Oh, Yes I DID!
For a while now, we have had a section of vinyl fence that is missing two of its pickets. We have them. We just haven't gotten around to gluing them back on.
I found one of them in the back yard recently. The kids had been messing with it and broke the pyramid-shaped "cap" off of the end. I have no idea how we would fix it, other than try to glue that together too. But I wasn't sure how good it would look.
So, imagine my delight when I noticed that someone on our street set out two small sections of vinyl fence for the trash man. They appeared to match ours perfectly. I told Paul we should go snag them as replacement parts for our fence. He replied sort of affirmatively, in that raised-eye-brow sort of way that suggested that he wasn't going to be the one to do it.
And, although people have been known to come around with a truck and pick up a few things from the neighborhood trash piles, it has never been done by actual residents of said neighborhood. I wondered how I would look walking down the street with my neighbor's fence in my hands.
But I didn't think about it too long, because we had kids to bathe and I had groceries to buy.
Fast forward to 12:45 am. I am in bed when I remember that I haven't snagged those remnants. So...
I got up.
On the off chance that someone would actually see me, I decided I should put on a pair of shorts. I figured they'd think me weird enough for going trash hunting at 1 in the morning, I didn't need to add pajamas to the mix.
But I couldn't find a pair of my shorts, so I grabbed a pair of Paul's. Which I barely fit into, thankyouverymuch. (Maybe I need to do a few laps around the neighborhood before I haul off my finds...)
And, with flips flopping (VERY loudly, it seemed,) I walked down about 4 houses, crossed the street, made my selection, and returned home.
And if THAT doesn't say enough about me...
the fact that I am now blogging about it certainly does.
Good night.
I found one of them in the back yard recently. The kids had been messing with it and broke the pyramid-shaped "cap" off of the end. I have no idea how we would fix it, other than try to glue that together too. But I wasn't sure how good it would look.
So, imagine my delight when I noticed that someone on our street set out two small sections of vinyl fence for the trash man. They appeared to match ours perfectly. I told Paul we should go snag them as replacement parts for our fence. He replied sort of affirmatively, in that raised-eye-brow sort of way that suggested that he wasn't going to be the one to do it.
And, although people have been known to come around with a truck and pick up a few things from the neighborhood trash piles, it has never been done by actual residents of said neighborhood. I wondered how I would look walking down the street with my neighbor's fence in my hands.
But I didn't think about it too long, because we had kids to bathe and I had groceries to buy.
Fast forward to 12:45 am. I am in bed when I remember that I haven't snagged those remnants. So...
I got up.
On the off chance that someone would actually see me, I decided I should put on a pair of shorts. I figured they'd think me weird enough for going trash hunting at 1 in the morning, I didn't need to add pajamas to the mix.
But I couldn't find a pair of my shorts, so I grabbed a pair of Paul's. Which I barely fit into, thankyouverymuch. (Maybe I need to do a few laps around the neighborhood before I haul off my finds...)
And, with flips flopping (VERY loudly, it seemed,) I walked down about 4 houses, crossed the street, made my selection, and returned home.
And if THAT doesn't say enough about me...
the fact that I am now blogging about it certainly does.
Good night.
Labels: Keepin' it Real
posted by 
at 1:01 AM
10 Comments:
ha ha ha. Why didn't Paul take a picture? THAT would have been classic!
I'd do it. When I lived in Grapevine on Wednesdays they'd have a truck come by for large items. It is amazing what people would throw away. When we were moving, we left a cute green coffee table that I just didn't get around to giving away. I put it out in front of all the other trash hoping that someone would come by and take it.
Too funny! Hopefully your neighbors won't notice! We once left some old dining room chairs at our local dumpster. Hubby was just pulling back in driveway when our neighbor across the street got home & started unloading her new find...OUR CHAIRS! It was hilarious! We took her the rest of the set...much to her husband's embarassment!
Lori, we call this trash picking or dumpster diving, depending on the location of the treasure. Our neighbors up the street left out an old adirondack chair one week; I had to rescue it - way too good to kill in the trash truck. We were driving up the street with my husband and son (who attended HS with the girl who lived in the house) they were mortified. I got out and shoved it in the back of the car. Next week they put out the other one for me! I still have them both and while they are pretty worn I just cant get rid of them. A little more latex paint and they'll hang in there. Just two days ago I set out a little table by the road, two days ahead of trash day hoping someone would rescue it. Sure enough yesterday am a lady came to the door (I was still in pjs...) and asked if it was up for grabs. I was thrilled to see her stuff it in her van. Told her it was there waiting for a new home. I love rescuing old things, but have never done it yet in the middle of the night...
This happened a lot in our old neighborhood. Before we moved, we got rid of a lot of odds and ends that way.
However, one time, my husband took a break from mowing the lawn and left the mower a little too close to the road. We looked out the window to see a man standing there sizing it up. Ben rushed outside, before the guy got to attached! :-)
They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. Adopting abandoned furniture is very frugal, and it's good for the environment.
Besides, it's not like you were prowling around the neighborhood at night digging through people's garbage. Okay, well, it is sorta like that, but not as creepy. LOL!
I might have done the same thing.
Hilarious! We threw away our patio table (no glass), umbrella (torn) and patio chairs, only to see them in our across-the-street neighbor's garage a few days later. What's even better is that about a month after that, the same collection of junk was in HIS trash. So at least you got something useful!
THAT is awesome!! You rock, woman, more power to ya!
Okay, just reading a bit more from PezMama since I have time (well, not really, but that's another issue). This cracked me up! On the way to church on Sunday, we passed a sit and spin that 2yo ds would have loved. We had already passed it, and dh is not keen on taking other people's trash, but I told him to drive back home this way and we'd get it if it was still there. It wasn't. But last month I got one of those little (3 step) slides!
I would SO DO that! My hubby NEVER would.
I do wish you had posted a picture.
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