The end of 2014

Well the end of the year is almost here and looking back, it's been a great adventure. I have had so much fun doing this! I still can't believe the amount of stuff I've managed to save from the landfill, and the amount of perfectly good items that people have thrown out. I have also met many cool people this year while doing this...people who helped me sort through the things they were throwing out, people who helped me when I had car trouble, people that just gave a friendly smile or wave, and people who who were also doing the same thing I have been doing. I'm hoping the new year brings many new finds and many new friends :)

So let's take a look at some of the finds that finished up the year...

A bag full of Halloween decorations, some still unused..

and a bag full of clothing

This vintage chair. At first I wasn't sure about grabbing it.. it's solid, but the varnish has worn away a bit in places. However, when I looked underneath it with my flashlight, I saw an older makers mark for a company called Krug, and a small metal plaque saying it belonged to The Bell Telephone Company of Canada. The chair company still exists today, and still makes chairs, so I have emailed them asking some questions about the chairs history. Hopefully I hear something back soon!

This picnic basket sat on a pile with a tag still hanging from it.

Yup, completely unused.

A Radio Shack remote control truck. Taking a look online, these were really well made and rather expensive. It's missing a rechargeable battery, but that can be ordered online as well.

A painting. Perhaps it wasn't someones taste, but it was professionally framed, so the frame itself was probably rather expensive.

A beautiful little entry table

 A big box that was full of complete games.

 An over the door basket ball game with a ball return chute. It has a small break on the grey square on the left as if something busted through it, but a little glue and a clamp and it's good as new. My kids love it.

Nice leather and suede purses, shoes and bags

2 working baby toys (I didn't even need to put new batteries in) that my youngest enjoyed for awhile until they went to the second hand store .

At this pile, it looked like someone decided to give up on their wine making hobby.  Looking back at this picture, I realize I never checked what was in those big boxes. D'oh!

I don't really know anything about wine making, so I wasn't sure if any of the stuff had any "value", but I did grab this corker as I'm sure it could be a quick sell.

 I also found this DVD player with a dvd of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, and a disk of The Chronicles of Narnia without a case. There were also various gospel and jazz CD's

This ObusForme heat and massaging cushion is going to make my garbage runs much more comfortable in the future! It felt a little odd at first, the heat made me feel like I was peeing in my pants! LOL But the massaging part is great, especially on my lower back. It currently sells at Canadian Tire for $89.99

The following jackets were just gorgeous, but unfortunately a size too small for me. They went to the second hand store and I'm sure someone will be very happy with them.

 3 laundry baskets filled with more clothes...

 

Including this beautiful holiday dress 

And this pristine baby snowsuit

This bag of throw pillows were in great condition so they went right to the second hand store as well

Mr. Pumpkin also went to the second hand store, but I'll be keeping the decorative vines for a future crafty project.

This Litter Maid system was sitting at the curb still in the box...

As you can see, there is still a zip tie through the plug, it's never been used, but it was deemed garbage. I don't get it.

Sorting through more of the loose stuff, I found...

A few household items, including 9 pairs of scissors

Lots of kids toys including books, Lego, and a little electronic Leap Frog toy.

Odder items were these bongos and a vintage french bible from Belgium printed in 1957 in a leather case.

There was lots of crafty fun stuff, a giant seek and find book, scrap book papers, googly eyes, sparkles, and even Akon and Beyonce  CDs

A few make-up bags -one was full of unused sample sized products, some full sized shampoos and other hair care products, a silk tie, kerchief and cuff link set, 32 (!) hairbands, unopened soaps and a cherry coke lip gloss, and what looks like a paintball mask.

These beautiful men's hockey skates that didn't even look like they've been used

And tonnes of jewellery. Most of it was costume...

But amongst it all was a gold bracelet, and several .925 silver items

 This giant Stewie sat on top of someones garbage can waiting to be adopted..

 Another awesome suitcase thrown away for no reason. The tag translates to "No, it's not yours!"

I stopped at a farm house where they had a bunch of feed bags at the curb that looked like they had some interesting bulk and shape to them. They were unfortunately tied up with twine, and the bags are impossible to rip even a small hole to peek into. I managed to stand there and untie one bag and spotted a Barbie camper inside, so decided that the other bags were worth a gamble and I threw them all into my car to cut open at home.

