Better than a Bargain!!

Last week was free garbage pick-up in Elmhurst. You see, the residents who live there only get to throw out garbage in the wheeled containers each week. Once a year, for a week, they can toss whatever they want and the pickin's are great! People put their "garbage" out early so junk pickers, like me, and metal seeking junk-trunks will take their goodies home for free. Seriously, you could probably furnish a home for free. After reading about Cindy's earth_day_green, seeing streets lined with toss outs/garbage/trash/junk/perfectly good items seemed a bit ironic. Anyways, I digress. I always know free junk pick-up week has arrived as I drive to bell choir rehearsal on Tuesday evening as the neighborhood I drive through has Wednesday garbage pick-up, so I know.

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Tuesday night after rehearsal, I brought home:

• Little Tikes plastic easel
• jigsaw puzzles
• a child's pitching machine, only needed batteries
• a toy golf club with a little golf cart
• orange mini cones, to mark the turn arounds for Simon's biking and scooting on our sidewalk
• a plastic tray table for the front porch
• an outside scooter for my sitter. All for free.

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I am not done yet. Not.Near.Done!!!

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I was too tired on Wednesday night to go out and I could not find a friend to go with me. I proceeded to sleep on the couch starting around 8:30 p.m. No Wednesday bargains for me!

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Eric got tickets to the Bull's playoff game for Thursday night. So, I fed the kids a quick bowl of pasta, tossed on their jammies, put them in the car, and off we went junk picking. Simon had no idea. On the way he said"Mommy, we have plenty of toys" and "maybe a baby toy for Norah". He had no idea. The first stop and freebie was a hobby horse. I showed Simon how it worked and told him he could now play cowboy. A few minutes later he said "I LOVE JUNK PICK". That's my boy! So the treasures found and stashed into my car that night included (mind you, I was driving a Honda Civic with 2 car seats filled with 2 happy children):

• a larger golf cart with more clubs (so we left the other golf cart on the curb- you know, bigger and better)
• another, better plastic tray table with a removable top with storage for the front porch. (The other can be used in the back yard.)
• 2 plastic white chairs for the back yard (I actually searched for these until I found them. I missed out on chairs at 2 other stops. To which Simon said "they took your chairs". To which I said, "they weren't really mine. We'll find more". )
• A hockey stick (Simon saw it and had to have it)
• mini beach ball
• toy shopping cart for Norah (To which Simon said "when Norah walks away, then I can push it." It only needed a bolt.)
• 2 child sized plastic Adirondack-ish styled chairs, a bit faded
• half a trunk full of cardboard brick blocks

So imagine two plastic chairs and a side table in the front seat next to you with the legs sticking into your side. Yep, that's how I drove home. But it all fit. And I peeled my kiddos out of the car and put them to bed. We have already enjoyed some of our better-than-a-bargain items!

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What are your better-than-a-bargain items?