Confessions of a curbshopaholic

Hello, my name is Rose and I'm a 'curbshopaholic'. Nope, not recovering, not one bit. Here's my story.
Found some great curb finds this morning on my way to work....I'm so excited! No matter how many times it happens it's still such a rush to find stuff at the curb....
Need these like I need another hole in my head, but I'm still super excited about finding them...it's an incurable disease this curb shopping thing, I just can't seem to stop.
The scenario:
It's trash day in my daughter’s neighborhood. It has become one of my favorite places to junk, for some reason the finds there have been really amazing which is surprising since it's such a modest area. But the houses are older and it has a good mix of senior citizens and young people starting out, really a “Junkers dream neighborhood”. Young people getting rid of hand-me-downs and college furniture, seniors clearing their homes of stuff they just don't need or want anymore. Now this is kinda on the way to the office, just a short detour.. and I haven't had time to get by there in a couple of weeks. There's not so much to be found generally this time of year, although last time I junked there I scored a nice old dining room chair and a wooden planter box, prim style.

And the time before that; a unique round coffee table with a lazy susan type top with little drawers in it, sounds weird but is really neat, oh and it has a leather embossed top.

So I head down one street, passing the garbage truck on the way, turn up the next block and ....wait...is that wood? Check it out - driving oh so slowly. Yup, that's a desk . . .

And that's a cute little 3 drawer lingerie chest/night stand type thing.

They're real wood! Oh gosh. Decision time, leave them for the garbage truck to crush and send to the landfill; or....grab them and pray I find a use for them later?

What would you do? Grab, right? That's what I did! Then as I was o-so-happily heading towards the office on my way out of the neighborhood I spy not just one, but 2 (!) wooden dressers at the curb of a house. Of course I pulled over, and omg, one of the dressers was so sweet!

Had to have it, so in the van it went. The other was in pretty rough shape, not real good quality, but still REAL WOOD.

It looked so forlorn and the trash men were just a few houses away...what to do, what to do? If it fits, take it, that's that. A bit of rearranging, some huffing and puffing, and lo, there's just enough space to slide it in on its side! Saved! Big adrenaline rush going now. What cool finds!
Now what? To the office, lots of work to do, a little scary looking in the rear view mirror and seeing the pile of furniture in the back of the van. A bit of curb shoppers remorse, trying to picture Mike's reaction to yet more junk added to the collection. Oh no, the dreaded lecture will come for sure "Do you have to pick up every single piece of junk you see? Don't you think we have enough junk waiting for you to get around to making it over? Blah blah blah blah" I've heard this a million times, but this is really good stuff! It's different, isn't it? OK, so get it home and hide it, that's what I'll do! But where? No room in storage space, no room in my half of the garage, basement's already overcrowded, can barely work on anything down there....Craft room, same thing just got that cleared enough to work in.....so where? Ok, then guest room it is. It's a plan.
Quick, get home before Mike. Move Move Move! Into the house, adrenaline pumping, actually picked up and carried each piece across the driveway, up the walk and up the 3 steps to the house. (Note to self, take Tylenol before bed tonight.)
Ok, it's all inside. Not exactly hidden, but what are the odds he'll notice these anytime soon? What reason could he possibly have to go in this room? I'll find new homes for these on the weekend.
Whew! Safe! Wipe water off the floors from tracking snow thru the house with boots on, check to make sure no evidence in sight...Will he notice all the tracks going from driveway to house? (wish it hadn't snowed today)
Flash forward to later that evening...watching TV w/Mike. He decides to do some ironing (yes I know, he is absolutely the very best husband anyone can ever wish for, he does all the ironing, grocery shopping and the cooking!) and heads to the guest room to get the basket, is gone for several minutes..comes back...very casual remark "Soooooo, picked up a few MORE dressers today?" (heavy on the sarcasm) Drat! Caught already! Might as well have left them in the living room! OK, fess up time.."yup, really cool stuff, and my sister wants one of the dressers for her grand-daughters." Silence. Hold my breath. Wait for the lecture. Nothing. Very quiet the rest of the night, but off scot-free on the lecture part anyways. Yayyyyyy.
Now I can really enjoy my new finds!
How about you, is your other half thrilled with everything you bring home? Or are you just better at showing restraint than I am? I must admit to some extremely good luck at finding stuff around here. Someday I'll have to show you some of my stash......it's really sick. Think it's time for an intervention?
Thanks so much Gail for letting me tell my story to your readers!

If you would like to see more of Rose's finds and projects, she has a blog, check it out here.
linking to these wonderful parties:
Susan's Met Monday
Kimba's DIY Day
Kimm's Trash to Treasure Tuesday
Becca's Show and Tell
Michelle's First Party Whatever Goes Wednesday
Gina's Transformation Thursday $5.00 edition

Tweet