Inside I found some missing pieces from the camper that I snapped back on, Barbies corvette and an old Barbie lunch box. The sticker on the outside was pretty damaged, but everything inside was fine. I brought the camper and car to the second hand store, and then threw the lunchbox in there as well in case someone wanted it for nostalgia sake.

 Inside the other bags I found a really heavy glass blender attachment, 3 cans of unused coloured hairspray, an unused car cup holder ashtray (I guess they weren't smokers and took it out when they bought their car), a very vintage make-up mirror and case, a soap/bath set, vintage glass canning jar lids, a decorative hanging corn bouquet, a small change purse, a pool cleaning kit still in the package and an old Kodak camera set.

There was also a box of these absolutely adorable vintage paper dolls

These metal decorative baskets sat on an old discarded chair at one curb

At another curb I found a box full of dish type items...3 different serving/snack trays, some Christmas themed place mats (and a plain wreath), a set of 4 glass tumblers, 2 wine glasses, and several bowls. The stack of 8 bowls on the left are Corningware, and on a recent trip to Wal-mart, I spotted them sold there at $3.98 each.

Another box contained a bunch of Christmas decorations that I brought to the second hand store, but I saved this old vintage Christmas wreath for myself :)

An espresso machine. It works, so I'm going to have to figure out how to use it or try to find a manual online.

This pendant has a makers mark on the back but it doesn't say it's silver. The front has some greenish tarnish on it so I'm not sure what the metal could be. I don't think it would have a makers mark if it was just some crappy junk jewellery.

This fan looked in perfect condition, so I took a chance in grabbing it as one of our fans is on it's last legs. When I got it home, I found the reason why it was thrown out...the pull chain was broken/missing. Since I'm a bit of a Miss Fix-It, I rummaged around in my husband's work shop, found another piece of chain the same size, opened up the fan, replaced it and...it worked! This fan is amazing, it's really heavy so you can tell it's good quality, there are 3 speeds to it, and speed 3 is practically tornado-like wind! It's going to be awesome having it for the hot summers!

I spotted this giant play kitchen at the curb in the afternoon while doing some shopping, but I had my kids with me so it wouldn't fit in my car. I went by later that night and it was amazingly still there. This time I was able to put my seats down to fit it in. These kitchens sell for over $150 new, so I'm sure I'd be able to sell it quickly if I put a good low price on it.

Here was all the stuff I left at the second hand store. There are a few things in this pile I never got pictures of... a few baby toys, a Winnie the pooh kids table that just needed some paint cleaned off with a magic eraser sponge, and an old vintage telephone table.

To end this post, I'm going to show you one of my favourite finds of the year that I haven't posted about yet. A few months ago, I passed by a pile that looked interesting. I went up a few houses and found a good driveway to pull into so that I could turn around to check it out. As I pulled in, I noticed this houses garbage can lid was propped up by something inside. It looked to be the top of a lamp of some kind, and since at the time I was looking for an older vintage lamp for our living room reno, I decided to quickly hop out of the car to check it out.

I ended up pulling out a vintage rain lamp that was popular in the 1960's & 70's. It was pretty dirty, everything had a good coating of brown grease on it, but once I brought it home, I got to work on cleaning it up. I removed everything I could and soaked it in Dawn dish washing detergent. Everything on it worked except the pump. I was really bummed about it, but a few days later my parents came to visit, and my Dad had a look at it. He brought it home, took it apart, cleaned it up and got it working again! Thanks, Pop! I get my tinkering and fix-it abilities from him :) I got the pump back home and installed, my husband got a new piece of flexible piping for it from work, we put it back together, turned it on, and it worked! I filled it with mineral oil and hung it up in the shower for a test run and it rained!

I now have it proudly hanging up in my living room, it's such a cool piece. Everyone who sees it comments on how neat it is. Incredibly, these vintage lamps are worth well over $100! From the road, I never would have noticed it, it was just such a serendipitous find :)

If you have made it this far down, I wish you all an amazing new year with lots of cool finds and treasures of your own. See you again in 2015!

