Wednesday morning is trash day around our neighborhood, and we try to walk before the trucks get really active around here.  The noise, and fumes, not to mention the smell of the trash make it unpleasant to walk if they are in the immediate vicinity.  As we  walk around block after block,  we start to look at the trash bins, and wonder if they hold anything good?   Back in the day when you could put all your trash out curbside there was a much larger variety of goodies.  Now all that has changed!  They have big mechanical arms picking up the containers, and dumping them into the top of the truck, making it impossible to leave a table, chair  or other large items out to be picked up.  It wasn’t too long ago that we’d put things out to the curb knowing someone would be by about 10:30 at night to rummage through everything in hopes of finding a treasure, only to put it in a garage sale somewhere a mile away!  Years ago, my mother brought home a set of four bent wood chairs she found, thinking they would be perfect with my dining room table.   They did look great, and we used them for many years.  Someone was just  tired of the look, and left them for someone else to love, and enjoy.  That would be me!

Today as I walked around eyeing all the trash bins, I don’t get the feeling that inside a bin is a treasure waiting to be found.  Rarely are they stuffed to the point of being unable to close the top. Occasionally, as today there were a few with cardboard sticking out, but I’m not looking for cardboard, and digging through someones trash bin isn’t quite what makes me happy these days!  Maybe all the real treasures are now in thrift shops, garage sales, consignment shops, or even swap meets if they still have those!  I long for a genuine treasure that just pops out in front of me on a walk, or even a super fabulous “thing-a-ma-bob” at a garage sale that I could use in my artwork!   “Thing-a-ma-bobs”  are more difficult to find these days, and I wonder how many garage sales one needs to go to just to find them?  Is there a better area to go to, ’cause this one isn’t cutting it!

Once upon a time we use to talk of going to the wealthier neighborhoods for the treasures no one else would find, but that was back in the day when people would put things of value out on the sidewalk so people like us, the pickers, could discover them!  Where are your favorite places to find treasures?  Do you have a treasure trove right in your own back yard, or do you have to drive long distances to treasure hunt?

Every time I buy new furniture, or a new lamp, I’m never happy with it! They don’t have any character, and definitely no energy from a previous lifetime to bring with it into their new home.  So now my motto is to rescue things from wherever I find them !