One man's trash is another man's treasure!

A cliche, but oh so true in my case!  It is council clean up in my neck of the woods at the moment and I have been very busy street shopping.

The lamp and shade I found at the bottom of our street when I was out for my evening run with the Captain.   The Captain is such a gentlemen that he carried it all the way back up our street for me.  His father's reaction was not so genteel.  Nevertheless, it is here to stay, especially now that I have discovered it is in perfect working order.

This divine split cane shelf was just a few houses up from ours and was filthy but look how beautifully it has cleaned up.  The little wooden boat on the bottom shelf is from the same rubbish pile and is so sweet.  It was handmade by someone, probably many years ago and is just too precious to end up in landfill.

I have been on the eye out for bedside tables for the spare room and I can't quite believe that I managed to find such a fabulous one on the street.  Now I just need to find something interesting for the other side of the bed.

I often have people visit and ask me where I found bits and pieces in the house and invariably the things that I get asked about are the items that I have scavenged from the kerb, inherited or are op shop finds. The greatest pleasure I get from street shopping though is the feeling of rescuing something beautiful or interesting from ending up in landfill.  It is the ultimate in revamping, reusing and recycling!

Street Shopping

Behold the latest street shopping finds:

And... yes!  That is a Le Creuset pan.  Seriously, who chucks out a Le Creuset pan?  Both in the same pile along with a whole bunch of vintage tools.  Luke, one of the apprentices working on our renovation, as soon as I mentioned that there were tools in the same pile jumped into his ute and drove around the block to claim all the tools!

The fry pan has a new home in our kitchen.  I will have to show you a photo post-reno as that is currently a construction site.

The little guy's new toy box. 

I love council clean up!!!

Street Shopping

I adore Council Clean Up! Truly someone else's trash is often my treasure! I know how much my street scavenging irritates my husband though, so in the car as we make our way through a neighbourhood that is having Council Clean Up, I very discreetly move my eyes over the piles of inviting treasure rubbish until I spot something that has potential. I am then forced to abandon reserve and screech "STOP THE CAR!!!" at my husband. A mad dash follows, incase one of the dodgy old men in trucks gets to the must-have item before I do. Then there is either joy (from me) as I lug the item back to the car and insist we take it home and excessive eye rolling (from husband) as he futilely attempts to prevent me from taking my treasure home! Or there is disappointment (from me) when I approach the item and discover it is damaged beyond repair or not actually what I thought it was, and annoying smug looks (from husband) as he is delighted that the item truly was rubbish. As much as my love for Street Shopping annoys my husband, he is forced to admit that I have found some gems over the years and this is my most recent wonderful find:

I love it!

NB. Please disregard ugly 1980s fabric on the cane lounges. These are yet to be re-upholstered and I have decided to wait until after we finish renovating to have them done. Researching outdoor fabrics in the meantime though!