Bling

I was thinking that as the winter came in it might be harder to make my runs. I did miss 2 nights in a row because of a snow/wind storm, but the weather warmed back up, the snow melted and I haven't had to deal with anything too nasty since. I love a white Christmas, but after that, I wouldn't mind at all if the snow were to melt again.

This time of the year also gets really busy for me with birthdays, baking, shopping, and volunteer work with the school on top of all of the usual Christmas stuff. We still have renos thrown into the mix as well, so I haven't kept up with the blog and picture taking as well as I usually have. Some of the stuff I found in the last few weeks got donated before I even got around to taking pictures of it.

So let's get to the good stuff, here is what I managed to pick up in the last few weeks...

I had to go through a town that I always check out the night before large garbage day, during the day a few weeks ago. On the way back home, I decided to drive around and see if anyone had decided to put out their stuff out early. Indeed some did! I found a few good piles already waiting at the curb.

 It was a nice sunny day, so finding stuff was a lot easier than doing it in the dark. I managed to find one box full of pictures frames and a needle point, some books and a 300G external hard drive. I didn't manage to get pictures of those before I donated them unfortunately.  I also picked up this like new wheeled carry on bag. It's in perfect condition, I have no idea why someone would just throw it out, but I will be using it from now on when we do over night trips :)

There was also another place I stopped at that had a bunch of furniture sitting at the curb. There was an entertainment unit, an armoire, a rolled up "persian" rug, small tables and this chair. I knew my mom was looking for a new chair, so I throughly looked it over, didn't find even a single crumb or speck under the cushions, gave it the sniff test and then popped it into my car. That pretty much took up all the room, so I headed back home to unload and get ready to go back that night.

That night I picked up a 12 glass panel real cedar wood door, which made the car smell great for the rest of the night, and a rod hockey game table. I don't have pics of those either, but the table looks like this one I found on Kijiji...

 
We're going to set it up in the loft of our barn for the kids to play with. It is just missing 2 goalies and the pucks, which I can order online for about $15 total. Seems like a pretty good investment for a table that I found selling on Kijiji for between $50 - $150.

Next up was a massive pile that just about sprawled right across someones front lawn. This looked to be a move out pile. I went to stop, but someone was behind me, so I chickened out. I looped around checking out the rest of the neighbourhood, and as I swung by again slowing down intending to stop, I noticed the neighbour was out doing something in the driveway at their car. I cursed and kept going once again. I was going to give up and just keep going on, but the pile was just too promising to not check out.

I looped around one last time and this time stopped. I hopped out quickly and took a quick peek. The first thing I saw was a box full of kitchen counter appliances...electric can opener, a toaster,  and a food processor. I peeked into a few bags and saw all kinds of good knicknacks, so I popped open my side doors and started sorting and loading.

In the middle of it all it started to rain. I think I spent at least an hour on this pile sorting and loading, and by the time I got back into the car I was soaked. Thankfully it wasn't that cold, but I cranked up my heat anyways and made my way back home with a full car.

Here is a look at the pile of stuff I brought into the house...

 

Amongst all that stuff was...

2 led decorative trees still in their, somewhat crappy, boxes

Womens skates. They were still boxed, but by that point the box was a soggy mess, so I left it behind.

  A brand new looking hair iron

 

Clothing galore, I managed to fill a whole duffle bag (that I also picked up in the pile) full to the point of bursting.

A bunch of magazines that will go to a doctors office waiting room

 

 

A nice decorative plate

An african mask collection from Avon still in the box

Amongst a box full of knicknacks like key chairs, picture frames, office supplies etc... that I ended up donating, I found this large trinket box

This Villeroy & Bosh rabbit was also in the pile. It felt really heavy and well made, enough that it made me research it online. I found a seller on ebay who listed one as a vintage antique. Out of curiosity, I emailed him to ask if he knew how old the box was, or what year it was made. He told me he wasn't exactly sure of the year but it was made in the early 1900's! Wow, I didn't expect that! It's become another one of my favourite finds and I can't wait for my renos to be done so I can display it properly.

