Freeganism vs T-2-T

If you want to push trash picking to the limit, you should know about Freeganism. The term is a combination of 'free' and 'vegan'. Freegans don’t only take durable goods from the curb, they search for food as well. They know their places; dumpsters at restaurants, supermarkets and shopping malls. Also they don’t only look for treasures to recuperate, but anything they need in everyday life; clothing, tools, washing liquids, kitchen stuff etc. etc. See the links below this post to find out more about their lifestye and motivation for it.

Personally, I don’t ‘shop’ for food, but mainly because I never find any. Large shops in Holland don’t throw their unsold food in dumpsters and I never saw any on the curb next to smaller shops. I think the latter, often owned by Turkish or Moroccan people, simply hand it out to their own extended families. Foodbanks have a fairly active policy and don’t wait for shops to bring in food, they go to pick it up at the larger restaurant chains and supermarkets.

I am somewhere in the middle of being a Freegan at heart (because I will take home anything I can use and my anti-consumerism is almost as extreme as theirs) and a ‘trash-to-treasurer’, someone who mainly scours the trash in search of vintage objects to recuperate or recraft into something original and beautiful.

I think it's a pity the two groups are seperated, because I think in reality most people are more or less a little bit in both ‘camps’. I suspect there’s craftiness in most Freegans and I know a lot of t-2-t’ers who are quite open minded about picking up clothes and other textiles for example and who admit they are concerned about the world and want to reduce the landfill. Although some seem to agree with the Freegans without realizing it themselves; on HGTV, where I started a discussion on the subject, there was understanding for Freegans, but a big NO to even thinking about picking up food themselves. On the other hand on the Freegans’ official website I miss the FUN and creativeness of the less extreme curb shoppers.

If you want to read more here are the links:

The Freegan Website

Not Buying It, NYT article

My topic on HGTV

The Dresser

Here's another fine addition to my BF's flat. The previous owners of this dresser had put it on its side on the curb with all the drawers pulled out next to it, but that couldn't fool us, since we recognize a good piece. It's made of solid wood, only the back and the drawer bottoms are hardboard. One leg had to be reattached and one (at the back, so invisible) replaced.
It stores a lot of stuff and matches perfectly with his sturdy table (see May, 24). He didn't stop to talk about it for days. I didn't know a guy could be so excited about a piece of furniture.

It's a very heavy piece and we couldn't have moved it home without this very handy and helpful find of a couple of months ago: a genuine mover's dolly (company name and all stamped on it). You may think it's just a plank on four wheels, but these things are expensive. I suspect the guys forgot it after moving someone in somewhere. Rather than one simple phone call to the company, they just threw it on the street. It's one of those times when you think: What are people thinking?

A Simple Rack

Knowing about our 'evening strolls', friends often ask us to look out for certain items for them. Usually it doesn't take long before we find exactly what they'd asked for. My good friend Ed, who can't walk well enough to shop for heavier or larger items himself, recently asked me if I would think of him if I saw anything he could use as a display for his collection of music instruments. I suspect he was inspired by seeing my rack-like cupboard on my blog, because I had given him the site address only shortly before. The coincidence had it that the day before I ran into Ed, my BF and I picked up a simple wooden rack that seemed to be perfectly fit for this purpose. Only he liked it for himself and had taken it to his flat already. Nevertheless I promised Ed I would ask, but otherwise I expected we'd soon find something like it again.

As he wasn't using his rack yet and willing to help out my BF decided to part with it. So I e-mailed Ed a couple of days later to tell the good news, but what do you know? Before we had even had a chance to set a date to bring the rack over to his place, we did find another one. Exactly one week after the first one and almost the same model, same size, a bit less fancy but therefore even more stable.

Last Sunday we went round to Ed's place to deliver the latest addition to his home, but unfortunately he wasn't home yet. Thinking he might have missed a bus or tram we found the downstairs neighbour ready to open the door to the staircase, so at least we could place it inside by his flat door. It's just too bad we missed his face as he found a surprise when he came home, as it turned out, just ten minutes later.

I hope to get a pic of the rack in Ed's flat soon.

Just to show the difference (sorry for the crappy photo) here's our rack.

Garden Plants II, Phloxes

As promised earlier, here are the pics of my phloxes that my BF picked up for me in the trash of the DIY and Garden Shop. I found them in the backyard when I came home from work, what a lovely surprise indeed. He told me there were even more, but he took all he could carry on his bicycle. It was late August so the flowers were starting to fall out and some leaves were turning brown. I didn't care, knowing they would grow back I left the three plants in their pots and the following spring grouped them together in a large pot. This is their second year and although I have the feeling that I have less shoots then last year, the flowers are even fuller and bigger, esp. the darker pink and taller kind. Or should I maybe put them in the full ground after all? Does anyone have experience with this?

My Footstool

What is this weird hairy fluffy pink thing? A cat sofa? They tried, but decided it wasn't a keeper. A prayer bench? The color seems a bit too wild for that.

My beloved BF had promised to make me a footstool from scrap wood, but he was procrastinating as so often when he has to make something for ME. Then on one Sunday evening excursion he disappeared behind a building container where I saw only dirty and broken stuff, and returned with this hilarious piece. It's bordeaux red laquered legs make me think of a Chinese origin, but whatever, I'm happy to use it as a footstool and maybe that's just what it is.

I'd never buy a thing like this, but that's what makes curbside shopping so exciting and it matches perfectly with the reds, purples and pinks in my office/bedroom (yep, the misery of a tiny 2-room flat).

My Frying Pan (including recipe)

After fifteen years of intensive use, the handle of the solid stainless steel frying pan my mom once bought me, broke off. And if she had to buy it to me, it means I couldn't afford it so these things must be expensive. Then not much later I found this very nice piece.

At the time, I wasn't even as much an active curb shopper as I am now. I just went on an errand in the morning and saw it. As I didn't want to go in the shop with a slightly dirty pan in my bag, I left it and went quickly on my way, hoping it would be still there when I returned. It was and after a thorough but quick cleaning job it looked as shiny as on this picture. I've had it for years now and it seems it's going to last a lifetime. I love the smooth surface of it (my old one had a grid-pattern on the bottom), and for me it cooks as great as a teflon-pan - shitty things you have to replace every two years. By the way the kettle is also a curb find. The cooker is a second-hand which I bought over fifteen years ago, when it must have been at least twenty years old already. The fun is I replaced many broken or missing parts of it with street finds (easy because it's a standard model that was mass-produced in the sixties and seventies).

Now to make this post a bit more crafty, here's one of my favourite recipes I cook in that pan. Completely in the spirit of my blog, it's a tasteful way to finish up old bread. More or less my personal variation on French toast (but with an Italian touch), but I call it a bread-omelette.

You need:
Olive oil (margerine, butter or another oil is ok, but for me the Italian taste the olive oil gives in combination with the tomato and garlic, is what makes this recipe really work for me), two eggs (three if they are very small), 1 tomato, 1 fairly large clove of garlic (or more if you like), herbs (chives, persil, pizza-mix, or whatever you think would be nice), salt and pepper and of course, two slices of stale bread (the heels are also fine).

Cut the bread in cubes of about half an inch, cut up or press the garlic, cut the tomato in very small parts (important because it has to 'integrate' in the mix - I slice the tomato in two directions as if it were an onion), and mix everything up with the eggs in a bowl. Stir firmly. The bread has to suck up all the egg and it's ok if it starts to crumb. In fact, the more the better, because then it will stick together better. (You can add milk here, as all French toast and omelette recipes prescribe, but I don't like milk and I think that's exactly what makes such egg recipes so heavy. Just try it my way one time and then decide for yourself.) Add the seasoning. Heat up the oil in your casserole or frying pan, then turn down the heat. Add your mixture and spread it out as if it were a pancake. Not really neccessary but it helps: cover the pan with a lid if you have one that fits. Now leave it for 10-15 minutes (still on the lowest heat). Then turn the omelette (for that I cut it in halves) and bake for another five minutes.

Served on one of my late grandma's large plates (1920's or 1930's). It's a complete lunch for one, but makes up to four portions if served with other food. Bon appetit!

