And I mean literally. I know it might seem a bit manky or downright gross, but I fished this cake stand out of a skip. Yes, I rescued this decorative plate from the bin. I pulled it right out of landfill. Okay maybe that’s going a step too far, but it had been thrown away and was found in a skip. It wasn’t broken, chipped or cracked and the only thing that I can see that might be slightly wrong with it is that the gilded edge is faded in places – but surely that just adds to the charm of a vintage cake stand?
It’s had a long soak and good scrub since being hauled out of the rubbish pile, but here it is, clean as a whistle and looking pretty nice – I even like the blousey floral pattern and will happily add it to my collection of vintage crockery. What I can’t understand is why things like this are going to the tip without being offered to others first? why waste something that still serves its purpose? Even if the pattern is not to your taste, there are plenty of makeover projects for crockery that I’ve pinned on my Pinterest boards, so it’s a great thing to have, even if it’s going to be upcycled!
The same thing happens to me when I go to the dump with my recycling: I always see something that I’d be able to make use of in one of the massive bins but unfortunately once something has been thrown into those massive recycling containers, you’re not allowed to take it out – those are the rules. And I’m sure it’s a health and safety issue, but it seems such a waste of resources. I should also point out that you must always ask permission before taking anything out of a skip and luckily for me I’d already asked about taking bits out of this particular skip in the past ad I know that the owner was happy for me to have a rummage. Have you found anything interesting in a skip recently? Have you upcycled something that was destined for landfill? Let me know, I’d be good to know that I’m not the only one being a little bit gross when I pull some goodies out of the bin!