Oh man I am itching to score something amazing. Every time I end up at the thrift store (which is admittedly not as frequently as it should be) there is nothin. Every time I jump on Craigslist? Overpriced. I mean, I can justify spending $40 on a dresser that I don’t need, but spending $400? Meh. So I do what any one looking for a good thrifting fix does…check out the #Colddeadfingers hashtag. YOU GUYS ARE KILLING ME!
There are a few people that are probably made out of gold they are so lucky with their finds and every time I sit down to write one of these post I am like “Ok, so I featured her last time so I probably shouldn’t do it again….but how can I not share these finds?!” The internal struggle is real. None more so than with Katie from The White House Girls. She is SO hardcore. In fact she is so legit that she drove from Fargo ND to Salt Lake City UT for SNAP just so she could thrift her little heart out.
Also it doesn’t hurt that she is adorable (Katie is the one on the left)
Katie and her sister Sam are junkers to the core.
Can I be the first to say, who knew Fargo had such great stuff? I mean, all I thought they had was snow.
Ok and can we just talk about Garbage Throw Out Week? WHYYYYY is this not a thing in Utah!? If you are unfamiliar get ready to die. Basically everyone in the city moves all of the stuff that they don’t want out to the curb and you can just drive by and pick it up! (If its not in a dumpster, if it is then you have to ask permission.) HELLLO. For my birthday next year I am going to garbage throw out week. That is all I want.
Does your city do this? Do you know how lucky you are?!
You will most definitely want to pop over and check out The White House Girls. Find a sitter for your kids and grab a snack, you’ll be there for a while.
Now is the really fun part. If you are on Instagram snap a picture of your most treasured piece(s) and tag it with #colddeadfingers. I LOVE seeing what your favorite things are and I know everyone else does too!
i’ve always wondered why utah doesn’t’t do the curb thing. Wisconsin didn’t have a whole week dedicated to it, however, if you were getting rid of something and didn’t want to list it, out to the curb it went…all year round. It was fun driving around doing errands because you would almost always pass something someone had left out. A lot was really junky, but not everything. It was awesome.
We do have curbside “neighborhood cleanup” weeks in Salt Lake City, on a rolling basis by neighborhood, which means that every week some local neighborhood area has it going on. But, I have to say that it’s really hard to find deals in Utah because so many creative people live here (and so many bloggers are from here) and there are tons of expensive consignment stores so there is a lot of competition for good stuff. I’m shocked at what people charge at garage sales in Utah! In contrast, on a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I found that they have scheduled neighborhood garage sale dates! How awesome is that! I found a ton of great stuff for my daughter’s apartment at great prices–a gorgeous midcentury lamp for $2, framed artwork for $3…
Oh yeah! Here in Tucson, we have what’s called “Brush and Bulky” tash pickup twice a year. The whole city
I simply adore every word you say. Love and adore. Thank you.
Our neighborhood in Sugarhouse did the curb thing every year. It was fun to watch and see how fast items disappeared from our curb!
Gah! accidentally hit post too soon!….like I was saying, the whole city of Tucson puts out their unwanted bulky items for trash pickup, and let me tell you, it is a free for all smorgasbord of items! Lots of junk, sure, but also some AMAZING finds….Some of my best scores have been from this. It’s my favorite holiday TWICE a year! Fargo gets a whole WEEK?! I’m speechless.
I knew a neighbor was having a garage sale today and when I drove back there was a mid century display cabinet/hutch right in the front of her garage. I had to do a double take! I brought my son to daycare and had a meeting at 8, but still had a little time, so I went back quickly to check out its condition. All wood! glass intact! original brass pulls and handles! And the best part??? $50!! I only had $25 on me, so I told her I live about 4 houses down and will come back at lunch to pay the rest.
Not sure where I’ll put it….. But it’s mine! 🙂
My husband and his friend used to have a little collectibles business where they would go to auctions, buy all the cool stuff and then re-sell it. Well, one time, when they were unloading an electronic slot machine, they dropped it and the thing broke beyond repair. A few weeks later, they decided to just trash it and hauled it out to the curb. Before they got back inside, a dude with a truck pulled up and started loading it up. They asked him what he was going to do with it and he shrugged his shoulders. Hey, it was free, I guess!
Yep, we have clean-up week in our town (an hour north of Fargo) and it’s a lot of fun. We’ve gotten already cut up logs for the firepit, fence for our garden peas to grow on, a wooden ladder, and much more!
In Germany it’s called “Sperrmülltag” and everyone can put their bulky furniture out to the curb for pickup. I also wish they’d have it in our town in the US. It’s a dream come true for sure 😉
Katie is hard core. She is the clean-up week master! 🙂
I live about 90 minutes from Fargo! Our town has city wide clean up week too. My mom and I filled up my minivan with treasures. My mom also took a trip to Fargo to shop the curbs and came back with tons of neat things! Yep, we have plenty of snow in ND, but we also have lots of great junk! 🙂
In Sydney (Australia) it’s called “Bulky Waste Collection (Kerbside cleanup)” and the council garbage trucks come around twice a year and pick up everything that hasn’t been picked up by people. We just had one and I swear, there were a hundred small trucks and utes (pickup trucks) coming past at all hours going through peoples waste. My husband hates when they do. I think it’s the best kind of recycling.