I'm Not Alone (Am I?) - Looking For Links

Curb side shopping is no invention of mine. I started doing it because I heard other people found great stuff. When I'm out there I see people with vans just loading up anything that could be interesting, to probably sell the next day in the flee market or a second hand shop (think about it when you're in the thrift shop: they might have just picked it up from the trash). I often 'shop' for a friend who due to pysical limitation is less mobile than me and have been able to deliver him many of the exact things he'd asked for. Most people I know pick up things occasionally when they happen to pass by and no-one's ashamed of it.

I don't know a lot of people who make a cult of it like myself, but I didn't know anybody at all who writes about it! But recently I found somebody through the internet who dedicated a blog entry to her chair-finds. I was so thrilled! Read Jenns blog here. It's funny and instructive. Also find the direct link to her beautiful website, The Thrift Shop Romantic, in my linksection.

She also wrote me that trash-to-treasure is actually (becoming) a trend in the US. I really couldn't tell after the nice and polite, but very few reactions I got after I posted my blog on an American crafters community. So I'm curious to know if there are more people, anywhere around the world, dedicating web space to it. If you do or know anybody who does I will certainly publish the link here.

Garden Plants

Strictly speaking, I have only two plants in my garden that I could actually classify as finds, but everything else that grows came to my garden for free anyway. And I'm pretty proud of that because I don't have green fingers.





I literally saved this pretty yellow rose from death, when I found it pulled roughly from the ground, but with roots still on it, in the bushes behind my apartment building. It was during the renovation period of the block, when I was living in a temporary place one street away, but I would come back to my garden daily to feed the stray cats. It was no more than a long stick with some leaves at the top, but two years on it looks like this!

Digging out plants in the wild is a great way to bring variety and color to your garden without cost. They disappear in winter, but most of them grow back the next year, spreading out and getting bigger year after year. They attract all sorts of insects and often nice ones like butterflies or bumblebees. But I never take a lonely plant. I only dig out plants that I see in abundancy so I can single out a small specimen without doing any damage to nature.

Though I took this one from the 'wild zone' in our local park, I've seen it in many people's yards and front-window gardens. Don't know if shops sell it, nor what it's called. Anybody?

PS: What's a front-window garden? If your house fronts directly to the street (about everywhere in the old city) you're allowed to take away a line of tiles from the pavement under your front window and turn it into a mini-garden.



I don't know if this really is a 'wild rose' (or if such a thing actually exists), but we found it growing spontaneously in the nomansland between the city edge and the industrial zone. It was enormous and growing against a tree. It was easy to separate a few shoots and cut off a ca 10 cm piece of the root stick without damaging the mother plant. To me it looks like a tea rose, at least it has the exact same color and form als Jenns tea rose, but the leaves are smaller. By the way, later on I found out you can just cut off a branch, put it in water and it will grow roots. If you live in Amsterdam and want to try it, contact me.

You can find ferns in any forest or area with lots of trees and are a great way to fill up the darker corners of your garden.

I hated the temporary apartment, but the garden was quite nice. I was literally filled with this yellow flowered bush, that I also cannot name, and when we left I just dug out one little shoot and replanted it at home. This is two years old now and in full flower for the first time (this part of the garden was totally ruined by the renovation, so I had to start from scratch).

This one too came from the temporary place, by accident really. I made a bouquet once of the yellow flowers, and decided to fill it up with some branches of this bush. But lazy as I am, I left the dried out bouquet in the vase for weeks, but then the green branches started to grow roots. Also this one is just two years old. So you know now, if you know someone with a bush like this or find them even in a bouquet, it's easy to grow a new plant from it.

That's it for now. I still have the other 'find' to show, phloxes my boyfriend picked up in the trash of the garden shop, but they're not flowering yet. Later!

