Guy down the street redid his kitchen and threw out this old cabinents.. they are sitting at the kerb now.. I just need to wait till dark as this guy is a SERIOUS pita and will probably give me a load of E36 M3 if I pull up and load them into the car.
Good plan. I redid our laundry room with some cast-off cabinets a few months back. One afternoon of work and minimal investment, and it's a totally different space. Janel was overjoyed.
I find myself reorganizing my garage once a year - adding shelves, adding light, adding storage and basically making everything more compact. With all the various car projects, it's pretty full!
That is the way to go. I finished the inside of my garage with OSB that was tossed during the construction of a subdivision close to my house. My HB 9-3 came in very handy.
I scored a few cabinets off Craigslist about a year ago, painted them white and they make for great overhead storage in the garage. White keeps the shop as bright as possible. PS - they're easier to paint when they are not mounted on the wall - no ladder needed 
My garage cabinets came from the curb. We didn't wait for dark, either. My wife saw them while out for a run. As soon as she got home, we grabbed a car and picked them up. Cost: free.
When we did the laundry room, we actually got an entire kitchen. Countertops, drawers, wall cabinets, under-counter cabinets, tall closet. We ended up with a nice new clothes staging area as well as an unbelievable amount of storage space. I added some lights under the wall cabinets and it looks like a high-dollar makeover. I didn't get them for free, but the hundred bucks to Goodwill was well spent.
well, I got them... only 5 were usable as the rest were forcibly ripped from the walls. Now to paint them and mount them... after I decide where they are going
Once you've got them installed, just for fun, invite your neighbor over for a beer and see if he notices.
garage updates rock! im still working on mine a bit at a time, but its amazing what a few cabinets or shelving can do to improve the space. of course the paid stuff works great too, but free/scavenged doesn't dent the project budget 
I have two sets of retired cabinets in use in Kid Rock Acres. One set in the shed one set in the kids room.
The ones in the kids room were nearly new wood units that were pulled out of a doctors office kitchen redo. Cost = free
A friend of mine makes/sells/installs cabinets, and he just called me a week ago to tell me that he had just replaced a set, and I can have the old ones for my garage! I'm picking them up tomorrow.
previous owner of my house did this, it is very nice to have cabinets over the work bench.
Over time I've scored two sets of cabinets. One set is light colored wood, one set darker wood. My wife thought I was nuts when I started installing them in our new house until she figured out it was not a random pattern, but a checkered flag on the wall.
Gotta love old cabinets. Having an installer as a friend is the easiest way.
Jack
my wife likes those home shows on HG and they always SMASH the cabinets off the wall. That kills me.......I always think they would be sweet in some dudes garage.
pete240z wrote: my wife likes those home shows on HG and they always *SMASH* the cabinets off the wall. That kills me.......I always think they would be sweet in some dudes garage.
Yeah, that always irritates me too since it would be a great opportunity to promote recycling/reusing/reducing waste. It's especially ironic when the makeover is focusing on using green materials and they take a perfectly good set of cabinets and counters and destroy them during removal. So much for being "green". 
No kidding! I always wish I could follow around those crews and take half of the E36 M3 that they break and/or throw away! My friend that makes and installs cabinets donates everything he removes to Habitat for Humanity. I asked him to keep me in mind if he got anything that's too crappy for H for H.
Curb fodder, why would he give you crap?
This is how I get a lot of my old stereo equipment. I've been yelled at many times. I tell em if they want it so badly, they can come take it out of my car. They then always say the same thing: "Get the berkeley outta here and don't come back." No problemo, I have my new wares, and you have no garbage.
since i got my garage I've never seen another set of cabnets on the curb. I am close to actually spending money on some. If i do I'd like to find a set of metal "Tune Up" cabnets that used to be in every garage but have seemingly disapeared.
Drop by your local Habitat store. That's where we got ours - I said Goodwill earlier but I misspoke. Even if you have to spend a few dollars, it's going to a good place.
I wish I had a garage, but curb-scores are still a favorite hobby of mine. You'd be surprised what you see on the streets of Brooklyn. Last night I was tempted to drag home a brand new motorcycle gas tank with an aluminum Audi-TT-style filler cap. I was on foot, and it was pouring rain though. I don't own a bike anyway.
But today I snagged some Thule ski-racks that must have been ripped from somebody's roof. By the end of the week (with a little hack-saw and u-bolt action) I'll have myself a sub-$10 ski rack that will come in handy one day when I can afford ski's.
I started to refinish them today.. what a pig that guy is. I pulled the hinges to paint.. and behind one of the hinges was an ant nest.
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