Trash Picking - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle At It's Very Best

     I took a few days off from blogging to work on some other projects that desperately needed doing.  I finally sat down and made the curtains for the boys's room I had been sitting on for about three years.  I am slowly cleaning out drawers and closets and corners and toy boxes.  I spent some time on my current manuscript project and I actually put in a few hours on my summer curriculum writing job.  I am throwing a bridal shower at my house on Monday- my baby sister is getting married (!)- and so I am attempting to make the shabby furniture more like shabby chic and finding ways to dress up an otherwise pretty standard middle class home.
    We are big recylcers around here.  My husband and the boys save aluminum in a big gray tub to turn in to the aluminum factory and now a days we have way more stuff in the big blue barrel than the big brown one.  The majorty of our furniture has been plucked out of someone'e refuse or taken from people looking to get rid of something they consider useless.  The only rule I have is that I will not take anything that has fabric or cushions- too many issues these days with bedbugs and other little lovelies.  However, if its a good piece of wood anything, it's mine!
   Lucky for us we were fortunate enough to move into a neighborhood full of trash pickers just like us! It's like a sport around here.  If you see something you like, you better move fast or it will be gone!  My most recent acquisitions were a large cast iron skillet and a wood quilt rack.  My husband has come home with wood for projects, tools and a host of other guy stuff,  Just yesterday my neighbor was telling me how she has been scouring trash for an old screen to fix the screening in her door.  Like a good recycling neighbor, I gave her the piece from my screen door that was torn on the bottom half and she put the rest of it to good use!
    I am not what one would called a "tree hugger" or an "earthy crunchy" or any of the other derogatory names out there for people who just really believe in their cause.  I am by all accounts frugal- and often extremely cheap- but my reasons for rescuing the gently used and previously loved come from somewhere else.  I have always been able to look at something- an old house, a scratched piece of furniture- and see it for what it could be not as what it is.  I love to imagine all the things I could do to make the house or furniture or piece of fabric or whatever beautiful again.  I attribute this to my dad and the many hours I spent working with him on his side remodelling jobs.  He saw beauty and promise in old things and had a vision that was even more beautiful when it came to fruition. Now, I unfortunately am often hampered by my budget and not every dream is realized but I do what I can.
   When we first moved to VA, we looked at this house that we fell in love with instantly.  It was well over a hundred years old, had a "historic" designation and was slated for demolition if someone didn't buy it soon.  We have these companies down here that will buy up properties from people just looking to get rid of them usually way below market value.  This home was owned by one such company.
    Now let me be completely honest- the place was a wreck overall.  It was the mother of all projects.  But it had so many beautiful pieces of architecture and capentry in it that all the two of us could see was the restored beauty just waiting to be resurrected.  We wanted that house so badly!
    By the time we had finished touring it, we had all the plans made- what we could do ourselves, what needed to be contracted out and we were literally salivating.
    An inspector told us what needed doing and it pretty much matched with what we already knew so we were ready to go. 
   Until the company selling it decided that they could take us for a ride.
   No matter how we negotiated with them, they wouldn't work with us on a price.  They had a rediculous number in their head and they would rather knock the place down then sell it to us for what it was really worth.
    To this day- seven years later- I am still broken hearted over it.  We sometimes still drive by the lot and sit in the car and bemoan the loss of a small piece of history.  As of our last visit the land sat empty and unsold.
    We live in a day and age of glitz and glamour.  Talk of new houses, new cars, new televisions, new toys is rampant.  Why buy a "used" house when you can build a big, shiny new one?  Used cars have too many "problems" and who doesn't have a flat screen TV these days?  (We don't, just so you know!) 
    What if we felt this way about people?  Old, used ones go out with the weekly trash?  Or do we just recylce them for use later on?
    Our resources are finite.  Once the oil is gone, its gone.  Unless more trees are planted than are harvested, they too will be gone.  Our ancestors understood this.  They took only what they needed from the Earth to survive and they never wasted anything.  Ever heard of a 19th century trash dump? 
    Today I challenge you all to join me and my wonderful neighbors in the sport of trash picking.  Find one item somewhere that is destined for the trash and breathe new life into it.  A coat of paint, a layer of polish and you might be very surprised at the beauty just waiting to be discovered. You won't be disappointed.