Dumpster Diving – Part 4

And a mystery solved

I wasn’t up to taking our regular walk on Friday morning, so we went out in the evening, instead. Again, I had picked up some trash along the way, and when I opened the dumpster, I found this basket lying on top of the stuff that was already there. Naturally, I grabbed it and trotted on home, but I had noticed some bath towels under it and returned as soon as I had this safely stowed. Soap dish, toothbrush holder and mugs, all with the price tags still on the bottom. I tossed one mug because it was cracked, but why anybody needed four mugs for two people is one of those things I may never figure out. Maybe they had grandkids? I dunno.

There were too many towels for me to take in one trip, so Saturday morning I went back with a beach bag, loaded that, then then stuffed even more towels into two plastic grocery sacks I found in the dumpster. And then went back to make yet another trip with the beach bag.

As I was lugging all of this stuff home, I ran into another resident who told me about a woman in another building who had died. Her husband had absolutely no idea what to do with her things, so he had simply trashed all of them. That would explain the American Tourister bag full of those nice slacks that I got last Monday.

I washed everything – two full laundry loads – folded, sorted, and stacked. Most of the bath towels were part of sets and didn’t seem to have ever been used. There are SIXTY wash clothes. Some of those are little more than rags, but for goodness sakes! I’ll load them all in my car and take them around to the thrift store Tuesday morning.

It is truly sad that this poor man is so lost without his wife that he is simply unable to cope with the simplest things. The resident with whom I spoke suggested that I approach the man and offer to help him. As much of a busybody as I am, that is something I can certainly try.