I'm trashy

When I left home at that age you leave home, I really didn't have any money or any idea what I would do to 'live'. I did it though. Left, got an apartment with some friends. Had a job. Made a life.

But when it came to some household items, my friends and I would always try to get them free. Need a new cabinet? Free. New sofa? Free. New rocker? Free. Weird art thing that takes up space? Free.

Now how did we get all that stuff free you ask?

We picked through peoples trash. And boy did we find great stuff. We furnished our entire apartment that way. Pretty much stocked our kitchen too.

It got to the point that we knew what streets put trash out on what nights, and which neighborhoods had the best stuff.

Here we are 20+ years later, and I don't need to pick trash. If I really need to get something, we'll swing it, even being broke, we'll figure it out. For example, Scott just bought me a brand new kitchen cabinet for a wall that did nothing but stand there. Now I have more storage. Totally awesome.

In our neighborhood, people have actually stopped by and picked OUR trash!

But as we drove to work this morning, I noticed a few blocks down that there was a cabinet, that would have worked. And it would have been free. And I wanted to jump out and take it.

I haven't thought about my trash days in a long long time. We had some fun doing it back then. Don't think it would be as fun now but sometimes those old urges just pop up when you least expect it.

But bottom line, I wouldn't be where I was today if I didn't learn that it's ok to be trashy.