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marilyn_c

Well!! I thought I collected everything!

marilyn_c
18 years ago

Houston Chronicle puts out a free magazine at Kroger's and picked one up and saw a house re-do where they used the owner's "broomstick collection" as an insert in a rolling cabinet bar in the cabana. A broomstick collection?? That's a new one on me....I thought I collected everything. However, I was looking in an old abandoned house the other day....it was for sale...so had permission to go in and look, and there were about a half dozen old broomsticks in a closet.

Looks like the old lady who lived there never threw anything away. I'm going to go back and get them. I may use them in a cabinet...it did look kind of funky, all the old colors, peeling paint. And the old guy I clean for...he has at least a couple of them too that I know I can get.

So, I'm off and running with my "broomstick collection" (and just in time for Halloween!)

Is there anything else I am missing out on? I thought I had just about all bases covered....what else is there to collect? (I lean towards old, funky, ugly, peely paint, rusty...and cheap or free.) ;)

Comments (29)

  • coloredthumb
    18 years ago

    I collected kitchen brooms for years. By Foster Sis's choice. The ones that are decorative rather than useful to sweep. I don't think they will make a good anything except kindling someday. LOL

    I just recently started a new collection. I'm hoping my friends and relatives will help me with this one as much as they helped the ones they started for me. I picked U.S. $100.00 bills as my newest collection item. Think I have much of a chance?

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Nope. You'd probably have better luck with broomsticks. ;)

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  • junkmama
    18 years ago

    My husband was at Texas Junk one day and he said the buy there says that artists buy broomsticks form him and make picture frames. I would love to see one. We have picked up a bunch of broomsticks hoping we could figure out something like to make.
    From the looks of this place, I think we collect everything.
    Carolyn

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    18 years ago

    Oh, oh, oh! I need to be vwey vwey afraid! LOL I've always been the type of kid who found one pretty rock and then set out to find as MANY pretty rocks as I could! LOL

    The old peeling paint broomsticks sound wonderful!

    I have a rubberduckie collection! Does anybody else? LOL

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Um, yes, as a matter of fact, Ya Ya, I do have a rubber duckie collection!

    And went by the house, and got not a half dozen, but 17 or 18 old broomsticks. I'll post a picture of them when I wash them. And I haven't even been to that other old guy's place yet. :))

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    18 years ago

    ROFLMBO attcha, Marilyn! Girrrl, as long as I've "known" you I sure didn't know THAT aboutcha! LOL I'll look and see if I've got a photo of mine.

    Thought I had one of all of them, but this photo just shows one shelf of them. I used to have about four wire shelves on the bathroom wall with all of them.

  • sudiepav
    18 years ago

    Love the duckies! I don't exactly collect them, but I have a few for my granddaughter, and when we moved, I set up a bathroom for her with: rubber duckie shower curtain, rubber duckie towels, rubber duckie soap, etc. At Christmas, I found RD ornaments made from glass, and I set up a small tree in there with the ornaments and yellow lights. I also have a RD who looks like my college mascot. Yes, I'm just like whoever said, find one pretty rock and a collection starts. I bet I have 15 collections of various sorts...and that doesn't count my shoes!

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Nice duckies, Ya Ya. I don't really "collect" them...as in search for them when I am going out and around, but I do buy them when I see them. I don't have many...maybe 5 and they are hither, thither and yon. I bought some little green frogs at a yard sale but my friend wanted them for toys for her coons, so I let her have them. I am like a pet coon, myself.
    I just love stuff. I don't know why. I don't think I had a deprived childhood. Someone said having a lot of "stuff" makes you feel secure. Actually, I worry about what is going to happen to it when I die. My daughter has already expressed concern over having to sort through it all.

    I went to the flea market yesterday and came home with another plant stand and a yellow ware cracker barrel and a McCoy jardinere. How can you have too much of that kind of thing?

  • sladybug2
    18 years ago

    What is the wierdest thing you collect? Not to hijack the thread but was just wondering. Mine probably is my pez despenser collection, godzilla stuff and felix the cat. Love them all.