The Garden Table

Patience is a good thing when you refuse to shop for goods that aren't really of vital importance. Until recently I never owned a proper garden table. The thing is, plastic staple chairs are available in abundance (I have six of them), but the matching tables are always broken when I see them on the curb. The legs always break off. I think people just go out to buy a new set every two years or so. Now I like stuff that lasts. So knowing from my street experiences how shitty these plastic tables are I would certainly never ever spend money on them (and they're ugly at that). So I improvised with all sorts of found tables, end tables, mini tables, old office tables, that after a year in rain and cold would really be good for the trash, and I had to find something new again. Up until a couple of weaks ago. After delivering a found side table to a friend that he'd asked for, we took an unusual turn and my eye spotted this:



The frame's all iron and the top's a mosaic inlay, so it weighs a ton. It stood two blocks more far away than we usually go and my boyfriend said that's too heavy, but I had my mind set on it. After two streets I was totally out of breath, but then we were close enough to home for me to go for our trolley, while he guarded our trophy of the evening. This was really worth the effort and it even matches the green plastic chairs you see stapled up in the picture. By the way, when I found those they still had the bar code sticker of the shop on them. Totally unused.

Crafting Materials

Picks of a few days ago. On the left a knitted vest in an interesting thick, very stretchy synthetic yarn. There's a hole in the sleeve, so it's only destination is to be unravelled. Can't wait for the ideas that will come up in my head when I start that (otherwise) tedious job. Besides the devidable zipper is in very good condition and I'm sure it will end up in some project sooner or later. And I love that color.
On the right laid out the pile of linoleum samples I found. Most of them are hard 'marmoleum', but the two (fully shown) on the top left are the softer and thicker 'cork linoleum', which is the very exact stuff that you need to make linoleum cuts. It may seem not to be a lot to work on, but it's been since my kid's years I've last made lino-cuts, so it's good to have some free stuff to experiment on. If I get the hang of it, I can alway decide to purchase more. No idea yet what I could use the other samples for, but something will come up.
Not pictured, but also found the same night: a big pile of glossies, from fashion and art/design to lifestyle and home decorating (all no older than 2006). Good to enjoy myself a couple of evenings and then to throw in the waste paper container (not back in the trash!!!!!) or, if I find good pictures, to use for decorating home made gift or jewelry boxes. Just stick the cut out paper on an empty matchbox or fold your own from food packaging. Anyone can do that, loved it ever since I was a kid.

The Dining Table

My boyfriend found this table, so it's in his apartment. I would LOVE to have it. But alas, it was his find... Don't really know what else to say about it, let the picture speak for itself:

Well, if you want, you can read on to learn about the story of the find. He came back from an errand one Sunday afternoon, ran into my house (he lives upstairs of me) yelling he needed the cart for the most amazing table he'd ever seen. But just having a young fashion designer visiting me whom I was going to help out on a crocheted piece, I felt a bit awkward at his excitement. But I excused myself and helped him get the cart from the yard. Then when he came back twenty minutes later or so, we were all amazed indeed. The piece seemed totally unused with it's thick layer of undamaged shiny varnish and I really like the thick log, lumberjack style of it. The only reason I can think of people discarded it is that the planks on the top aren't even everywhere (so your plates wobble a bit), but it doesn't bother us at all. It's a year on now, and sometimes while having dinner we're still amazed.

By the way on top you see a crocheted tea cosy (by me) made from a trash (unravelled) sweater. There's next to nothing in the picture that was bought in a shop. Though I helped cleaning up a bit for the photo, it looks like a neat cosy dining corner for a man living on his own, don't you think?

Display Materials

Being a crafter/designer I need good photo's to present my work on the internet. Good display materials are a vital help for this. I would love to have a real shop-window dummy and even though I know a place where I could buy one second hand, this is way out of my reach. But so far I've been able to get by with some pretty good finds.



This cardboard torso came from our (only) local men's fashion store. Unfortunately the boy's neck is to thick to use it as a display for my necklaces, but for my still to put in practice plan to shoot all my old knit sweater designs, that will be no problem. In the meantime it serves fine as a hang-up for my crocheted bags and purses. If you want to see more, take a look in my Etsy shop.

This strange-only half a lady-dummy needed some work first. A lick of leftover beige latex wallpaint made her look a lot better already. She has a ring with a screw attached to her back side, with which I hung her up on the pole of a broken floor lamp (took of all the wiring and sawed off the top part). She now stands free and with some pinning at the back I will be able to show skirts and tops on her.
In the meantime, with a counterweight at the back, she is a solution for the necklaces.

