Melanie has saved thousands by dumpster diving in Florida(Image: Melanie Diaz / SWNS)

Florida woman saves £15,000 by rooting through bins for Christmas gifts and decorations

Melanie Diaz, 22, from Tampa, Florida, has spent Decembers and Januarys of the last two years salvaging seasonal riches that had been destined for landfill sites

by · The Mirror

A dumpster diver has claimed to have saved £15,000 by rooting around through bins for Christmas gifts and décor.

Melanie Diaz, 22, from Tampa, Florida, was not enchanted by the trimmings of Christmas like many people are and instead found seasonal gifts and more not along store aisles or online but instead in dumpsters. The dumpster diver had clawed back an estimated £15,000 from dumpsters and has managed to find everything from wreaths from Michael's and toys from TJ Maxx.

She has dedicated the past two Decembers and Januarys to salvage seasonal riches that were destined for landfill. She said: "It is my favourite time going dumpster diving on Christmas because they start throwing out a lot of Christmas stuff."

The dumpster diver has saved an estimated £15,000( Image: Melanie Diaz / SWNS)
Melanie finds festive items thrown away in January( Image: Melanie Diaz / SWNS)

She has frequented bins behind shops like TJ Maxx, Burlington, Michael's, Jo-Ann Stores, Pop Shelf, and Home Goods, where he struck gold with holiday items. In January she hits the jackpot as shops offload remaining festive merchandise.

Melanie recounted a time she managed to find a bounty at a TJ Maxx dumpster brimming with tossed items. She managed to bag 10 wreathes each valued at $300 (£236) from Michael's and Christmas trees worth a whopping $500 (£394).

Melanie has been so swamped with festive deals that she has resorted to calling her family for backup. She admitted: "I even had to bring my family to help me because it was too much."

Melanie has sometimes needed to call her family to help her with dumpster diving( Image: Melanie Diaz / SWNS)
Melanie has sold some of the items at garage sales( Image: Melanie Diaz / SWNS)

She said: "I remember we took everything into cars, and the next day we did a garage sale. We also kept most of the stuff. It was incredible." Among her haul were decorations, holiday-themed apparel and kitchen items.

"I found Christmas trees before, Christmas ornaments, and in general Christmas décor — creations of every kind of stuff," the influencer said. She added: "I find Christmas shirts and Christmas decorations for the table or Christmas stuff for the kitchen and stuff like that."

But Melanie said the joy wasn't just in the savings, it was also sharing her treasures. "I start saving everything for myself for the next year," she added.

"And I also give some stuff to my friends and to my family. I don’t sell anything that I find. Definitely the Christmas trees and the ornaments are my favourite."