Curbside Shopping: how I do it, and this week's finds!

I love going to thrift shops and garage sales. Love love love it.

But unfortunately, with one income and a 5 person family (including 2 adults and one seemingly always hungry teenage boy), I often can't even go to them because I'm out of money! (I really need a job. lol)

So if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know my favourite thing to do right now is to do some CURBSIDE shopping instead!!

Our city, Laval, is a big suburb of Montreal, Qc, Canada. Over 350,000 people live here. Every day of the week, it's trash day *somewhere* on the island (Hum, Laval is an island btw, like Montreal). Mondays is my part of the city, with Wednesday being the neighborhood beside us. I sometimes even go on Thursdays to another part of town which isn't too far from us. So, whenever I need a 'fix', I take the car or van and head out for that special kind of shopping.

Today being Monday, it's trash day in my area. I usually go early morning, but last night, I wasn't tired so I decided to go at night instead. From 9:30 til 11:30, I roamed the streets in search of some treasures.


One of you asked if I have a 'routine' route. I don't, really, but I know the area pretty well so I end up going on nearly all streets.

I see all kinds of things. You wouldn't believe the stuff people throw away!! Next time I go during the day, I will bring my camera to show you some of the stuff I see. I only take a small fraction of what I encounter, can you imagine?! If I have no need for it, or if I don't think I can find a place for it, I dont pick it up.

I like that people purposely leave some stuff ON TOP of garbage cans, or even besides them, in the hopes that someone will pick it up and prevent more landfill. (Though if you ask me, they really should learn to bring this stuff to thrift stores and salvation army and the like, but that's another story! Oh well, this way I can keep this curbside shopping addiction! LOL!!!).

I get a 'rush' out of doing this. Kinda like when you know you're doing something 'wrong'. Some could say that it's illegal, but I'm not actually *digging* in the garbage, only picking up things that aren't in cans/bags and that people leave there on purpose. I've often knocked on doors asking for permission. Every time, I get one of these responses:
I don't care
Go ahead!
I'd rather you pick it up than it end up being in the landfill!
I was hoping someone would pick it up!
Need help bringing it in your car?

Not a single negative response. So I don't bother asking much anymore!

It's also funny to see HOW MANY people do the same thing as me! I keep seeing the same cars circling around, picking stuff up! It gets my adrenaline pumping, trying to get to the good stuff before they do! LOL!!
ANd of course there are the METAL RECYCLERS out there that get on my nerves. You can spot them from afar: a pick up truck with tons of metal stuff jampacked in the back. They're not interested in anything other than metal. THey then bring their metal finds to the different metal recycling centers where they get paid a certain amount for a certain weight. I guess it's good, since, once again, it prevents this stuff from going to the dump and it's being recycled. But selfishly, I hate it because I sometimes see them with great wrought iron pieces in their trucks, that I would've enjoyed! *sigh*. But I let it be. (Though I've been REALLY pissed by them in the past: they have gone to the back of my driveway and picked up some stuff that wasn't even for the garbage! I wish I could've caught the bastard who did that a few times (the end of my driveway is nearly where the back of my house ends!!!)

And of course, when I go in the morning, it's always a race against the garbage trucks! bwahaha!! But by now, I know where each of them start so I can usually beat them.

So now that you know all this, it's time for me to show you this week's free finds!!!


And of course, once again, it's all part of Monday's Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality! :)





I picked up these cool dried willow branches! I was stoked! I had bought some similar to this, before, and they had cost over 10$. So getting them from free is awesome!!
And of course I HAD to put 'em in my made-over wicker vase, that I had found in the trash several weeks ago!


A nice resin planter! THere's a little crack in it, but no big deal. I cant wait to buy some flowers for it!

Remember I mentioned that I have a list of things I want to buy or find for free? And that, if I'm patient enough, I will ALWAYS find exactly what I need?!!

One of the things on my list was a step stool. Nothing fancy, just a plastic Rubbermaid stool so that my daughter can step on it to reach the glasses and plates @ our trailer (those cabinets are super high up). Well, here's what I found! I would've settled for any horrible colour (one time, I had a pink one), but I found it in white! It's in perfect condition, and even still has the rubber pieces underneath! my daughter is happy! teehee!!

I want to change my bedside tables (I had done a tile mosaic on mine about 13 years ago, it would be much a hassle to undo it now and it doesnt fit my style and decor anymore). So I'm looking for wooden ones.

I found this one last night. Only one of them, but I dont care. They don't have to match, and I know I'll eventually find another one that is just as nice.

The funny thing is...

This is the SAME DESIGN as our 2 chest of drawers, that belonged to DH as a kid!!! I never would've imagined finding part of the same set!! (But our dressers have been sanded down to the bare wood since, and now I'm wanting to refinish it. So stay tuned for a makover for this in the coming months!)


