The best time of year for trash picking in Portland is May. This is when we have a month of Bulky Item Pickup. I LOVE May. I got really dorky this year and printed out large maps of the 5 districts. You can get them from the Portland city website.
Starting with Districts 1+2 (West End / East End / Downtown) which happen the same week the adventure begins. Personally, I don't like Districts 1+2 very much. There's too much competition for the good stuff. It is possible to find some really excellent things - you just have to have luck and good timing. I live in District 2 and this year I got lucky. Walking home late one night I found three mid-century diner chairs. One thing I won't do is leave any of my trash finds on the street. If I want it I have to figure out a way to take ALL of it. I didn't go very fast but I got all three of them home. A small victory. I also found a three tiered metal shelf that same night.
I also came across some people moving out of their house. I scored a bike and a yellow formica mid-century diner table. Unfortunately some lazy brute tried to rip the legs off instead of using a tool to do it. I straightened the legs using my kryptonite bike lock buy putting the straight end into the leg, closest to the bend, and slowly pulled the bend out as best I could without breaking them. I fixed them all and after a thorough scrub it's looking pretty good.
I'm realizing now that this could go on forever. So maybe I'll save the other districts for later.
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