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    The weirdest thing I collect....you mean, besides broomsticks?
    :)) I love things in jars and I collect little photo charms that were popular during the 1970's. I don't have that many but I look for them when I go out. Hard to think of other weird things I collect...I'm so weird, most things seem normal to me. I buy some odd things....like I bought an old, mounted large mouth bass. It's very old, and mounted on a plaque. I am going to put it over the door that goes from my mud room into the walk thru pantry. I don't have any plans to buy more of them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Some of the things that I collect just have to fall within a category, like rustic or lodge type stuff. We live on a bayou, and I kind of like the old
    fishing camp type look. One time I saw an alligator door knocker on ebay. Not that I don't already have more door knockers than doors, but I wanted it so badly. But the darn thing went for over $400!!! I bet it wasn't even old.
    I would love to have one like it tho. Just not at that price. I sort of collect alligators anyway. Like this one...excuse all the junk around it...it is in a cupboard that is a catch all. When it gets full, I pack up most of it and start over.

    Another thing I collect is turkeys and jack o' lanterns, but with a special fondness for teeny tiny ones. And barrels...like barrel shaped mugs, but also little ones.

  • Carol_from_ny
    18 years ago

    I thought I collected a bit of everything too. Broomsticks are a new one on me! LOL They do make geat curtain rods for smaller windows and for doorways.

  • wichitarick
    18 years ago

    hi,
    well you are right this is a first to come out.
    and a different angle , if it is wood and headed for a trash can I have it and just happen to have about 2 dozen broome handles in the rafters of a shed ?
    actually most are not the antiqueey looking ones but heavy broom sticks dowel that size is big$.
    I split one on a table saw and thought I might use them for trim on barn boards in the kitchen. i,ve used pcs of them in various wood working projects .
    but the main reason I still collect them is I was hoping some day to turn at least the front of the house gingerbread style. and use these as ?? sun rays? staggered with rectangles a round flat round effect , form squares , like 4 ii, 6 in with them diamonds in a row??/ that is the fun with the gingerbread, anything goes.and the round shapes are the hardest to get .
    I liked the old broom idea , thought one time to take an old broom and put it on the kitchen wall horizontally with cup hooks in the handle for display of kitchen junk .
    but just with some minor cutting and sanding and paint these are very good trim pcs. for projects. Rick

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Good ideas, Rick. I am feeling better about these broomsticks all the time. I like the idea of putting cup hooks in one and using to display kitchen items. One of the broom handles I have is that jadite color...gotta love that. ;)

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    18 years ago

    Ohhhhh, yeah! (This is coming from Ya Ya, who has a kitchen FULL of jadite dishes! LOL)

  • Daisy7
    18 years ago

    Goodness gracious! And here I've been using broom and mop handles to stake plants with! DUH (slapping forehead)

    BTW, I can't find wooden mop handles anymore. They are flimsy metal things that come apart when you hang them on the clothesline to dry.

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    I know what you mean, Daisy. I took my new collection over to a friend's today and cut off the old mop heads and broom heads on them. Some were completely gone...just a little coil of wire left. Anyway, one was still intact and in good shape. I felt like I should have kept that one because it really was better than the broom that I am using now, but before I could speak, my friend cut the broom off of it.

  • pjpackrat
    18 years ago

    I must be slipping, I would never thought to collect broom sticks, but I do have a small collection of vintage yard sticks with local advertisement on them, there stuck in corners around the house. I also collect vintage novelty salt & pepper shakers, I only have about 100 pairs now, down from 500 at my peak! AND since 3 or more makes a collection...Dh & I collect mortar & pestals, mixing bowls, roosters, old bottles, turtles, loads of rocks, 1000's of books, 3000 + sliver age comic books, green pottery, blue slope neck mason jars, pitchers, cast iron cookware, old marbles, wood bowls, old 35mm slides, old photos, old sewing stuff, beads and jewelry findings, broken jewelry, old tools, new tools and DH has his big Buddy L trucks & his matchbox cars from childhood, complete with the cardboard boxes, (was he a born collector or what?)They don't look like he ever played with them. DH has over 40 guns counting all kinds, BB & pellet, black powder, shotguns, rifles, ect.
    The pan rack is made from a 6 foot 1" x 3" with strip of molding as shelve for some S&P's, stained then bolted to studs to hold the weight of 6 cast iron pans.
    PJ
    {{!gwi}}

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    18 years ago

    Oh, gosh! Never thought to hang all of my cast iron skillets, griddle, etc. together as a display. Shoot! Wish I had a blank wall left! LOL

    They sure look good.

  • gourd_friends
    18 years ago

    After I lost a collection of oil lamps in a house fire, I swore I'd never start another collection........but I did!!
    .....ladies hankerchiefs, old aprons, 40's and 50's luncheon cloths, book marks, canes, autograph books, wall pockets, Kitchen Prayer items, and old barn pulleys.
    The barn pulleys look great with flower baskets hanging from them!!