Crazy or lucky?

If you see the list of May third, you may think I spend hours scavinging going all over town (that's crazy!) or I must be just downright lucky. None of this is true. All these items were found in the vicinity of my home and we usually spend no longer than 30 minutes on an average evening scavenging stroll. Sometimes, when I put out my own trash I find stuff my own next door neighbours have put out (as in the case of the sewing machine). Sometimes, when I'm up and awake that early, I take a quick tour around the block in the morning. And of course I always keep my eyes wide open when cycling through streets where the garbage truck hasn't passed yet. But that's all.

All this sort of items are being put out on the streets regularly all over the city of Amsterdam. While writing this my boyfriend just came back from bringing his waste paper and glass to the special containers for that and presented me with an unpacked IKEA picture frame, the screws and wire to hang it up included. And it's not even trash night yet. That's tomorrow.

Here's the photo, just to prove that not every road side pick is old, used or to be recuperated.

The Cupboard

I particularly love this cupboard (or is it a rack?), because it was obviously lovingly hand-made by someone and it's very old, like some 40-50 years at least. My boyfriend took it home first. I didn't like it at first because I thought it looked more like a thing that had housed pigeons or so. Then when he didn't want it anymore I took it home any way. I painted it in a nice dark brown (probably close to it's original color).

Now it holds all my small tools and other stuff that you want to have at hand, but usually lies around on your desk or work table because all your drawers are already full.

Just a Sum-up

Here's a random selection of great finds I did over the years:

Many, many books, good books not pulp
Picture frames (sometimes with interesting pictures in it)
Curtains
Stereo equipment
Pots, pans, cups, cutlery, plates, bowls etc.
Electric kitchen equipment
A vacuum cleaner in mint condition
An practically unused electric shaver (still in it's original casette)
Numerous fashionable and undamaged clothing items and shoes
Teddy bears and stuffed puppets
Fashion dolls
Slat blinds (not even unpacked an with the shop price still on it)
Garden tools
Garden furniture
Chairs, tables, cupboards etc.
A printer (old fashioned and slow, but perfect for prints I don't want to waste my expensive bubble jet ink on)
Lamps and lamp shades
Paint, wood and other crafting materials
Plants (see below for photo's)
A Samsonite trolley suitcase

Various mirrors

In short, almost everything you need in and around the house. Why would I spend money in shops?

The Sewing Machine

When I was a kid I often heard stories of people finding priceless paintings or artifacts in the trash. Maybe they weren't all true or some a bit exaggerated, but I do believe it's possible. Although you'd think these days most important pieces are recovered already and you would never expect yourself to be that lucky.

But what about my 1915 Singer hand sewing machine? It was waiting for me almost in front of my own front door. A quick search on the internet learned that comparable pieces are offered for up to 60 dollars. Not a treasury, but as a crafter it is a nice decoration for my workroom and I'm very pleased with it.

And by the way in case of a power outage: it works fine!!

Indoor Plants

I started this blog ages ago, but I never managed to add another post. The thing is I promised photo's, but it's winter now and my camera works best outside. Now I finally made some more or less acceptable pictures of a couple of plants.

The fun with plants is that you find this poor neglected bunch of branches, that after a change of earth (home made from compost from my garden of course) a light place and watering start to turn green again and sometimes even surprise you with a spectacular flower.

Too bad I don't have pics from when I just found these, but believe me, I didn't buy any of them in a shop.

Introduction

I live in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a great city for trashpicking. You wouldn't believe what perfectly good en beautiful stuff I've found over the years. So I'd like to share some of it with you. Be amazed!

Everytime I save a piece from the incinerator I'm not just happy for my wallet, but also for the world. Because this is another item that I didn't have to purchase and that didn't have to be manufactured especially for me, since it already existed. I know it's a drop in the ocean but it makes me feel good.

Being a crafter for almost all my life I've also become quite handy in repairing things or using parts of old things to make new stuff. On the other hand what I find also inspires me and a lot of the materials I use for my hobby come from stuff thrown away by others.