Skip is a dumpster, and this man lives in one!

Today I learned two things. In England, a dumpster is called a skip (which makes me wonder how many people from there have giggled at the title of Paul's SKIP book), and that a man built his home inside a skip/dumpster!

This 28-year-old pays $62 a month to live in a dumpster he built for $5,000—take a look inside

At 28, my goal is to save up to buy a house of my own one day. But I didn’t want to move to the outskirts of the city, so I started looking into the possibility of living in a skip — or, as it’s called in the U.S., a dumpster.

...

The base of the dumpster is only 25 square feet, so I had to make the most out of the volume to make the space livable.

I have four built-in wooden boxes to put my clothes in. I’ve always lived a minimal lifestyle and traveled a lot for work, so the limited storage space works for me. I didn’t have to give away any items.

Up above is my raised, mezzanine-style bed.

On the other end is the kitchen. I have an eight-can portable mini fridge, a small sink and an induction cooktop.

Windows on both sides of the home provide plenty of natural light and ventilation, making the space feel less claustrophobic.

There's a longer video in the above article, but I couldn't figure out how to embed it. So I've embedded this one, instead.

Hmmm.. never thought of this. I spend at least an hour every day in dumpsters.. gleaning food waste from the few restaurants in my town who “can’t “ save food for my pigs, because of corporate excuses. I jokingly refer to the dumpster as my “office”, and have many wonderful encounters and conversations with people who are intrigued by what I am doing. I don’t see myself moving into a dumpster full time, but I am very familiar and comfortable on the inside..

I wondered about the origin of the word. According to skip (container):

The origins of calling a rubbish cart a skip (most often found in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) come from the word skep, used to refer to a basket. Skep itself comes from the Late Old English sceppe, from the Old Norse skeppa 'basket'

So we call dumpster diving 'skipping' which is ambiguous (also a sort of jump or a childrens game with rope) but won't cause raised eyebrows in non-Permie circles.

Nancy Reading wrote:I wondered about the origin of the word. According to skip (container):

The origins of calling a rubbish cart a skip (most often found in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) come from the word skep, used to refer to a basket. Skep itself comes from the Late Old English sceppe, from the Old Norse skeppa 'basket'

So we call dumpster diving 'skipping' which is ambiguous (also a sort of jump or a childrens game with rope) but won't cause raised eyebrows in non-Permie circles.

Nancy, you’ve got me thinking..

When you miss class, you “Skip School”.. anybody want to sign up for my dumpster diving master class? The tuition is $999.99. You get to sleep in a dumpster, and eat as much as you want.. but, the rest goes to my pigs. Payment plans are available, but cash only, please.

But seriously.. as to “Skep”:

https://beeprofessor.com/bee-skep/

Ted Abbey wrote:

Nancy Reading wrote:I wondered about the origin of the word. According to skip (container):

The origins of calling a rubbish cart a skip (most often found in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) come from the word skep, used to refer to a basket. Skep itself comes from the Late Old English sceppe, from the Old Norse skeppa 'basket'

So we call dumpster diving 'skipping' which is ambiguous (also a sort of jump or a childrens game with rope) but won't cause raised eyebrows in non-Permie circles.

Nancy, you’ve got me thinking..

When you miss class, you “Skip School”.. anybody want to sign up for my dumpster diving master class? The tuition is $999.99. You get to sleep in a dumpster, and eat as much as you want.. but, the rest goes to my pigs. Payment plans are available, but cash only, please.

But seriously.. as to “Skep”:

https://beeprofessor.com/bee-skep/

Also seriously, James Jucsaks's book on dumpster diving and scrounging in general is awesome, "The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging"

Seriously, it's a great book. And it's for sale here on permies!

In construction, we have engineered metal or metal and wood boxes we call trash skips or skip boxes.
They are engineered to be flown by crane, loaded with new material and tools to build with, and reloaded with any trash being removed.
Nice heavy boxes but I doubt anyone would want to live in one!

thomas rubino wrote:In construction, we have engineered metal or metal and wood boxes we call trash skips or skip boxes.
They are engineered to be flown by crane, loaded with new material and tools to build with, and reloaded with any trash being removed.
Nice heavy boxes but I doubt anyone would want to live in one!

I lived in Tucson several years ago for a few months, and in that period the Museum of Contemporary Art had an exhibit where they converted a few roll off dumpsters into swimming pools.. complete with decks, AstroTurf lawns, and changing tents. This was all housed inside of an old fire station. I was doing commercial concrete 6 days a week at the time, and would ride my bike there after work to enjoy the cool water and shade. Best alternative use for a “skip” that I’ve experienced.

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