Unlike previous years where I hoarded up all of the cheap candles and rehab-able decor that I could find, my sights were more focused this year when we browsed garage sales on sunny Saturdays. I collected almost no tsotchkes but instead, practical items like 20-gallon gas cans, a garage shovel and rake organizer, Harry Potter books and DVDs (book 5, starting tonight), lawn chairs, wood screws, and lots of adorable infant and toddler clothes and accessories in near-mint condition for mere pennies. And I think you’d agree that it’s pretty hard to pass up a giant school chalkboard wherever you come across it. No surprises here, I claimed it as soon as I saw it.

It’s not slate, but it is heavy-duty and is in good shape. Only a scratch in the lower right corner, and a couple of extra holes in the frame to show its age. At install, it took extra dads and aunts to get it level and hung properly using anchor bolts. So, there are virtually no other pictures to prove what we went through, only memories of pinched fingers, lots of cursing, and general confusion.

I keep saying aloud (and on here over and over again) that we still haven’t really put a lot of stuff on the walls of our home–it actually pains me, after all of the patching we had to do–but this one makes up for our lack in wall decor in a big way; it’s so practical and fun to have that I think it’ll be with us forever. Plus, obviously, it’s sheer size covers a lot of wall, that will never again require my decorating attention. (Side note: New outlets arrived. Decided to go Legrand Adorne throughout the house for consistency. Been chipping away at it all week. Don’t put your fingers in there, kids.)

Shelving is a line item on my “next thing to spend lots of money on” list, because we want some permanent, quality shelving in very specific sizes for our living spaces and bedroom. We started to chip away at this need a little bit by picking up a great mid-century shelf for $20 (on the left, shown after a little outdoor cleanup when I brought it home – bought from a nice local couple I follow on Instagram!), and a solid 5-drawer rolling cart with melamine drawers that’ll eventually serve as practical kid craft and magazine storage in our living or dining room. Needs a good scrubbin’.

The 5-drawer rolling cart came from an estate sale that we ventured through about a month ago, the property of a local curator with Kodak connections who had amassed some incredible goodies in his mid-century Rochester home, including some amazing art and fine wood furnishings. I don’t like to dwell on things that we passed over, but in hindsight it was probably one of those moments when I shouldn’t have been so “thrifty.” The guy had a super-powerful digital antennae that would have made it way easier to get local TV channels through the trees, an OJ Simpson’s high school yearbook (weirdo convo piece?), and lots of these completely useless but neat glass lenses that ranged as tiny as my pinkie nail, to as large as my head (for film developing?).

And an awesome darkroom timer (big regret, so cool, shame on me for trying too hard to not be a random tsotchke collector). Please just remind me that I’d never have used it.

 

What dust collectors did you pick up or pass on during the summer?