Wednesday, April 23, 2008

New Albin Spring Clean-Up Day 2008

This year I did not do as well as some years; most of what I picked up was to clean up and donate to The Way Station. For example:

Nothing wrong with these ironing boards; they're absolutely clean and nice.

The old waffle iron works, and the roaster just needed a nice bath to make it useful again.





For myself, I got three (only two are pictured) of these enamel thingies. I thought they were refrigerator crisper drawers, but maybe they are just dish pans. Anyway they're chipped enamel but otherwise in good shape. I added the decals as a variation on my art deco style kitchen canister labels, and now they are holding stuff in my office work space.

I also got some 2x4's and some unused Romex wire for Barry, and an old lamp with jade colored glass base, an interesting old fruit crate, and an old wooden ironing board to sell (hopefully). I also found some interesting wooden seine floats and some vacuum tubes from an old Zenith cabinet radio that may still be good.


Lil Miss A snagged a vintage Port-a-Crib that is a perfect place to store all her dolls and stuffed animals. She was so happy! She was so tired of them ending up under the bed, forgotten and dusty. Now they are all cozily contained.

One big difference this year 'round was the fact that lots of people were picking not for treasures, but for salvage. Normally one can pay the city $25 to haul away an old washing machine, dryer or dishwasher or whatever. This year I doubt the city had to haul any away at all. With steel at $400 a ton, it was worth it for some of our enterprising folk to load up all the metal, take it home and strip it down for salvage. At least it's not going in the landfill.

No comments: