Trash To Treasure - Finding Beauty Others Don't See - An Example To See Things For What They Can Be

Want some inspiration from a nice restoration project?

This is more than a pot.

I admit that I march to the beat of my own drum. As I look back at my previous life chained up at one of the biggest global banks, clarity and relief are the first words that come to mind today. I've learned that dependance on others for security and livelihood is a free choice, and life is amazing when we bravely break that mold.

I fully support myself with thrifting and freecycling. This runs deep for me. It brings me a lot of pride and happiness.

When I was forced to read "Of Mice And Men" in high school, and I didn't know why then, there was one quote that resonated through me and rewired my mind. The quote is naturally strengthened by context from the book, but it simply said:

live off the fatta the lan[d]'

In my eyes, this meant living happily by my own means by harvesting what natural or available resources were around me. It meant that I didn't need to chase a big carrot in front of me because I'd learn how to grow my own carrots, if you catch my drift.

Here's a nice fusion of my freecycling and purpose to show why we shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Le Creuset is an expensive French cookware brand. In the past, I found a large dutch oven on the curb during my recycling efforts that had some issues I tried to clean up. It was my first time trying to undo decades of wear and abuse on cast iron cookware, and the results reflected that. I offered it to a friend who loves to cook and was excited to buy it from me, but it wasn't in the best shape and she felt bad taking money out of my pocket. I sold it on eBay to a happy customer and moved on.

Last week, I found another one right on the curb in my neighborhood that looked like it came from the depths of hell. It was late at night, so at least a few hundred people must've walked right by it and left it for dead. When I saw it, my eyes lit up for two reasons. First, I wanted to save it from being destroyed by bringing it back to life. Second, if I did a good enough job, I could offer it to my friend again as a thank you for her help in the past.

The starting point:

A closer look (this was like cement):

The bottom:

Under the lid:

I never back down when I make a commitment to myself. In this case, I told myself I was going to return this to its former glory and give it as a gift to my friend who offered to buy the last one.

Armed with only a scrubbing pad, one wedge-shaped Lego brick, bleach, water, and my childhood Swiss Army Knife, this is what started to happen...

Very hard labor for two hours using a scrubbing pad and Lego wedge piece:

Now there's hope. Bleaching several times for a few days:

Not good enough.

I had to really ramp up the bleaching... WOW:

The lid also got some love:

Now for the base... this took 3 hours with my Swiss Army Knife, but the time flew by with music in the zone and the mission almost complete.

Voila!

All done with the hard stuff...

Now the fun part:

^{Yes, it's loaves... English isn't her first language.}

This brought me a lot of personal satisfaction. I saved this from being destroyed because someone didn't know how to cook, and threw out their mistake because they could buy a new one.

I put plenty of man hours and elbow grease into bringing it back to life better than I expected, and then gave it away for free as a thank you.

I could've sold it for $150 or so, but the happiness I could share with a friend was worth more than that, and the real reason I put forth all of the effort.

Lesson: see the beauty in things, life, and in making something out of what others wrote off, and possibly even share it with others...

Thanks for reading.

@steemmatt