Texas Woman Earns $1,000 A Week From Dumpster Diving

A Texas mom is making around $1,000 per week from one surprising source of income — trash.

Tiffany She'ree, of Dallas, worked as a canteen server up until last year, when she quit her job after realizing that she could make a living off of selling discarded items she finds in dumpsters at garage sales, the New York Post reported.

The 32-year-old mother of four has been dumpster diving for years. She began in 2017 after she stumbled upon a video about it on YouTube.

“I’d never heard of or thought about dumpster diving before I randomly saw a video on YouTube of these girls dumpster diving,” She’ree, who has 2 million followers on TikTok, told Media Drum. “When I saw the haul they came back with I knew I had to try it for myself.”

During her first dive, She’ree found skincare and makeup products worth about $1,200. Since then, she and her 38-year-old husband, Daniel Roach, have been going out on dives together looking for items they can sell or use.

The couple said they not only pay their bills with the sale of their hauls, but they were also able to furnish their home with some of the items they've taken home.

Her TikTok account, @dumpsterdivingmama, shows her routine dumpster dives, during which she targets those found outside stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Party City and Ulta. Among the items Sher’ree usually finds are those that have damaged packaging or returns that cannot be sold again.

These include “bedsheets, pillows, blankets, towels, little odds and ends, even pet products like cat trees and dog cages,” according to the TikTok user.

Recently, she found a $750 coffee machine from Bed Bath & Beyond and unopened makeup products worth a few hundred dollars.

Some critics have compared her efforts to stealing. But in the U.S., the act is legal as long as it does not conflict with any city, county or state ordinances, according to legal experts at Findlaw.

Another Texas resident who found treasure in another man’s trash is Matt Malone, who said in 2018 that he made up to $100,000 in a single year as a part-time dumpster diver, ABC7 Chicago reported.

Despite living in Austin, Malone travels across the country in search of treasure troves from stores such as Home Depot, Office Max and Sears. He then posts the items he finds for sale on sites like Amazon, eBay and Craigslist.

During a dumpster dive in Houston with ABC7, he found behind a Pier One Imports store a brand new cherrywood desk with everything in the box that retailed for close to $300. Other items he discovered were computer speakers, a Dewalt cordless screwdriver, commercial grade LED lighting, credit card readers and a Mac Classic 2 computer, which could go for $100 or more on eBay.

After sifting through his findings, Malone estimated that the haul he gathered in Houston in just a few hours was worth more than $3,000.