So in Austin it’s called Heavy Trash Day and the city is super smart about it. We all get a notice a month or so before that says to get your stuff to the curb by 6:00 AM on a Monday (normal trash pickup time) but they don’t send trucks out until like Thursday or Friday. That gives scavengers plenty of time to pick stuff up and the city doesn’t have to haul as much off. Genius. The scavengers drive around all day Saturday and Sunday the weekend before picking stuff up. I have put the most heinous crap out over the years and I never have stuff left come Monday morning. Old broken toilets are like gold apparently.
One time my neighbor across the street put out a rusty vintage patio set that was just a powder coating session away from awesome, but I was still in my PJs. I ran back to my bedroom to throw on some pants and a bra (the basics) and by the time I got outside, someone was loading it up in his truck. I tried to reason with him, but he pretended he didn’t speak English and kept on going. Picture a semi-dressed girl with severe bed head yelling in Spanish as the scavenger drives away. Not my finest moment, but my neighbors now know to ask me before they put stuff on the curb. Ha!
I’m a ND girl too! I never had even heard of The White House Boutique! I looked them up and we’ve even been at the same events! Thank you so much! ND Proud!
We don’t have a Garbage Throw Out Week per se, but if you have an old sofa or dresser. TV. lamps, anything you no longer want, you can leave it on the curb the night before your garbage pick-up day. Nothing, not even your regular garbage and be put on the curb before dark. Chances are, whatever “good stuff” you leave on the curb as “garbage” will be gone before you go to bed that night.
Here’s the STUPIDITY…if someone sees you taking someone else’s garbage and (has nothing better to do than stir the pot) notifies the police, the police will come and hunt you down and hand you a huge fine for stealing garbage. Yes, this is sheer stupidity at its finest! We’ve left stuff out before and it has always been gone within a couple of hours of leaving it out. We celebrate that somebody got something they love and they weren’t “caught”!
Seriously I don’t think I could feel any cooler right now! We have been following you for a few years loving every project & drooling over every thrift store find of yours. And for you to post about The White House Girls is so fun! Ahhhhhhhh!! Thanks for spreading the word. And we would love for you to join us next year for throw out week! We may have to arm wrestle for stuff but we’ll show you the Fargo way of curbside hunting!! Thanks again! Means a lot! Xoxo The White House Girls
I can’t hang out on their page. I get all angsty and green with envy! I live in the twin cities and it so hard to find anything. Everything gets picked over in the city. Perhaps a trip to Fargo is in order!
I live just a wee bit north of Fargo, up the same highway and across the border in Canada. We have two whole “giveaway” weekends per year, one in spring, one in fall. We just put stuff curbside with a free sign on it.
That has to be the single most amazing holiday (or should be a holiday) ever!
Omg mandy! We have a garbage throw out week here in Grand Junction, Colorado (which is not tooooo far) at the end of April and i once got a danish modern wood chair from a trash pile. It is awesome
I live in Sydney Australia and we have hard rubbish collection every fortnight… MY house has pretty much been furnished from the side of the road 🙂 Don’t hate me!
We have Spring Clean up in Yankton, South Dakota. Everyone puts out there unwanted to the curb from toilets to treasures. It’s great fun. It’s supposed to be a week, but everyone gets antsy and usually starts putting out about 2 -3 weeks early! Great way to save the landfills and find some free treasures or unload unwanted stuff. I love to put out toys and clothes and watch people come by and nab them up!
I live in Bismarck, ND and we have clean up week twice a year. It’s a whole week because your junk gets picked up on your regular scheduled garbage day. My mom and I go to the city website, print out the map of garbage day neighborhoods, and hit up each neighborhood the night before their trash will get picked up. The spring one was a coupe weeks ago and we scored 2 dressers, several nightstands, and a few other good things. Last fall I scored a perfect condition desk, an outdoor bin (to hold my firewood), an artist’s table in PERFECT condition which sell for over $400, we sold it for $75! It is a ton of junk, but there are definitely some huge scores. I can’t believe they don’t do that everywhere! By the way, ND is awesome for antiquing and stuff. Antique stores are everywhere! So there is definitely more than just snow here. 😉
Such beautiful photos! Their little trailer looks so cute – I want one now, lol! I definitely wish my “junk” looked half as good. Thanks for sharing!
As crazy as this sounds, I was on a trip with my husband once to Budapest, Hungary. We were staying on the Buda side in the Castle District. One night we were walking back to our hotel from dinner and it happened to be that same type of thing there. There were the most awesome pieces of furniture out on the curb! My husband looked at me like, “don’t even think about trying to get something home with us!”
But man, I sure wished I wasn’t so far away from home that night! We had never heard of something like this but someone in Buda explained it to us that night.
I too wish we had garbage throw out day! It’s just not fair!