Trashdiving

I love free stuff on the side of the road and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

When I'm driving the down road, and I see that "free" sign looming in the distance, generally on some scrappy piece of cardboard or spraypainted on a piece of plywood, I get giddy and excited. I'm in crafting / recycling heaven. Oh the possibilities! My adrenelin starts rushing. I legitimately worry the few cars in front of me might beat me to the prize.

(As a side note, this type of recycling is much more common around these parts than other places I've lived. In fact, I was initially horrified that people would just put stuff out on the side of the road for people to take. But now, I'm hooked.)

But I NEVER trashdive.

I never have. And never will. Until this week.

In our friendly little village, the trash gets picked up on Wednesday morning, so everyone puts their trash out the evening before. When I drove home on Tuesday evening, I spotted a little gem out at the end of our neighbor's driveway. The driveway of our neighbors directly across the street who we're pretty friendly with and may just let me take it? I needed this dresser, but I wouldn't dare take it.

I don't trashdive dangit!

But when Mr. B rocked up the driveway a short 20 minutes later and ran into the house asking me if I'd seen the dresser and if I wanted it? Well I caved. YES I WANTED IT.

We ran outside and crossed the street - and just as we began our theft - our neighbors two doors down caught us in the act. Fate was on our side. It was the auctioneer and his wife and if there's anything they believe in in this crazy world, it's recycling furniture. With their blessing, we returned to the steal.

You'll see from the pictures below, it's only a small dresser with mirror attached. And our house is 200 feet away. Absolutely managable. Except the thing weighed a flipping ton. This is not your cheaply produced, crappy materials dresser. This thing was rock solid. And heavy.

And even more comical was that this genius here was still in her heels and dress from work. Queen of bad decisions.

It took darn near 20 minutes to get the thing across the street and into the living room. I must have asked Mr. B to stop for a rest about 8 times. And I KNOW our neighbors probably were laughing their butts off watching us from the window. Fair trade. You get the laugh, we get the dresser.

So here's my next project:

(Please ignore the junk in the mirror. I told you we're living in a building site!)

Minus the chipping paint, it's in really good shape. Sand it down, paint it up, throw on some cute handles, clean up the mirror and BAM. You've got a cute, vintagey dresser. I need inspiration for what color to paint it. Looks like someone's spending the weekend on the blogs!