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Fearless Gomi Hunter
I used to furnish my house from yard sales, but that was back in the palmy 80s when people sold good stuff for reasonable prices. Got two handsome sets of Made in Japan crockery that way, plus odd kitchenware and sheepskin rugs and occasionally sheets as well. (That black and white flower patterned set, for instance.) But those days are gone, and the first-hand stuff now is geared to the grey neutrals that Someone has declared to be fashionable, which are not for me. So mostly I get things from the front lawn dollar store aka the gomi-- which is not quite the garbage, or not always.
(I never went gomi-hunting in Tokyo, which is where the term comes from. In the palmy 90s the Japanese would discard your choice of electrical goods, and all the foreigners would happily grab them. Beat paying full price, especially when you couldn't take it home with you. Japan seems to be the only country in the world to run on 100 volts.)
The front lawn dollar store, like the front lawn library, is a helpful neighbourhood service, not a garbage dump. You put out things in reasonably good condition that someone else might be able to use. If no one can, come garbage day it gets carted off. Granted, some 'maybe it'll be useful' items are wishful thinking; but we're still not talking heaps of garbage piled on front lawns. (Or, again, not often. Heaps of unbagged garbage, or tattered garbage bags, tend to incur fines for the householder.) No, generally it's an item or two; sometimes it's a neat display of variegated Stuff; but if it goes out well before the alternate Thursday pick-up, one knows it's a goodwill offering.
And so today, a warm sunny Saturday, I came home with a wooden shoe rack which will replace my present cheap aluminum one if it fits the hallway; an Obusform back rest, from someplace in the tony Annex that also offered Chinese books and very amateur oil paintings; and a tall lamp, which I must rewire to take something other than a 60 watt bulb, because really what good are 60 watters? You'd think no one ever read in this town, and you'd probably be right. When I came back from Japan I rewired all my lamps to take trilight bulbs. What I can't remember is where I learned to wire lamps, because now I've forgotten how it's done
(I never went gomi-hunting in Tokyo, which is where the term comes from. In the palmy 90s the Japanese would discard your choice of electrical goods, and all the foreigners would happily grab them. Beat paying full price, especially when you couldn't take it home with you. Japan seems to be the only country in the world to run on 100 volts.)
The front lawn dollar store, like the front lawn library, is a helpful neighbourhood service, not a garbage dump. You put out things in reasonably good condition that someone else might be able to use. If no one can, come garbage day it gets carted off. Granted, some 'maybe it'll be useful' items are wishful thinking; but we're still not talking heaps of garbage piled on front lawns. (Or, again, not often. Heaps of unbagged garbage, or tattered garbage bags, tend to incur fines for the householder.) No, generally it's an item or two; sometimes it's a neat display of variegated Stuff; but if it goes out well before the alternate Thursday pick-up, one knows it's a goodwill offering.
And so today, a warm sunny Saturday, I came home with a wooden shoe rack which will replace my present cheap aluminum one if it fits the hallway; an Obusform back rest, from someplace in the tony Annex that also offered Chinese books and very amateur oil paintings; and a tall lamp, which I must rewire to take something other than a 60 watt bulb, because really what good are 60 watters? You'd think no one ever read in this town, and you'd probably be right. When I came back from Japan I rewired all my lamps to take trilight bulbs. What I can't remember is where I learned to wire lamps, because now I've forgotten how it's done
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But ohhh I could do with a shoe rack! ^_^ Another one that is. It felt like my girl is ever growing as yesterday we bought her, her first pair of Doc Marten's ... in purple!!! Ohhh my baby .... she grows and grows!!!
Perhaps someone from next door can help you do the re-wiring.
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If the universe doesn't provide shoe racks, the legit dollar stores do. For more than a dollar, true, but not that much more.
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Also the lamp has a dimmer switch added on, which you can't use with CFLs.
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US is backward in its health insurance, yes.
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