Wasteful Wednesday - Don't be Trashy

My house has the best location if you ever want to get rid of stuff.  I don't mean dead bodies or illegal drugs (that was the people who lived here before us).  I'm talking about still usable but unwanted things.  We live on the Autobahn main street of our subdivision and you have to drive by our house to get to the main roads, so sometimes it takes only a matter of minutes for someone to pick up and haul away whatever gem I have decided to display with a "FREE" sign taped to it.  I like knowing that I am not contributing to the landfill but I also know how stoked I get when I see something awesome out for the taking.  That is why I love early Wednesday mornings (I am also a big fan of Garage Sales - more on that another time).

In our neighborhood, Wednesday is Trash Day.  The glorious day where everyone drags their weekly accumulation of post-consumer waste to the end of the driveway so that the nice men in the big green truck can come take it away to garbage heaven the trash dump.  It's also the day that I drive around early in the morning like some weirdo lurker in my 20-year-old Suburban to see what is up for the offering. It literally amazes me what people throw away.  I really feel that most of the time, it's because they are just too damn lazy to figure out another use for a perfectly good item - or to write FREE on a piece of paper and slap some tape on it.  And I am not judging (OK, maybe a little) but the further you go into our sub, the bigger the houses get.  I find that the people who live in these 3000sq.ft. houses are the people who are throwing out the craziest stuff.  Can you say WASTEFUL? 

Before I go any further, let me just say that I am not a Hoarder.  I will never BE a Hoarder, I do not condone Hoarding.   However, I do occasionally watch Hoarders and all it does is make me want to clean my house, which I already have a compelling desire to do pretty much every waking moment.  I live in an 825sq.ft. house - along with my husband, our 2 and 4 year old boys and our dog. There is no room for any extra STUFF - so if something is coming home, it better have an intended purpose.  A place for everything and everything in its place.

I have scored a practically new outdoor Rubbermaid storage cabinet, a sweet Powerwheels dune buggy, end tables, shelving units, and so much more.  Most of it requires a pretty good cleaning, sometimes I modify things (I am not afraid of power tools) and I usually end up throwing a coat of paint on it just for good measure (and decor purposes - I'm matchy matchy, you know). 

I get my kids involved - they drive around with me and get super excited when they see big piles of trash.  I am trying to use this as a tool to teach them that recycling things is the way it should be.  If you have a need for something, look around and you will probably see an item that will fill that purpose.  Not everything works this way and it takes thinking outside the box, but it's pretty cool to have someone comment on your one-of-a-kind retro orange end tables and be able to reply, "Thanks! I got them out of some one's garbage!".

I will be posting my Wasteful Wednesday finds here so you can all marvel at my awesomeness - or how ridiculous my neighbors are.  Either way, should be fun.

Oh, and there was nothing good in the trash this week. Sadness.

cheers!
A★