My Vintage Soul: Town Cleanup Roundup

Week 3: Blow Mold Graveyard.

Here I am once again in a familiar place, which is offering an apology for disappearing for so long.

I wasn’t abducted by aliens (well, at least not that I remember). Life, or more accurately, the crunch of doing two big projects at the same time didn’t leave me with much time to pursue junk or blogging. But longtime readers know that every fall I make time for the annual Town Cleanup, which is basically sanctioned trash picking in my little corner of Upstate New York.

The town in which I live is divided into seven fire districts, and each week the residents in the various districts put out all sorts of stuff at the curb. Over the years, I have found a great bit of treasure in the trash, everything from vintage Christmas ornaments to feedsack fabric to Haeger pottery, and much more. (You can read about those adventures in the archives for Sept. and Oct. for the last few years and for April and May before that because Town Cleanup used to be held in the spring.)

This year’s cleanup hasn’t disappointed. While I look less for stuff to cart home (still trying to down-size), over the last six weeks, I have found a Blow Mold Graveyard, a long sought-after cabinet for my laundry room and the sweetest scrapbook ever.

Here are the (visual) highlights in no particular order. I have been posting them on Instagram @lindavintagesoul.

This is what I salvaged from the Blow Mold Graveyard, which was a H-U-G-E pile of old plastic blow molds and lawn ornaments. And, yes, that penguin does have propellers for wings.

Ahh, so sad. It's an aqua Mid-Century sofa with armrests as big as the fins on a '57 Chevy. Too bad it was well beyond saving. Also, no cushions for the sofa or a matching chair were anywhere in sight.

Picked this Pottery Barn desk hutch in Week 2 and sold it on Craigslist for $25.

What I think is the end of a kitchen peninsula shelf. Found during Week 1.

A lyre-style end table in just about perfect shape. I sold it for $10 to another dealer. That thing on top is another of those Christmas tinsel spheres, the third one I have found this year.