is that the entire area had been flooded with raw sewage, bathing everything in their basements up to seven or eight feet in blackwater and fecal matter.
Yeah, I didn’t need the hope chest that badly.
A very nice wooden bookshelf I picked up on the way to work (it was NEXT to a dumpster) which I discovered had an institutional sticker saying it once belonged to Mt. Wilson Observatory. It now sits in our dining room and holds all of our cookbooks.
A large sailfish wall decoration I pulled out of a dumpster behind a bar that was renovating. I ended up giving it away to a friend some years later after not being able to mount it in my apartment.
Also known as Allston Christmas (Allston being largely populated by college kids).
A '74 Fiat? So was that cost of a tow home every time you got it running again? :dubious:
An AC version of a Q siren, complete with rheostat so that I can alter the pitch. Hmmm, maybe I can make it into a back-to-school alarm clock. :eek: 
Definitely. Just a few days ago the management posted a notice on all the apartment doors addressed to “whoever took the mattresses out in the garbage area” that “they were thrown out because they were infested with bedbugs, so if you took them now you have bedbugs”.
I’ve found a couple of nice things being thrown out.
The nicest is a large Chinese silk embroidery in a frame. The frame was kinda old, but the embroidery was fine, and very nice. I have it hanging on my wall right now.
Another was a pair of 1960s era black leather high heeled boots - found in the mid-90s. I took then home and gave them to my wife: coincidentally, they were her size. She still wears them occasionally.
Do it! Call your DMV. I bet you a Coke it’s a form and public notice, and the cost of a title.
Fix It Again, Tony! Actually, even though it’s needed a couple of fuel pumps over the years, it’s always been a very fast, great handling little coupe. Adults can really fit in the back seats, and no one ever knows what it is at Cars & Coffee or other shows it visits.
It helps that I is a mechanic!
I thought you were a cop? :dubious:
When I was a kid, my mother saw my neighbor getting rid of some old hats (from the fifties and sixties) and asked if she could have them, for me and my sister to play dress-up with. Neighbor said okay. She didn’t dig them out of the trash or anything like that though, so I don’t know if that counts.
I didn’t even think about the date and location correlation. I live in the Boston area too but far outside the city itself. We don’t usually get an official free stuff holiday out this far but we certainly did when I lived in Brighton. Unfortunately, I had too little space at the time to take advantage of it and already had everything I needed. However, if you needed anything from furniture to kitchen appliances to small fridges, it was all there for the taking on Labor Day weekend when the leases expired.
It is mostly just random occurrences now and I pass on everything that I can’t use even if it is in great shape. I take my trash out every day and sometimes something good will be sitting right there. I only take the things in perfect condition but it still happens. I thought my nice table was a good find until my massage chair and I found each other. This thing is sweet. It looks like it just came out of the showroom and never bitches about giving more backrubs. That is exactly what I need at this stage in my life.
One of the judge shows said that if you live in New York City, even if your mattresses aren’t infested, if you throw them away, you have to wrap them up in some sort of plastic wrap.
The one time we threw away a fan of my grandmother’s that had a short in it, my dad cut the cord off to make sure no one would drag it out of the trash. That’s another option if you don’t want anyone to take something that’s not safe.
Was there anything in the glovebox? The Kohinoor? Aristotle’s Comedy? Excalibur?