This cute little metal watering can! (yay, I got to it before the metal recyclers did, LOL!!!). Old, rusty... love it! The bottom has hole because of the rust, but I wasnt planning on using it for water, of course! It'll look good with some plants coming out of the top, dontcha think? Still undecided if I will paint it, but probably not!

This next thing is HUGE and HEAVY and took me forever to fit in my van! This will be sanded and refinished and go on top of my dresser to hold DH and mine's huge collection of books (which is now still in boxes for the most part!!).

This Adooooooorable little thingie!! Each 'square' is big enough to fit a CD case, to give you an idea of the size. (Please pardon the dust! I show you each item AS IS!). No clue where it'll go yet, but I loooooove it!

2 wooden chairs (the one on the right is bamboo)

I plan on finding tons of different wooden chairs, painting them all white, and using them on the porch at the campsite to replace the ugly resin chairs that we have. I also want to replace our resin table with a wooden one (left its wood colour)

And now.... drumrollll.....

Remember THIS blue wicker chair?

Well, I just found its twin!!!
Meet GREEN wicker chair!

Imagine it all spray painted white, cute cushions on the chairs, all resting on my trailer's porch in Vermont. I'll have the cutest little reading area ever!!!!

So, what great thrifty or free finds have you found this week?

BTW, I'm sorry I'm unable to comment on all the posts linked on Rhoda's Mr Linky!! We're redoing our kitchen (the thrifty way of course) and it's taking up a lot of time!! I promise I AM looking at each and every link though!

It's Monday again!!!

And you know what that means?!

It's time for:
:)

And here's my loot for this week!!!

And once again, most are trash day finds! Actually, the ONLY thing I bought here was that wooden CD rack thing (which is on its side, above), bought at a thrift store for 2$.

EVERYTHING ELSE was from curbside trash!

Now let's see these items separately, shall we?

First, found last week curbside, this little wicker table! Apart from one leg which is missing it's wicker 'wrap' at the bottom, it's in perfect condition, just needing some cleaning and fresh paint. It'll go GREAT with this wicker chair I found a couple of weeks ago, see HERE. I plan on bringing both to my summer home (trailer in VT) and put them on our covered deck for a reading area :)

Love the details:

Some handmade wooden planters (I think you know by now that i love wooden boxes ;) )

And old chippy window, woot woot! Yknow I love those but they are quite rare here since my town is fairly recent. I found it in an area of the town that, decades and decades ago, used to be summer cottages! Perfect!!


A closer look at the chippiness :)

The only thing I actually paid something for! A big toonie (that's 2$ in canadian slang ;) ) at a thrift store. It's made of thick and heavy wood and it appears to be a CD rack. I will be cutting the piece of wood at the bottom that makes it stand up, and I'll use it on the wall, horizontally, for.... god knows what! LOL!


And how about THIS?!!! And old sewing table!! Couldnt believe it when I saw it on the sidewalk!!

Missing the sewing machine of course, but I dont intend on using it for sewing anyway (and, I dont even sew LOL!!)

I loooooove how it looks (Sorry it's so blown in the pics, hard to get a pic of it outside!).

I will also be bringing this to the trailer and use it on the deck as a desk for my daughter who loves to draw.

but THIS, below, is actually my favourite find!!

*drooooool*

It's soooo freaking HEAVY!!

It's in perfect condition, just needs some pressure washing and stain, and it'll go... you guessed it, at my summer place! Since we just stained our deck, there, this weekend, it'll look gorgeous!!!

Now go share your junking and thrifting treasures at Rhoda's place!!

Oh, and STAY TUNED for some remodeling again!!
This week, we shall be starting our thrifty remodeling of the KITCHEN!!! WOOHOOOO!!!
I will cover my ugly laminate cabinets with beadboard and trim and crown molding, with new hardware... to start with! Then we will be changing the floor, the counter and adding a backsplash :)

PS- I forgot to mention something else that is in the first picture! That "surf" board! It's fine, except it's missing it's rope. But since we have a pool, we dont need the rope! :)

Before and After #3: Window into wall art

Just a simple transformation this time... and yes I know it's the type of thing you've seen *everywhere* but I love it!!

So, before, this window frame (unfortunately not wood, but plastic)


After:

I added some scrapbook paper in brown, beige and aqua, in behind every rectangle 'window'. Voila! So easy!

I'm not sure I like it 100% hanging horizontally, so I will try it this way for a week, and vertically for a week, and then decide!

Before and After #2: Old toolbox makeover

Remember this old wood tool box that I picked up in the trash a few weeks ago? Probably my most favourite free find EVER!!!

I loved it! But I hated the dark brown paint/stain that was on it, and I didn't like the oil stains either!!

Before:


So I armed myself with sanding paper (didnt want to use a sander for this, because I didnt want to remove everything!!). I sanded away the oil and the paint/stain.... and just LOOK what appeared!!

