If you are a dumpster diver, visiting the nearby Home Depot is one of the best things for you. Dumpster diving at Home Depot completes your experience, as here you can find all items from their trash.
However, it is not only about diving into the dumpsters. You must pay attention to your safety, considering all the rules and regulations at the Home Depot, your locality, and the state as well.
Dumpster Diving at Home Depot
If you want to try your luck as a dumpster diver, there is no better place than the nearby Home Depot store. It is because the dumpsters here will be full of items for personal use and selling online. Home Depot stores cover a long range of products so do their dumpsters.
You can easily earn much more with items you can find in these dumpsters and sell online. Home Depot being one of the biggest retailers in home improvement and hardware niche in the USA, offers:
- Construction parts
- Tools
- Appliances, etc.
One of the best things about Home Depot is its customer satisfaction, which is improved with the refund and return policy. So, they take returns of any product if you return it within the given timeframe.
When a customer returns something after using it for a while, it is not good enough to go back to display, so it ends up in the dumpsters at Home Depot.
Home Depot has private label parts and works with several other brands, so you can find many good items in its dumpsters.
All you need to know about Dumpster diving
Dumpster Diving Laws at Home Depot
The dumpster diving law at Home Depot is mainly about trespassing. So, you will find most Home Depot stores have their dumpsters at the back of the store, protected by gates and fences. These stores take safety to the next step by installing trespassing prohibition signs.
If any of these things are there, you cannot go past them without asking.
Disobeying will get you in trouble. Any cop on duty can catch you; in the worst situation, the officials at Home Depot may call a cop to catch you. If you are caught, the smallest consequence will be getting removed from that place.
The bigger consequences include getting fined or some prison time or a fine with prison time.
In the worst-case scenario, you will get a lifetime ban from that area and the Home Depot store, making future dumpster diving difficult. So, it is better to follow the rules and commands from Home Depot officials.
Is dumpster diving illegal at Home Depot?
Home Depot does not prohibit dumpster diving as long as you follow the rules. Is dumpster diving illegal at Home Depot? The answer to that could be yes if you go on their private property without their permission. Similarly, the answer can be no, as long as you follow all the local and state laws.
Remember that most Home Depot stores are situated on their private property, and according to the local laws going inside without asking will be trespassing. Home Depot strictly follows all these laws. So, here is what you can do to enjoy a legal Home Depot dumpster diving experience:
- The first idea will be to wait until they move their trash to public property. Diving in dumpsters present on public property will cause no issues.
- Asking Home Depot officials for permission to go through their dumpsters. As long as you have permission, you can go inside, and nobody can cause trouble.
However, even if they allow you to go and dive into their dumpsters, you must leave as soon as officials ask you to. Not complying with their instructions will lead to bigger problems, including criminal charges.
How much can Home Depot dumpster diving help you earn a month?
Dumpster diving here has lots of earning opportunities for you. Home Depot dumpsters may contain lots of valuable items you can pick and sell online or at your garage sale. However, finding the right items to sell solely depends on your luck and, more importantly, your experience.
If you take Home Depot dumpster diving as your full-time job with 8 hours of work a day, then you can earn around $350 every week or $1400 every month from it. However, it is not a stable form of earning because there could be months when you don’t find anything valuable or good items, but they don’t sell. While you need that extra cash, you can do 2 things:
- Don’t quit your main job, which will offer you a stable income stream. Meanwhile, you can continue Home Depot dumpster diving part-time.
- If you want to work as a full-time dumpster diver, don’t focus only on Home Depot dumpsters. Instead, make these a part of your complete dumpster diving route, and thus you can easily earn somewhere between $4000 and $6000 a month, depending on the location.
Choosing any of these will bring you a better dumpster diving experience with stable income streams.
Common items you can find while dumpster diving at Home Depot
Home Depot stores are known for having everything you need. So, when it comes to dumpster diving here, you will find a huge variety of products as well with products from categories like:
- Construction and hardware
- Power tools
- Tables
- Chairs
- Merchandise, etc.
What you find depends on what you are looking for. For instance, if you are focusing on items for personal use, you will only find the ones you need. However, focusing on products you may sell, you will come across many different types of things.
When does Home Depot discard something into the trash?
Like most other places, Home Depot is also famous for its customer-friendly return and refund policy. Anything under that policy can be returned according to the given time frame. When a customer returns an item, not in immaculate condition, it is thrown away.
Even if the product itself is good, but the packing is damaged a little, it will be thrown away. Apart from that, these stores have lots of items that take up space on their shelves but don’t sell. When restocking, employees throw away those new products to make more shelf space for the new items.
Best time to dumpster dive at Home Depot
The best time for dumpster diving at Home Depot during the weekdays is early morning. These stores open at 10:00 on weekdays, when the employees usually throw out their trash. A huge part of the items in Home Depot dumpsters come when the shelves are restocked with new items, which are also restocked early in the morning.
Things change a bit on the weekends because stores open at 8:00, and more returns are expected on weekends. Thus, visiting in the morning on weekends will help you get hold of the returned products at Home Depot with slightly damaged packing.
Stay comfy while you spread awareness about dumpster diving with this “Your Trash My Treasure” shirt
This shirt said Your Trash My Treasure is perfect to wear while you go dumpster diving. It keeps you clean and different colors always keep you in style.
The best part about it is that you can spread a positive message about dumpster diving with this shirt because most people are unaware of how beneficial dumpster diving is for the planet.
Dumpster diving helps remove usable items from trash that would otherwise end up in landfills, increasing the total trash on this planet.
Check this t-shirt: Your Trash My Treasure
Tips for dumpster diving in Home Depot
The wide range of products available in Home Depot dumpsters may make things a little confusing for you. So, here are the top tips for Home Depot dumpster diving.
- Your knowledge and experience with the products you find matter a lot. So, carry a smartphone to quickly check on the internet about anything that you find that you don’t know about.
- Take a friend with you whenever going to dumpster dive, as it will help clear more dumpsters in less time.
- Once you find something, you don’t need to explore it fully, as it will waste a lot of time. Keep it and keep searching the dumpsters.
- If the dumpsters are located on Home Depot’s private property, asking for permission from officials will give you early access to the trash without many people around you disturbing you.
- Try to collect as many cheaper items as possible, as these sell quickly compared to ones with huge price tags.
- Don’t get a consumable item that is expired or does not seem safe to be picked up.
With these tips, you can be efficient and stay safe from any issues. , with less time and effort invested, you may earn more.
A complete guide on Dumpster Diving Tips that you never knew before
Final words
Good earnings from dumpster diving at Home Depot depend greatly on the time you visit it. While you dive into the dumpsters present at Home Depot, you must care about your safety.
So, follow local and dumpster diving laws at Home Depot. Most importantly, you must be very careful about the private property values for the best dumpster diving experience.
