Once (or twice?) a year, our community has a bulk trash pick-up service. People leave their used-up, well-loved junk out on the curb and a big truck comes to take it away to Neverland or somewhere. And that’s when I go all creepy and drive slowly around in my minivan like a kidnapper searching out my next victim.
This year, I made out like a bandit. Free stuff. Two chairs (the one on the left needs a new coat of paint and some wood glue and a couple of clamps to steady its slight wobble but the one on the right? Perfect!):
Free thoughts courtesy of Milo: “Proudie is a good dog, but she has real problems. You know, like those fart problems and she runs away a lot.”
Free wooden ladder, which I plan to use as a climbing trellis for our cucumbers and squash this year. We’ll see how that goes! 
And free water play table, which only required a good scrubbing before we put it into use on our back deck. I foresee much use out of this thing over the next couple of summers!
So you see, one man’s trash really is another’s treasure. And the best part? There’s no pressure to hold on to this stuff. If we get sick of it, we can throw it to the curb in 6 months for the next stalker!
Have you dug through any trash lately?
P.s.- I apologize for yesterday’s ranting and raving. As it turns out, I am a serious whiney-pants when I don’t get a good night’s sleep. Over it. Have a lovely weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful mamas out there! You all make my life so much more enjoyable! And Mom, I love you!
YES. When I lived in L.A., my mom and I would take walks through the wealthy neighborhoods and take their bulk trash items. Perfectly good stuff that they were tired of but didn’t feel like driving to the Goodwill. I felt like a crazy person for doing it, but we always ended up with some awesome scores.
Also, no need to apologize. a) It’s your blog and you can say whatever you want. b) Lack of sleep is a jerk and makes you feel like a beast. No parent who has been through that would judge you. You are radness and then some.
First, you really don’t need to apologize. I didn’t even consider what you wrote a rant. 🙂
SECOND, I love the ladder! It’s going to be great for the cucumbers. Just a thought.. you might want to add a line of string in between the rungs to help them keep climbing. I’ve seen some really cool trellises built for children to have as little forts when the plants go all crazy. I think the ladder would be perfect for that too!! Good finds!
love your finds. good work, mama.
Happy Mother’s Day, Lauren!! I love reading all your posts — and you can whine 😉 Hope the sleeping is better!
When I was about 11 or 12, I remember picking a friend up for a sleepover (with my mom) and then having to jump out of our van and collect an area rug from someone’s tree lawn … To say I was mortified would be an understatement!
But, today, I totally understand my mom’s reasoning for grabbing that rug. You really can find some nice things in other people’s “garbage” (especially kids’ stuff). I’m jealous of that free water table!! 🙂
I always slow down and circle back whenever I see something curbside. Usually it all looks better from afar but you never know when you’ll make off with a treasure. Very impressive finds you have there! And that hardly qualifies as whining- saying you’re sleepy is allowed! Happy mother’s day.
These are awesome things!! When I was a kid my mom always wanted to go for walks the night before Heavy Trash Day. Hehehe… We always found some interesting things! I haven’t done that in a long, long time, but I’ll admit to recently being captured by the siren song of a couch on the side of the road. (It was orange velour and REALLY funky looking.) Then I realized that any couch left out on the side of the road is probably disgusting, might have bugs, could have been rained on, etc. 🙁 But your finds are pretty much immune to those issues!!
I just LOVE it that you find great treasures! Your Dad and I used to drive all around the Roland Park and Guilford rich and VERY old neighborhoods of northern Baltimore looking for glorious and ecclectic finds. The only problem was, it was hard to stuff large items into his 1975 VW Beatle – but somehow we managed to do it and we had tons of fun and laughs!!!
Happy Mothers Day, Sweet Mama! I love you, too.
Oh, great idea with the string, Julie- I have some leftover jute that should do the trick!
Great finds!
And that wasn’t a rant! Want a rant, just wait until I can finally find time to post again. 🙂
Love those chairs! Free is the best-haha! I have gotten some really great things form freecycle or curbside like you said. So wonderful!
I’ve just found your site, and this post brings back memories of living in New York in the 1960s — we “walked the stairwells” (there were two) in our bulding and almost furnished our apartment that way. Thirty years later, our daughter did the walk-a-dresser down the street and furnished hers. All such fun. Today it would be called recycling. Then, it was just necessity!