The Things Some People Throw Away!

I could also have called this post several other things:

One man's trash is another woman's treasure
Why don't people donate their stuff?
Lazy people
I hit the jackpot
Free treasures...and on and on

Anyway, I HAVE hit the jackpot while taking my trash to the recycle center. Saturday somebody had left a box of dishes and an adorable little spice rack in the furniture bin. I snatched them all up for other uses. Some of the mismatched plates are now the beginning of a cute border around one of my flower beds. I took the rest of the dishes (a complete set!) to the thrift shop today.

The little spice rack is adorable, but was an ugly blue. All the bottles were in tact and at first I was going to leave them but remembered somebody posting about using old spice bottles to keep their beads in, so have kept all of them. A little black spray paint and soap and water has given me a new place for some of my beads.

Now today when I was taking more trash down the road, a man had just left several pieces of furniture. It drives me crazy that people are too lazy to donate these perfectly good items to the thrift shops. There was a sofa - not even dirty - but there was no way I could take that to the thrift shop in my little CRV. He also left a brand new looking plastic child's rocking chair, which I took to the thrift shop as well. I mean really people - there are lots of needy people around here who would love these things!! These are all "before" pictures; I'll post the "after" pictures another time.


But I did take a perfectly good wicker night stand, which matches my daughter's bedroom dresser perfectly!! It was barely even dirty, but I wiped it down with bleach water and gave it another coat of white spray paint. I'll put some nice liner in the drawers to cover up some stains that I couldn't get cleaned.

Along with the wicker nightstand was one of those arched shelving units without the shelves. I thought, what the heck - I can use it for a trellis this summer for a lightweight, annual vine. It will hold up for a year anyway. It's a little narrow to use as an arbor but that's what I'm using it for now; I might move it though. My poor makeshift walk - a project I've been wanting to redo for years. Every year I say I'm going to make a proper walkway, and I haven't managed to get it done yet.


He had also thrown away a five tiered corner shelf unit. It's kind of cheap but once again some bleach water and a can of spray paint gave me a new little area to keep some of my stuff in. It fits perfectly in the only empty corner of my computer/craft room. I'm very pleased with it.

So not only did I take things to the thrift shop for other people to buy and got some nice treasures for myself, I spared the landfills from more stuff that shouldn't even be put in there in the first place!!!!!

It was such a beautiful day that I stayed out all day cleaning chicken feeders and waterers, filling the geese's pools with fresh water and doing some general yard clean up and transplanting. My goodness, the birds are all staking out their trees to build nests in and singing up a storm. It won't be long now before they have their little nests built with eggs layed in them.

I'm pooped (so out of shape) and am going to take my shower and then work on a sewing project for a while before going to bed. I hope everybody had a nice day today. I sure did!