IN WITH THE OLD

We owe friends and colleagues big thanks for their help and advice on where to snap up second-hand furniture – and for keeping an eye out for bargains for us! City centre charity shops have been amazing, and Curr & Dewar Auction House has turned into the most fun you can have online on a Monday night (unless anyone can suggest anything ‘funner’ as Hope would say...??! I’m sure some of you can!!). Placing bids then phoning up on a Tuesday afternoon to see if we’ve been successful was exciting (go on, try it!) – and a solid oak table and four chairs for £20 can’t be bad, can it?! 

Tip we’ve learned: lot of stuff goes cheap, but if you really, really want an item be brave – definitely go in higher than Ross’s first attempts of a ‘sensible and reasonable amount within the suggested range’! That won’t get you that daisy tea set, as it turns out... Somewhere between that and my yelp of ‘We NEED that tea-for-two set, bid up, BID UP!!’ is probably a good idea... oh, and when you start wondering if you really actually need your middle child after all, it’s time to STEP AWAY FROM THE BIDDING...

WHO KNEW??





Big thanks to my work buddy Eileen for introducing us to our new favourite place; Tayside Recycling. Situated just off Lochee Road - perhaps you all knew it was there, but I had no idea!

Part treasure trove, part massive skip, but if you like to rake and don’t mind ‘fixer-uppers’ and a bit of hard work, it’s worth a look!

It’s also good for a laugh and a wee bit fascinating, with stuff like hundreds of maps for £1 each (frame them – or paper a wall, cool!), a funny little shop where you can buy a china tea set for a fiver or fill a bin bag with ‘vintage’ (dahling!) clothes and fabrics for £6.

If you do visit, make sure you check out ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ upstairs (outside, up the wobbly fire escape and into a huge, crumbling warehouse stuffed with every sort of object in existence!). Things we found:

*A pristine dentist’s chair. Creepy! But I... er, want it?!

*Not one, but two doctors’ examination tables plus a pile of white doctors’ coats. Fun! (but not for the caff. That would be WRONG!! Right??).

*One of those amazing fitness machines from the 60s or 70s where you stand on a platform and wrap a vibrating belt around you. Useful!

Maya loves helping with the 'upcycling'!!

Unless you really don’t like old and not necessarily clean things, I’d recommend a visit. Go with a pal and you’ll have a laugh, if nothing else, but beware, you may become addicted!