Most people probably wouldn't admit this, but I'm not proud. I used to pick through other people's offerings at the curb, and along with weekly browsing at the thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales, furnished my first home, sometimes with remarkable objects. I once found a lovely framed oil painting of a fishing boat. It's truly amazing what was being let go of in the early sixties. It was a fabulous cast off world out there.
I liken it to the Oregon trail, being just slightly behind all the other folks going West, and having a big empty wagon to fill up. A person would be able to pick up whatever the people on ahead weren't able to haul any farther. This was way WAY before the so called shabby chic business ever was a concept. This was survival with style, grace and aplomb. Most of the people I knew did it because we sure didn't have enough money in those days. Money is an M word. It's hopefully not THE most important M word, but it's really hard to get by without enough of it. But, that's a story for another time.
I can remember when my mother used to take us to the dump and paid $1.00 to get in. Sounds weird, but back then...things were sorted as in food and real garbage over there......furniture, toys, appliances, fun stuff over here.
ReplyDeleteIt was all pretty clean too because it was rescued by the workers before it could be damaged. It was good stuff and so much fun to hunt for treasures.
What a way to keep your kids busy for an afternoon, huh? Good times, good times....LOL!
Anyway, that lead me to love thrift shops, yard sales, flea markets and bartering as much as I do today.
Well, we all have to find ways to cut back so we can spend on the really important things in life like yarn, right? :-)
I never went dumpster diving, but was certainly the garage sale queen when the kids were growing up. The bohemian look was in and as long as you had a room full of plants and macrame hangers and wall art it didn't take much money to decorate! All that stinky, dusty jute twine - yuck. I don't think my hands have ever recovered!
ReplyDeletethere is a word for recylcing street stuff.. MONGO.
ReplyDeletein cities (NYC, for sure and others) there are web sites that let you know when 'bulk delivery' day is (bulk delivery come a few hours before the sanitation department make 'bulk pick up!)
once in the NYTimes Metro diary, a couple wrote about seeing a cello in a dumpster (they were in evening clothes, on their way home from carnegie hall) and husband went dumpter diving, got cello, bow and case..)
my first apartment was largely furnished by mongo, and now years latter, i have still pick up mongo..
(my coffee table is mongo, so are livingroom lamps (2) and i have a set of 6 wooden snack tables (all mongo)
Oh yes, Trish, I remember those days when the dumps were privately owned and operated. It was a lot of fun for a kid to go there with a parent to off load things and trade up, or at least laterally. =o) I got some of my bicycles that way. My "fish story" the one that got away thing, is of a very big cedar lined hope chest that DH wouldn't let me rescue. He hasn't got a lot of imagination in Home Dec. heehee. I'm still very strong on recycling, but not the greenware, that is going to be tossed or melted down for use in other things. I'm in a mood to pitch things. Yes, more money and more room for the yarn and needles!
ReplyDeleteWabbitmom, I'm not a dumpster diver anymore but those were part of the good old days, so they were. Garage sales were lovely ways to find things, and then the after sales free box, too. I embarrassed DH by being this way, but heck I didn't care. Stodgy fellow! Also I still have some macrame hangers around, maybe you saw them.. I love those little things. Nautical you know? hehe. We had a 6 by 8.5 foot room divider in the dining room, when it was the living room, and it was hung out from the wall, a ways from the end of the entry inside the front door. That was fun to make. Ah, the good old days.
Mongo! Love it oftroy! Bulk Delivery sites remind me of something called IDOC (in danger of collapse) houses in a game I play. We can all tell when a house is going to collapse, almost to the minute, and gather around like little vultures with our rideable beetles so we can grab stuff before anyone else does. Lol. So fun! That cello in the case is amazing! I wonder if it was pinched somewhere first though? :o\ And grats on your Mongo!
Most of my lamps are Mongo, as in second hand or rescues. Two brass lamps from a dump came to me black with tarnish. Now they are restrung and beautiful. Tables, too. I really can't imagine furnishing anything "unstuffed" any other way. It's so much more fun doing the second hand or free stuff along the "trading routes".