Today I was cleaning up my place and went downstairs to drop off my recycling when I saw that someone had dropped off a little coffee table in the area. People often do this with big items that don’t fit in the garbage shoot (I live in an apartment building), but they usually do it with items that are truly garbage. But today someone dropped off a perfectly good little coffee table. I took a look at it to see if there was anything wrong, and one of the legs was wobbly. A little wood glue would fix it right up, so I grabbed it and schlepped it up to my place. After cleaning it up and setting it up, it looks pretty good, wouldn’t you say?
I know some people actually troll around neighbourhoods on “big item trash day” doing this very thing, looking for items that they could rescue. There’s even a tv show about doing that, the Junk Brothers.
I also remember reading an article in one of my home magazines a number of years ago about a Canadian actress that does that in her neighbourhood. Because she lives in an area where lots of renovations are going on in the houses around her, people are constantly getting rid of things, so she’ll often go out in the morning with her dog and her minivan and pick up things that just need a little TLC to be repaired. The magazine showed some pictures of things she’d rescued, and it was quite impressive.
I’m very pleased with my new coffee table, as it totally fits the space, and totally fits my budget. Free!
Awesome find!