Living in a scavenger's paradise

You tell me you don't need someone's discarded wrought iron cowboy and smoke damaged chef sculpture for your front yard, and I'll tell you you're dead wrong, pardner.

Two of my favorite words are "curb alert," the message people on the internet like to put on sites like Craigslist and NextDoor when they put out stuff they plan to throw away so people can pick through it. To me, rummaging through other people's trash is one of life's greatest pleasures. It's like Christmas morning to collect useful things

The primary scavenging I do is for furniture (especially unique chairs or small tables), kitchen stuff, clothing, and materials for my artwork. I don't always know what I'm looking for, but usually I know it's perfect when I see it. I love working with found objects and salvaged frames, images, fabrics, natural objects, and other materials for sculpting, collaging, and constructing. It milks my creativity to spot something that I didn't know I needed.

I usually have a running list of household stuff I stay on the lookout for. Our living room, bedroom, yards, and kitchen are full of stuff I found that was destined for the dumpster. I've outfitted our home with mid-century dressers, antique chairs, a formica table, a tank for my turtle, and innumerable yard and house decorations gleaned through diligence and devotion to the hunt. They're often in great shape with minor wear. This summer, I'm building a greenhouse from salvaged stuff. It's a never-ending fascination.

I'll occasionally realize that most of the clothes I'm wearing on a given day came from free piles, which is probably my favorite thing to score. I love the feeling of peering into another person's tastes and literally try them on for size. In fact, that vaguely voyeuristic pleasure extends to the other stuff as well.

I like sensing the impression other people have made on their stuff once I take it home. It's more pronounced in some objects, furniture, or decorations than others. I love the way it feels to experience other people's homes and lifestyles, and picking something up from the alley behind their house or on their front sidewalk creates a fascinating mosaic of how other people live. It's like the stuff still has "energy" from its previous owners.

I'm proud of my innovative resourcefulness. A while ago, I made myself a standup desk that used to be my favorite workspace. I have gnarly sciatica, and I can't sit at a desk for too long without it flaring up. Pre-made standup desks are not cheap, and it's hard to find affordable ones that seem like they'd fit the bill for what I want in a desk. My scavenger inclinations took care of that problem. After a couple weeks of steady searching, I found the perfect candidates and cobbled together both a spacious standup desk as well as a separate standup drafting table using entirely salvaged pieces. The standup desktop was made from a hutch that someone put out on the curb, which I placed on top of two short file cabinets. The drafting table is fashioned from an antique school desk I pulled from an apartment dumpster in Uptown Minneapolis stacked on top of an Ikea coffee table I found in an alley freebie pile, and I secured a few large wood and vinyl boards at an angle for the drawing surface with some planks of wood and duct tape. I also taped down a metal dowel rod to help catch pens and canvases, and I used the wood plank's excess length as a spot to keep a pen and pencil holder. Both stations are really sturdy and have a ton of surface space.

It builds repair skills and lightweight engineering skills, and stimulates creativity when you salvage the stuff you live with and use everyday. When you're constantly seeking pieces, the feeling of finally finding them is incredibly rewarding. You feel pride that you used ingenuity and patience to get what you wanted without spending half a paycheck or dragging home another mass-produced thing. You can control the quality of your possessions a bit more instead of being at the mercy of big box retailers, while being more ecologically conscientious by reusing waste.

It's not all about finding shabby stuff and putting a ton of time, skill, and energy into restoring it or making it work--that's also not everyone's cup of tea. If your eyes aren't already open to the wonderful world of scavenging, you might be pleasantly surprised what normal, ready-to-use things you'll find browsing the freebie listings. People tend to get lazy or overwhelmed right before a move, in between seasonal cleanings, or just after a big purge, and we scavengers can rescue those treasures from their future of rotting in a landfill.

Obviously, sometimes you just need to buy something new. A bed frame or the right couch isn't always guaranteed to turn up in someone's alley in a timely manner, if at all. Still, helping to reduce waste means creating a network where the stuff we're finished with ends up in someone else's hands, not in the garbage.

Especially your tacky statues. Give those to me.

#sculptures #upcycled #yard #homedecor #junkyardchic #diy