Hi all!

Last week, my co-worker Drew and I visited the University of Minnesota’s Reuse Center…the place where cast-offs from campus go to die. Or be re-sold to thrifty shoppers like Drew and me. The week prior, Drew had found a large vintage Steelcase desk for $25 (similar ones sell on eBay for nearly a grand!!) and an Art Deco-y filing cabinet, also by Steelcase, for $40 ($10 per drawer) for his home office. I tagged along with him to see what I could find for the shop. It was hard to get many decent photos because it’s really dark and warehouse-y but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

What we saw…desks, office chairs (take your pick for $9), adding machines, overhead projectors, a fridge, free shelves stocked with filing folders and binders, lockers, a mailbox, white boards, chalk boards, a hospital dolly, books and records, filing cabinets, rolling tables, a spotlight they found in the rafters of Nortrop Auditorium, wire shelving, paper filing systems, conference tables, a chest freezer and tons of other very miscellaneous stuff, including patriotic coolers and this board game I totally played at sleepovers in the ’90s. Everything was priced really reasonably.

What I bought…a barely used boom box with double cassette player (mixed tape anyone?), two large steel-framed mirrors for the store ($20 a piece), an old milk bottle to use as a vase ($2) and a circa 1981 Iowa license plate to give to Rae ($1).

The University of Minnesota’s Reuse Center is open to the public on Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can keep up with what’s arrived recently here and become a fan on Facebook here. If you go, be sure to bring cash or checks…they don’t accept credit cards.

Hope you all have wonderful Tuesdays!

xo,

Meghan