Treasure Hunters or Pickers Going Green Rescue, Recycle, & Reinvent!

I just found out that Anderson Cooper recently dedicated a show to Treasure Hunting (yard sale and flea market shopping). He had Lara Spencer from the Antiques Roadshow who has authored a book called "I Brake for Yard Sales" on his show. He also had a segment set up showing a flea market on stage. Dan who is one of the storage auction buyer's that I follow was on the show as well. His part of the segment was cut unfortunately! Paul Brown from Auction Kings which airs on The History Channel had a segment and was his usual entertaining self. Lara talked about her philosophy on shopping at yard sales and flea markets and it struck a cord with me. Here is a link to Dan's You Tube video about attending Anderson's TV show.

One of the highlights of the whole show was an audience member who had found a Picasso print worth over $10,000 at a local thrift store! We all know this is not something that happens every day but it keeps all of our adrenaline pumping and hopes alive for our own treasures and "home runs" as we pickers or treasure hunters like to call our scores of the day.

One thing that Lara brought out was how old vintage items can be reinvented or repurposed. This really resonates with me. I really dislike the fact that we have become such as disposable society. I was brought up with the principle that you looked at things with the eye of recycling or repurposing them after use if possible. My grandparents lived during the depression during some very lean years. They learned to live with very little. They taught us to be frugal and to use everything that we had wisely. That is one reason I really hate to see beautiful things from the past going into a landfill somewhere.

Lara really seems to think along the same lines. She goes to sales with the mentality that she is rescuing items from another person's trash. Other items she takes and recycles them or reinvents them as she calls it. This is something else that we have in common. She is really creative and takes things that others would just toss aside and makes them a decorator's dream.  For years, I have been reinventing vintage or antique items and giving  them new life as handcrafted projects or decorative arrangements for the home.

I feel that this is one way that we can keep things green. Less things go into the landfill and our history is preserved and not forgotten. How can we teach our children about our past if we have thrown it all away? Some days I wonder what we will have to hand to the next generation? Will it be a remote to a television or a video game? I hope that we have much more to offer them!

Here is a link to a segment of the Anderson show with Lara! Take a look!  Lara also gives viewers some great tips on how to reinvent their yard sale finds into new projects that can be used to decorate the home. Take a look.