The best surprise came the next morning. As I walked with my kids to the bus stop, I put my hands in my pocket and felt something. I remembered the night before when I was loading up a box full of stuff, this tiny trinket box fell out onto the ground. I thought it was cute, so I quickly grabbed it and put it in my pocket. 

 

I totally forgot about it until I pulled it out that morning. "Oh ya, that cute box...I wonder what's inside" I thought. I popped it open and was greeted with this sight...

In addition to a few small mismatched gold and silver earrings, I found two 10k gold rings, a 14k gold bracelet, a 10k gold cross pendant, and a .925 silver necklace with a pendant. There was also a single real gold earring with what I'm really hoping is a genuine solitaire diamond in it.

Who throws this stuff out??

The next night was large garbage night in another town. Another night, another car full of goodies...

 

As you can see I found another abandoned Christmas tree. I set it up at home and it was beautiful, huge, and fluffy.  I ended up selling this one online for $50 not long after I took the picture.

I also managed to pick up many more picture frames, table cloths, place mats, tie-on chair cushions, throw pillows, candle holders and wall decorations from a place that looked like it was putting grandma in a home. Many of the picture frames contained pictures of the grandchildren :(

From other various piles I picked up...

An art/marker set which was unused, but missing 2 markers, so I put it in the donate box.

2 3D wolf posters

A bunch of misc items like a clamp light, a bag full of tea light candles, extension cords, some aquarium decorations (some still in their boxes), and a framed print

A bag full of craft stuff like fabric, paints, embellishments (mostly Christmas related stuff), shells, beads, and jewellery making supplies that also went in the donate box...

and this little garden statue with a face that will haunt my nightmares *shudder*

Amongst a bunch of baby items at another stop was this ugly purse which also got donated

and this vacuum which has kept my 2 year old busy for days, so it's staying :P

I also found this day bed at the curb which I went back for the next day and quickly sold online for $45

Another night, another town...I passed this chair and immediately turned around to grab it. When I was a kid, my parents always dragged my brother and I along to their weekend card nights at their friends house. This family had a kitchen chair just like this, and for some reason I used to love it. I loved sitting on it and playing with the flip out steps. Ya, I was a weird kid I guess! I have always kept an eye out for one to buy, but never found one. Finding one for free that I'll be able to restore myself is just that much better of a treat :) It's in rough shape now, but it will be easy to fix up with a new paint and upholstery job. Spring project for next year!

The next pile looked like another move out. They had put everything out in a massive white bag about the size of a refrigerator box. It was ducked taped closed on the side but had already started to fall open and the stuff inside is what caught my eye. I'm not even sure how they even expected the garbage men to lift it. I pretty much cleaned out the whole thing though LOL

Inside I pulled out...

Lots of kids toys, including a Leap Pad reader, some breast feeding pads, a stroller cover, lots of stickers, a stack of cardboard letter templates, sunglasses, and a baggie full of huggies points which I happen to collect :)

Lots of books...I'm reading the one in the top left corner right now :)

Lots of clothes as usual...

Including these control top undies with the tag still on them, an awesome Nevada lined jean jacket, a snowsuit (which I already sold for $18), a home made leopard costume, and a Coca-Cola Olympics jacket which might be a collectors item, so I'll have to do some reseach on it.

Shoes

4 unopened rolls of wallpaper borders, a decorative basket, various toiletries, a light up Tigger pen, Drawer pulls, recipe folder, unopened electronic cords, and a bag chock full of samples like antacids, chocolates, laundry detergents, hand creams, make-up, perfumes, etc..I was in heaven going through that bag let me tell ya!

 In the above pic you can see this Lowepro camera bag

and in this pile I also found one of the weirdest and funniest things I have found so far...

GRILLZ!

2 sets of unused bling for your teeth! Hilarious! 

Amazingly, in 3 of the piles I went through, people threw out money. Sure, it's not big bills, but it's money regardless. Here is what each pile contained..

Pile #1 - .99 cents

Pile #2 - $1.26

Pile # 3 - .51 Cdn & $1.16 US

In total about $3.92 cents. Now if I am finding almost $4 in just 3 piles out of hundreds, how many more piles had money in them? How many more people are throwing out money every week? How much money do you think is actually sitting at the dump if there was some way to go through it all? Crazy isn't it?