Repurposing

 

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

A new word I made up for Dumpster Diving and it actually sounds like a job description you might actually see in the want ads actually is “Recreational Repurposing”.

So it’s time for one of the features that everyone loves I am trying to do one every week….it’s our latest dumpster diving adventure!  We have found more treasure…..or at least some items that we will either use or possibly resell at a yard sale.

Either way it’s taking someone else’s trash and repurposing it.

These are our latest finds!  Trust me I couldn’t even make some of this stuff up!  If any of our posts are going to start “trash talk” this would be the one 😉

Yes the first item is a “Cat Trainer” that teaches your cat to be toilet trained it’s called “The Litter Kwitter” and YES It’s brand new in the box….we might have to have a giveaway for this one!  I have never seen this item before so it was funny to me!  However it really sells for about $49.95 at Amazon…however my husband says it’s missing the instructional DVD that’s probably where all the magic happens 😉

The next item is a backpack that is in great shape however a little too small for my son so I will most likely be donating this item.

 

The towels shown below are Christmas Towels by Martha Stewart probably sold at Kmart with tags still on and are in mint condition!

 

The next item is a sport picture frame……this would be a great item to get out of the original box and perhaps share as a gift with someone who has a child that plays basketball.

The next item is a 9 foot speed jump rope in great condition never used or hardly ever used.  My son will definitely be using this with his training for his football camps this year.

The last item of this post is a Pearl Vodka Shaker which I am snagging up myself to make coffee drinks!  I love making my own Copy Cat Coffee drinks in the summer I will have to share my recipes with you!

Thanks to all of you for stopping in!

 

Goodnight! Ya’ll!

 

Vintage/Antique Jugs That We have Used To

Decorate Our Porch In Rustic Fashion

This is becoming one of our favorite features because it’s always amazing to us all of the items and I mean really good items that people discard in the dumpster. So many of these items would be better used donated to local thrift shops and charities which is what we do if we cannot find a use for the items. Obviously we can’t keep everything but when we have a use for the items we do!   Here are some of our latest freebies!

The next item is a laundry basket in mint condition.  

Perfect to use on Wash Day!

The next item is a rain suit.  My husband “The Viking” in my life

has been looking for one for when he has to work

on projects out in the rain.   Great savings!

The last item is my very favorite find and it graced our Thanksgiving Table a beautiful fall  tablecloth.  Not one stain, rip or tear….It’s just lovely!  You know how I feel about making your homestead your hobby!

In this economy many folks have had to learn to be frugal and resourceful and even with all of our efforts my husband and I still struggle at times.  For us it has not been a transition or a change in the fact that we have always been frugal but we have taken it to new levels. However I do know our frugality and resourcefulness is probably why our children have gotten to go on some fabulous vacations and why we all can can carry smart phones and watch cable which I have already told you are some of my luxury addictions I am not ready to give up just yet.  Although I have gone five years without a pay raise if this continues we may have to start saying goodbye to some of them.  The good news is by finding the freebies, making homemade laundry soap, eating mostly at home you can offset many expenses.  The bad news is utility bills are on the rise and so is gas.  We need to save money where we can.

Hope you enjoyed our latest freebies and remember a good “Dumpster Diver” never reveals their sources!

 

 

Not Pig Pickin’ time either……I haven’t been posting as much lately I guess I am overwhelmed with work, the quiet of football being over and  the fact that the holidays are right around the corner.    I guess this time of year catches a lot of us off guard and the next thing we know the holidays are upon us and the local stores are hanging up tinsel and garland and I am stuck thinking once again the months have flown by and I’m not ready.  But no this isn’t a holiday post from me just yet.  The subject matter this morning is “Dumpster Diving” or “Trash Picking”  You know I was watching Cody Lundin the other day and he said something that I found fascinating and what he said on this particular episode is that “Mental Disgust” often hurts people because they can’t get through their own mental issues and overcome hurdles and obstacles that they need to do to reach their goal.   I feel like people tend to think “Oh that blanket was found in the dumpster therefore it is disgusting.”   I am going to write out a list of items we have found in dumpsters and let me know how disgusting it is that I saved all that money!  Many items we find brand new and then we turn around and sell the items at yard sales.  So let me take you on a journey of Dumpster finds we use in our house proudly and no negative connotation with us and our kids luckily don’t have that notion either!  This is only Part 1 of my Dumpster Diving Series so stay tuned you won’t believe all of the extremely nice items we have found!

By the way this is just a few of the items we have found we have found many more and put them to use, donated them, or passed them on to other friends and now our daughter has moved out so sometimes we send items her way.  I think too that many people have the negative connotation picturing a filthy dumpster but some of the best finds that we have discovered have been right on the side of the road.

Here are some pics of not our best “pickin” finds….but some of the more recent ones!

