Dumpster Diving

Have you ever been dumpster diving? I haven't. Honestly.

But once upon a time. . . I was sauntering down the street with my neighbor on our way to lunch. We were enjoying a rare bright sunshiney day, chatting about how busy we were, my eyes casually window shopping as we passed all the wonderful curio shops when I glanced to the right and back forward again. Suddenly something caught the corner of my eye. Then it hit me. My head snapped back to the right and there it was - behind the trash bin leaning on the fence. A large cookie sheet. Too large for an average oven. I said, "hey, let's go have a look at that."

"What do you want that for." Said my neighbor. “You’re not planning to use it.”

"I don't know, but I'm sure I can find a use for it." I said. And I lugged that thing home. It was in perfect condition. No dents and no rust spots. I dug a place behind the tool cabinet in my husband’s garage for safe keeping like a puppy does with its' bone for a few months while I contemplated a use for it. One day, he found it.

"What do you want this for?" said my husband.

"I'm not sure, but I know I'll find a useful home for it." I said.

He put it in the “I don’t know what to do with it” pile. Months later it became my magnetic board. It fits in perfectly behind my desk in between the shelves. It's large enough for more than just post it notes, the magnets grab nice and tight and it has a lip around it for clips. Perfect and free.

Cookie Sheet as Magnetic Board

This should clear up any of those tiny loose ends that seem to scatter everywhere. And now you have plenty of ideas to get your creative juices flowing to find a suitable home for those pencils and pens and bits of paper, but if it happens not to be a ceative enough solution for you as to what to do with all those extra pencils that seem to accumulate, you can do what Karen (calligrapher) did with her "extra" pencils.

Karen's tip:

My method seems to be dump & run...which works fine at the moment, but not so handy the next time when you need to find something! . . . I at least keep the piles of junk separate, compartmentalized, and out of sight! . . . three of them hold clear plastic buckets filled with colorful supplies like ribbon and paint tubes. I also have one wall lined with those plastic stacks of drawers. There is a small desk to hold my computer and sewing machine. And of course, I have my pencil, crayon, and calligraphy chairs.