After: (seriously, click on the pics to see them bigger, it's worth it!!)

Now we can see all the hits the toolbox received from various tools! All those old marks! I cant help but wonder and imagine what the owner dropped and was doing :)

Here it is in my living room... but you really cant see it well here, because there's SO much light coming in from the window!!

Before and After #1: wooden sled turned wall art

Remember this old wood sled i found in the trash?

I cut part of it (because it was too long for what I wanted to do with it), I stained it with Minwax (I was a minwax stain virgin LOL) and this is what it is now:

Isn't it KEWL?!! Even DH loves it :) I like how it's become a conversation piece! But it's not just cute, it's functional! I put some of my new plants (we planted those at the garden center with my daughter's class!) in the curbed part! And the rest holds pictures! (Only one, above, put I've added a couple since)

This was my first time posting on Poppies At Play's Creative Cats Tuesday

Cant wait to check out everybody's stuff!!

Monday's Thrifty Treasures (picture heavy!)

It's Monday again, woot! Time to put my feet up and hang out @ http://southernhospitality-rhoda.blogspot.com/blog and checking out everyone's Monday Thrifty Treasures! Love it!

This post is jampacked with pictures!!

First off, lookie what I found in the TRASH today!! Ok, I'm sorry, the picture is crappy, but you get an idea! The fixture is an ugly dark green, but nothing a lil spray paint cant fix ;)



Also found curbside this week, this wooden window-like mirror! Also painted an horrible colour, but I'll be working on it soon! I just need to figure out WHERE it'll go, first!!



At the same house I found the above mirror, I found this cute little oval table! Ok, another horrible picture, but the contrast was so big between the top and legs that my camera just overexposed the top, over and over again! But you're not missing much, the top is UGLY! But look at the detail on the legs and such!!

Now, I'm SUPER envious of everyone who is able to get old wooden windows. I live in a fairly new city (Laval, just north of Montreal). There just aren't old houses, really! (The city itself is 35 years old... before that, there were a few 'villages'. So it's a new city, really). So, no old windows to be found. I will be on the lookout for some when in Vermont this summer (although I did see some at a garage sale in Vt a few weeks ago. The guy was selling them for a ridiculously high price (i`m talking close to 100$ for a small window!)

So, when I found this curbside, I decided to take it even though it's not wood, but heavy plastic. Ah well, it'll give me the look, I dont care!! Come back later to see the transformation!

Also found on trashday this week... this old wooden crate with 'slots' inside to fit those old soda bottles! So cool, love it! I will be putting plants in it and it'll be on the porch.

I love how I go to garage sales and find exacly what I'm looking for (I have a list of things i want to find). I was looking for a napkin holder for the campsite, because it gets SO windy there and we eat outside all the time! So for a buck, i got myself this cutie:

I dont know what I was thinking when I bought this. I thought it was cute, but now i'm not so sure! It's from Avon. Doesnt fit colour-wise anywhere in my house. lol. But for 25c i went home with it anyway. lol

In my quest to have 'a place for everything and everything in its place', i'm looking for all types of baskets for my closets and even in various rooms. This huge basket was just 2$, woot!

Another thing to cross off my 'to find' list! DH asked me to find a frame to fit a 8x10 photo he wanted to give his parents. Well, I found 2,, for a buck each. DH's parents like that shade of wood, so theirs stayed that colour,while the one i'm keeping for myself will be spray painted of course!

A small lobster cage for 25 cents.

I am in LOOOOOVE with this frame. It's heavy iron/metal and was already painted that colour and perfectly distressed. 2$. I love it! I will take a pic of it with a picture in it- i put a sepia pic of DH and I. :)

Look @ this adorable chippy kiddie stool!!! I am keeping it as is, because I love its distressing, even though I have nothing red in my living room, i like that contrast!!

Here is where I put it, for now :)

I found 2 of these foot stools, covered in brown leather. I want to repaint the legs, but will keep the brown leather since it matches my decor. I put this one next to the front door: the kids sit on it to put their shoes on :)

On this one wall in my living room, I had just that mirror. I've been looking for wrought iron candle holders for either side, and found these for 2$ each. Love them!!
Of course, the wall is still plain, and I'm on the lookout for more wrought iron pretties to put above the mirror... i'll come upon it eventually!

Not decorating-related, but still a total SCORE!

Went to a garage sale and found this box of huge transformers. My middle son got this at Christmas, and the original price was 50$ at Costco!!! Well, I got it (it's BRAND NEW) for 12$!!!! So my son will be giving it to his best buddy for his birthday this month! Woot!

Another thing to cross off my list of things to find! I was looking for pots for my indoor plants, they all need new bigger pots. Found these on trash day! The colours are horrendous, aren't they? But there is a lot of 3D details on all the smaller pots! I already spray painted these black :)