Junk Overload

One of the most common questions I get being in this crazy business is, "Where do you get all your stuff?". My answer..."Anywhere and Everywhere." This time of year has me swimming in junk. It's coming at me faster than I can deal with it! But it's all good, because if I can find a place for it to rest around here (which is the biggest challenge), I can eventually give it a makeover and bring it to the store!

I've gone junking at curbside clean-up days for the last two fridays. I grab the empty trailer, some snacks, make sure I've got tools and some wet wipes...and head for the neighborhood with piles on the lawn.

The first day was glorious. Beautiful sunshine warmed my face through my car window as I checked out the piles. I enjoyed the magnolia trees, the azaleas and the rhododendrums in this established neighborhood. 

Since I was solo and can't back the trailer, I'm always a little nervous about getting myself into a sticky situation...

So I always make sure to do my hair and put on make-up lest I need to play a "damsel-in-distress" role. Because there's always that great find that I can't quite lift into the trailer. Luckily, when I found the amazing daybed in the trailer pic., above, a fellow female junker and her mom helped me lift the heavy sucker into my trailer!

These curbside junking days are kind of a party, so-to-speak. As I asked them to smile for the camera while they converged on a pile of junk, the youngest member of this group proclaimed they had sleeping babies in their vehicle, and she had come all the way from Fargo, ND for this treat!

I got my own party the next week when some of our good friends joined me for the adventure. I was a little more at ease knowing someone could back the trailer lest I get in a sticky situation. The drippy weather was lest than perfect, but I filled the trailer nonetheless. It was like I had my own crew of extra muscles! I introduced them to junking, they introduced me to Chick-fil-a for lunch! They went home with a couple items in their truck...and a new hobby=)

Thanks, friends...it was a blast!!

Unfortunately when the weather report is rainy, folks sometimes wait to put the "good stuff" out until later, but I'm always able to find something...

The friends helped me load these two cuties, right as the nice gentleman was pulling them out from his garage. The "sold" sign on his house let me know these pieces were not apart of his future plans.

  

And springtime is always a great time to find garden architecture that's past it's prime outside, but ready to be re-purposed as decor inside!

Of course, some items just shouldn't be re-purposed...anywhere.

His...and hers!

Two days, two trailer and two van loads...and I can really pack it in! Here's the teasers of what you'll find in the store in the next months. Course, you won't recognize most of them once I've given them their makeovers!

  

  

And to add to all these finds, my cousin sent a desk my way, I picked up a vanity from a friend who was cleaning out her father-in-law's house, and my sister-in-law sent me a pic from a garage sale where she scored a whole bunch of chrome for me...

Thankfully, my mom graciously scrubbed all these cuties in the driveway with me while we got our arms tan! 

And then there's that dresser I picked up on the side of the road on the way back from picking up Mr. Freckles from track practice...

I've got Junk Overload!!!

Comments

[Cheryl Jarl]

Nice loads, love those cute little picket fences.

[Ginene Nagel]

Fabulous haul and lots of fun, I bet. The mid-century modern furniture was a real score. Hope you get to practicing backing up in a parking lot. You can't let that stand in your way!

[Lora Bloomquist]

Ginene,
It was kind of a mid-century couple of days! I call it the "new vintage" look:) I should make a date with the trailer & a parking lot & just bang it out sometime!