Yahoo Lifestyle Stores clear shelves in January. Dumpster divers have never been happier.
Melanie Diaz was excited to stock up on January clearance items at her favorite stores in Tampa this month, so she put her usual battle plan into action.
First, she slipped into a pair of old sweatpants and her dirtiest sneakers. Then around 10 a.m., she headed to T.J. Maxx - the first store on her list - and drove around to the back to case the area and make sure nobody was watching.
Satisfied that she could make a clean getaway, Diaz put on a pair of rubber gloves and climbed into the store’s dumpster to begin her free shopping spree. Everything from hand soap to puzzles and Christmas ornaments had been tossed out, most of it in original packaging. Diaz figures the store wanted to clear shelves of old merchandise and didn’t or couldn’t send it back from where it came.
Diaz, 22, bundled it up in clean trash bags and packed it into the back of her SUV. Then she hit the next dumpsters on her list at Burlington, HomeGoods, Michael’s and Bath and Body Works, where she loaded up on holiday cards and wreaths, stuffed animals, bath gel and body lotion, T-shirts, dog toys and kitchenware.
“January is my favorite time to go dumpster diving,” she said. “It’s the time when the stores are throwing out all the Christmas stuff and gearing up for spring. But I usually find all kinds of treasures, seven days a week.”
Sorting through broken glass, gooey paint and spilled lotion and makeup is worth it, she said, noting that she once found a dozen pairs of Air Jordans, which normally sell for about $146 a pair. She estimated that she’s found more than $20,000 in after-Christmas merchandise since she started dumpster diving two years ago.
Diaz has plenty of company at the top of the trash heap.
Social media sites are full of videos from people in the U.S. and other countries showing off their latest fabulous (and free) dumpster finds. The Dumpster Diva is popular on YouTube, GlamourDDive has 530,000 followers on Instagram and the Dumpster Dive King (Diaz’s favorite) has more than 4 million fans on TikTok.
“The Dumpster Dive King is the one who inspired me to give it a try,” said Diaz, who stumbled upon the TikTok page and was motivated a few days later to jump into a dumpster behind a Five Below discount store in Tampa.
She has developed her own fan base of 3.7 million followers combined on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Diaz said she hopes to inspire others to save perfectly good merchandise from clogging up the nation’s landfills.
Although store managers sometimes ask her to leave the property if they catch her sorting through thrown-out items, many don’t seem to mind, she said.
Representatives from stores Diaz regularly visits, including Michael’s and Burlington, did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post about merchandise thrown into dumpsters. A spokesperson representing HomeGoods and T.J. Maxx emailed a statement:
“Regarding our unsold merchandise, typically, should an item linger on our sales floor, we continue to mark that item down, encouraging its sale to customers at an even greater value,” the spokesperson wrote. “Only a very small percentage of merchandise from our stores goes unsold. It is generally our practice that this unsold merchandise should not be thrown in the trash.”
A lot still ends up there, Diaz said.
“I go home with armloads almost every day,” she said, noting that she has turned her hobby into a career as a content creator on social media.
“I never go to a place where there’s a ‘private property’ sign, and if they ask me to get out, I don’t fight it, I just leave,” Diaz said. “I used to be a little shy about what people would think if I was caught in a dumpster, but now I don’t care.”
She said she never sells what she finds, but donates many items, including clothing and shampoo, to charity or gives them to friends. She also keeps some for herself.
“Pretty much every present I give to people for Christmas or on their birthday came from a dumpster,” Diaz said. “But it’s all brand new and it’s much better to give it to someone than let it be hauled away in the trash.”
Shane Hurley, a transportation dispatcher from Malden, Massachusetts, said that as a dedicated dumpster diver, he has the same philosophy.
“I’ll take stuff that I have no use for just to make sure it doesn’t go to the landfill,” said Hurley, 24, explaining that he frequently drops his finds off at local thrift stores. “I like the idea of it ending up with somebody who needs it.”
He said he sees each dumpster as a scavenger hunt.
“It’s no-cost gambling - you never know what you’re going to get,” Hurley said. “I love the adventure aspect of it, especially in January, when more stuff is being thrown out. I’ve found brand new Christmas lights, press-on nails, video games, sporting goods, back massagers, flowers. You name it, you can probably find it.”
Many stores throw items out if they’re returned, especially if the original package has been opened, he said. “The stuff is still good, but they’ll toss it,” he said. “It’s such a waste.”
To avoid confrontation, Hurley said he makes his dumpster rounds at night, using a flashlight and thick gloves to sort through the mess.
“Security guards generally don’t like it when you dumpster dive, but they’re never aggressive about it,” he said. “I get in and out as quickly as possible, and I always make sure to clean up after myself.”
Dumpster diving is generally legal on public property as long as it does not conflict with local laws. But experienced divers caution that it takes a strong stomach to withstand the smells and muck - and more important - there are risks of injury from falling or encountering sharp objects or other dangerous materials.
Tryce Jose, a mother of a 2-year-old daughter in Portland, Maine, said she’s up for the challenge. She started dumpster diving in September after she saw a bunch of people posting about it on TikTok and YouTube.
Jose, 36, said she has already found enough after-Christmas toys, cards and decorations to get her through next holiday season. And January isn’t over yet.
“The first time I tried it, I found a dumpster packed with kids’ sticker books at Five Below,” she said. “I give a ton of stuff away, but my husband freaks out because I have stuff in the garage all the time.”
Still, she’s not slowing down.
“Once you start, you can’t stop,” Jose said. “I’ve even gone dumpster diving on vacation.”
She said she’s in a friendly competition with another dumpster diver who tries to beat her to her favorite locations when she goes out several mornings a week.
“I go to seven or eight stores, and this guy will literally be camped outside sometimes, trying to beat me,” she said. “Part of the thrill of the hunt is to get there before he does.”
In Decatur, Alabama, Heather Watson uses a headlamp and goes out after dark to avoid competition. She said she started climbing into dumpsters five months ago, using a long-handled hook to avoid handling the garbage bags.
“The first time, I found 50 12-packs of soda pop,” she said. “Then I found a bunch of brand new Christmas trees in a dumpster at Michael’s. I didn’t have a tree, and now I have three.”
More recently, Watson, 40, has gone home with two sewing machines, several curling irons and a T-shirt heat press used to print designs on clothing.
“The stores will spray paint these things or mark them up with something when they throw them out, but they still work just fine,” she said.
She said she always tries to spread the wealth, rather than turn her house into a scene from the “Hoarders” television series.
“I found a bunch of reading glasses and some perfectly good magazines, so I took them to a senior citizens’ center,” Watson said. “The other day, I found a bunch of greeting cards, so I’ll also take them there.”
“It makes no sense to me to destroy something when there’s still a good use for it,” she added.
Diaz said as long as stores are tossing new merchandise, she’ll continue her dives for treasure.
“The waste in our country is crazy,” she said. “If I can help remedy that even a little bit, why not?”
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