    Jan

  • westernmaine
    18 years ago

    Thanks for clearing up the question for me." Why I cant toss the broken handle to my favorite garden shovel". I must be waiting for others to arrive so I have a new "collection"
    Anything wood I cant pass by, free or 1 or 2$ at a tag sail. Much is gathering. Do they reproduce on their own? LOL
    Stay away with that match. Â
    I must have been a tree in a past life.

    Thanks for the thread. IÂm not alone. When Dr. P or O phone me for their next show. I now know all of you will be in the green room with me. LOL

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Yep...I collect many of the above mentioned items. I have over 100 pieces of cast iron. They do look good hung like that...had some hanging in my last house.

    I like any vintage kitchen things. Anything for the garden...collect clay pots, plant stands, pots with attached saucers, cool or old pots of any kind.

    Collect items with waterlilies on them...mainly plates, also have buttons and jewelry. Mixing bowls. Pyrex. Jadite.
    Anything from the early 1900's through the 1950's, and some
    '60's. Older too, if I can find it. Cookie cutters and old kitchen utensils. I like the ones with colored plastic handles. I also like the little kitchen items made out of hard plastic that have advertizing on them.

    Turkey platters and little turkeys, jack o' lanterns and miniature ones, old Christmas ornaments, raccoon Christmas ornaments, old photos of animals, especially raccoons, and the old pony pics made by the photographers who used to go around house to house with the ponies and take children's pictures. I like anything tiny and old...little vases, figurines. Old dishes made in Czechoslavkia (I know that is misspelled...don't want to go in there and open the cupboard which is like Fibber McGee's closet, if any of you are old enough to remember that radio program from the 1950's.)

    Old marbles, old and/or broken jewelry, dice, photo charms,
    old blankets, tableclothes, napkins, incense burners, old horse figurines from the 1950's...especially palominos. :)
    Some of my collections I have narrowed down to very specific
    items...like the above palomino horses. I also collect goldfish items, but only if they are old. Cast iron garden lanterns that are owls...I have about 10 different ones. Also owls in general, if they are different than the ones you see in so many collections. My criteria is old or really interesting looking. I have a great horned owl tv light, for example. Anything that is rustic...old carved wooden bears. Wooden dogs or animals with glass eyes...if they are old. Besides dogs, I have owls and birds.

    Lots more stuff...I just love junk.

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    18 years ago

    Marilyn, girlfriend, you are my hero! LOL

  • pjpackrat
    18 years ago

    Oh Marilyn, The pony ride pictures sound grand!! I would love to collect more, but I don't have the room. Also I discovered ebay several years ago and some things bring so much, I just can't hold on to them. This way I can fund the shopping, and the hunt is so much of the fun!!
    PJ

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Several years ago, there was a book written about the photographers with the ponies and had lots of pictures in it.
    I would love to have a copy but I haven't been able to find the name of it or who compiled it. I wish I had written it down...but instead, trusted my memory. (Maybe I can be hypnotically regressed!) :)))

  • wichitarick
    18 years ago

    hi,
    two of these stacked together , would make a great plate rail , maybe even stacking 2 and attaching to wall , then put plates on and add another for the top . so they kind of ahave a groove to slide into.
    also remembered when I first started doing country stuff I was going to use a kids model corn broom because it was smaller . maybe tea stain it to age it. I think I was going to attach it to a washboard,
    and just like I said , I was just looking at some gingerbread yesterday and it had a tooth pattern around the door that could have been 4,6in pcs of broom handle. it,s all in the mind. Rick

  • nonacook
    18 years ago

    I have over a 1000 elephants, and everything that PJ mentioned, and all the stuff that Jan mentioned, and a collection (about 40) of kitchen graters, other kitchen utencils, milk glass, about 25 kerosene lamps, books, (some on collections, of course), milk glass, and kettles and coffee pots, and.......
    I have even saved old broom handles--once made hobby horses with fake fur and used broom handles for the 'riding' part.

  • maders
    18 years ago

    this made me think about my friend whose in laws are Jamaican and you never take a broom with you when you move- and the other one if you have guest who have overstayed their welcome turn the broom upside down and they'll leave!! what a hoot!!

  • marilyn_c
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    I scored a nice red broom stick someone had set out with their other trash, a few days ago. My collection grows! ;)

  • weedwhacker
    18 years ago

    ooohhh! I had an idea, how about a chair rail topping off bead board in your kitchen, cut the broomsticks in half lenghtwise to make them flush, (then you'd have twice as many)I can just see all the colors one after the other, you could even double it, stack up 2 for a wider rail.

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