Earth Day and My Dear Trash is News Worthy

You know I love Earth Day, like my favorite holiday other then Christmas and Halloween, Easter and 4^th of July and if I could count my kids birthdays as holidays I would, but still, I really, really love Earth Day.

I’ve promoted Earth Day as a professional and as an average citizen.  Either way, I always try to make it a special day.  The last few years, My Dear Trash has sponsored a used book drive with Changing Hands Bookstore.

And I love that shopping trash is really earthy and environmentally cool because  I love the earth.  I love that 99% of my furniture, home décor, kitchen appliances, my clothes, my families clothes, toys (I could go on and on and on and I usually do, but I won’t this one time) are used.  I appreciate what this philosophy shares about how I feel about the environment.

So, this Earth Day I wanted to celebrate my love of trash because trash is great for so many different reasons.

You know there’s a story behind this, the fact that I’m talking about my love of trash and my love of Earth Day.

Here’s the story.

A friend of mine who happens to be a realtor was shooting a news clip for a website he’s promoting and asked if I would be willing to be interviewed.  “Sure,” I said.  I’m always up for a chance to be on TV.  The interview went fine, when my friend, the realtor, commented on the dresser in my driveway I’m working on.  The reporter noticed several of my pieces of furniture and we started talking about what I do. 

What is it I do?

Well, I shop thrift stores and yard sales and anything cool I find that is furniture or home décor or cool in general, I bring home and fix it up, clean it off, sand it, paint it (if needed) and re-use it.  I either keep it, sell it or give it to someone I know who is having a baby shower.  Really, I’ve been giving cool furniture pieces to family and friends who are expecting babies.

Anyway, the reporter, Kimberly Cheng is her name, a sweet and beautiful lady, asked if she could come back and interview me at my home in front of my furniture re-do’s for Earth Day. 

“I have saved a dresser or two or dozens from going into the landfill,” I agreed and remembered last month a dresser that was about to be crushed in one of those huge crushers they keep behind Goodwill, and I asked if it was for sale and the clerk priced it and put it back out on the floor.  I bought it and brought it home and man, was that a beautiful piece of furniture to work on.  

I was really happy it wasn’t crushed to death.  And I remember just last week, while picking up a double stroller I found on craigslist (because you know I wouldn't purchase a new double stroller) the homeowner had a dumpster in her driveway because she was moving and a bunch of old furniture pieces were being, shall we say ‘disposed of’ and I asked if I could buy the vintage wood bookshelf leaning against the said dumpster.  The bookshelf had been on her patio as long as she could remember, like her entire 20’s (I think she was around 31 years old), so that was a long time.  The book shelf didn’t look too pretty when I started, 

but check it out once I matched it up with another old dresser and night stand and finished painting the set pink. 

Preparing for the interview, I went on a liquid diet for about 2 hours, but mainly, I started looking around my house and taking in all the great trash that’s out there.  All the trash sitting in my garage waiting to be redone and all the trash that has yet to be discovered.  I realized all the trash I’ve kept out of the landfills.  It made me really happy.  I'm grateful.  It's such a wonderful opportunity to work on trash!

Happy Earth Day April 22, but let’s celebrate it all weekend, starting with Friday morning garage sales and a trip later to the thrift store. 
To read about other Earth Day blog posts, click here, here, here and here.