The first one is a little 4 Cup Kitchen Aid Coffee Maker – We actually do own a Keurig a gift to us from my in laws however when we run out of Keurig Cups or we can’t find them on a great sale this little coffee maker comes in so handy!  I also have the refillable Keurig cups but sometimes I just want to make 2 cups of coffee in one shot.

The next items is a wine opener we found which if you have a bad wrist and can’t use a traditional cork screw comes in very handy.  Also I was surprised to see how high these were in the store.

Let’s face it who doesn’t like the price Free?  This next item I have shared with all of you before which is the pot rack my husband “The Viking In My Life” made for me out of a ladder.  I love this piece and it’s so convenient!

The last item is just a ChikFil A coffee thermos….he found us two of them but recently I could not find my nice pink tupperware one anywhere and this one did the job nicely!  No complaints from me I was happy to have a thermos and not have to run out to the store to get another one.

My husband also found some brand new stuffed animals an entire box of them and we were able to share them with our neighbor whose mother in law is going to fill up shoe boxes with them for the holidays!

So don’t be embarrassed to pull over and pick something up on the side of the road…in this economy there is no shame in being resourceful and creative!    If your already a picker I would love to hear about some of your finds please comment and share I always love to hear from all of you!

 

 

I love that the Viking in my life is so handy!  Truthfully I love projects too and I am working on getting better with power tools but I have to say when he can just do it all so quickly and efficiently why should I get involved.  I have wanted a pot rack for a long time and this holiday he surprised me with one.  I came home and the rack was mounted on the ceiling the only thing was we didn’t have the light fixture we wanted so temporarily he strung up Christmas lights on it for a while and that looked so nice during the holidays anyway although my lighting wasn’t super strong in the kitchen for a while.

He found this ladder in a dumpster it had been used as part of a display or a prop of some sort apparently.  The funny thing is ladders similar to this sell at Pottery Barn for about $129.00.  So the ladder was free to us and then he did sand the ladder down to make it have more of a “Shabby Chic” look.

Then we had to solve our lighting dilemma I wanted to have flexible track lighting of some sort so we could have some flexibility as to the directions the lights faced and we went to our local hardware store and the fixture I wanted was about $79.99.  I thought we could do better and when I remembered there is an Ikea right on the way to see our family for New Years we decided to wait to check there.  We had already shopped online and felt confident we could find what we wanted for about $29.99.  We did!  Not only that when we stopped at Ikea it was Monday and we all got free breakfast!  Yes Ikea has free breakfast on Monday who knew we would get free breakfast thrown in with our new pot rack 😉  Sometimes life is just too good…..not only that I found a few other things to pick up as well.

Here is the link to the light fixture we purchased at Ikea.  Interestingly enough when we got back to town they had a couple of these marked down to $39.99 but they still weren’t the one I wanted.

My husband made the hooks for the pot rack out of salvaged metal and bent them to be used on the rack to hang the pots and he did have to purchase some lag bolts for about $4.00 to mount the pot rack to the ceiling.

It did help tremendously that he knows how to do electrical wiring and installation.   If he did not know how to do this I would see if we could have bartered with a neighbor to do this.

So if you have a tiny gallery kitchen like I do think about installing a pot rack for some extra room in the cabinets and to make your kitchen more efficient.  I love that I can just reach up and grab a pot to use for cooking dinner.  I was a little worried for my 6′ 4″ son but he has clearance we made sure and I am still able to reach the pots!

Hope you enjoyed hearing about our latest project!

My husband and I are always looking for clever ways to store things, and to keep up with our ever-expanding collection of books, sentimental items, cool finds etc……

We both are collectors we just collect different types of stuff!  I collect books first and foremost and then a few other odds and ends and he collects the coolest stuff just unusual finds like vintage oil lamps and bottles and between both of us we have a few items we cannot resist such as old canning jars and that sort of thing.

We also collect magazines….we have a huge collection of Backwoods Home Magazines and Mother Earth News magazines too.

However my husband “The Viking in my life” has a knack for finding things and he knew I wanted to have floor to ceiling shelves in our living room and as fate would have it someone on Craigslist advertised that they had free shelving and my husband taking a risk went and looked at it and it was in amazingly good shape.    The great thing about us re-using something someone else doesn’t want is that it also makes this project a “sustainable” endeavor.  We did not have quite enough to finish the job though so he had to purchase a little bit more lumber and trim and of course paint to finish the job.

The ladder in the final picture was a “dumpster dive” find you gotta’ love it!  Slowly but surely our Lil’ Suburban Homestead is becoming the little beach cottage I always dreamed of.

Thanks for stopping by our Lil’ Suburban Homestead and remember when you see an ad on Craigslist or in the paper it might not be too good to be true…..it might just be meant for you!  Stay true to your visions and dreams and keep up the homestead journey!