When trash really is just TRASH

In this current economy, too often we are seeing families having to leave their homes. This recently happened to a family who lived around the corner from me. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they had to move out almost as quickly as they moved in.

I had noticed that they had left a ton of stuff on the driveway. I asked my other neighbor if she knew why they had left so much stuff and she said that they pretty much left in the middle of the night and that what was left was pretty much up for the taking.....WHAT??

Of course I was trying not to show my excitement. I knew that this was a really sad thing for that family, but for me...someone who loves other people's trash, this was awesome...

I waited for Scott to get home from work and once we had eaten dinner and gotten the kids off to bed, we drove around the corner and "scoped" out the place. I suddenly felt like I should be dressed in all black and have a ski mask on. Anyway, once we looked at what we could see from the truck, we decided that it would be easier to go back home and walk back with the dolly.

Oh my, I was like a kid in a candy store...toys, clothes, furniture, car seats, strollers, exercise equipment, dishes, etc...all just left in the driveway. It took us several trips, but we finally got it all home. Lots and lots of treasures..at least that's what I thought.






In the picture you can see a train table, Treadmill, a couple of benches, a white rocker and several other small little items. OK, so what's the problem your asking?

Let me just tell you first that Scott and I hauled that Treadmill all the way around the corner and it was NOT light. We plugged it in....yep, you guessed it...IT DIDN'T WORK! OK, strike one...

The cute train table I cleaned and hauled into Jackson's room....yep, strike two. It was missing several pieces of track and was way to big for his room! Bummer

The white rocker, well it is still in my backyard on the patio, but when I sat down on it, I immediately got my rear end pinched! There is a huge crack all the way down the seat. Nothing that a cushion cant fix but....this would have been useful info when I was carrying it all over the neighborhood.

Come on...I am starting to realize WHY all this stuff was left on the driveway. It wasn't all in vein though! I did score on a few of the pieces. Remember the benches?


I brought two benches home. One is this smaller one and the other is a bit larger. I had big plans for these beauties. Today, I'm showing the smaller of the two.

First, I washed it (it was pretty nasty) then I sanded it down and used wood filler to fill in some of the gaps and holes. Then I sprayed all the cracks and detail pieces with black semi-gloss spray paint. Then I went over the whole thing again with a gloss paint (I used a paint brush and roller) Once that had dried, I distressed the edges and sealed it with a water based clear sealer. I think it made that nasty, faded, yucky bench look really nice and very "upscale"




So you see....not all trash is going to make a good treasure, some of it actually is TRASH, but if your willing to haul it around your neighborhood. You may find some treasures even among the trash. Thanks for stopping by,

Kris