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Friday, March 18, 2011

The dirty Truth...

A little while ago now fellow blogger, antique dealer and boathouse customer, the lovely Kitty from Kittys Vintage and Kitsch opened a new shop on beautiful Mt.Tamborine called The Shop Time Forgot. In the course of things Kitty did a funny post on the new realities of her life as a vintage shop owner which I could so relate to. See the truth is, while we show you all the pretty things we purchase aswell as the arranging of our shops which is I agree lots of fun, really we are cleaners. I can clean anything...yes I am proud of this and yes I do find it sort of therapeutic....now that is just sad I know ha! The above are some of my tools, classy orange bucket, detergent and collection of scrubbers.  

And these are what I wear....yes frighteningly ugly but necessary. (Have been known to accidently wear these rubber shoes out when I have to nick to the shops, bank or school, aargh!) 

                                          Wednesday's task was to clean these two lovely chaps. I always add a few little things aswell to break up the monotony. So there is a cute basket (which I have kept because I LOVE it don't tell Kristen) a little shoe box and an old swing. Now I know what you are thinking they don't look too bad
                                          Hmmmm lovely. These pigeon holes had been used as a pantry shelf.
                               The tall meat safe cupboard is just lovely.
                                         The shelves are a hard metal mesh.
 The original owners had written names on the inside...just names and very few numbers so you wonder why?

Somtimes you have to make decisions to keep things or clean them off. I decided to leave these names on as I thought it added and interesting history to the piece.
The pigeon hole shelves have a ply back. When cleaning anything with ply you have to be careful as it does not like water and will swell up and become wrecked.

 I like it when the cleaning process reveals things I hadn't noticed at first. The sewers and crafters will guess what this knob is made from straight away. Yes it's an old wooden cotton reel. Just lovely!
 Sometimes, (in truth rarely ha) I get a spur on and I decide to clean a few more things, like this old wheel and part of a bed frame. I sell the bed frame bits at the nursery as they make interesting trellises for your garden or on a wall. The wheel also looks interesting on a wall or in a garden.
 I love the details on cast iron old beds.
 I also decided to clean this chap and the little table below. The cupboard had been kept in a garage...hmm lovely dirt etc inside which I didn't take a picture of but eventually came clean.

 And here they all are over at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre. I was going to take them to the Nursery but when I called in at the WAC there were a few spaces where other things had sold so I decided to fill the spots with these.
                                 I really like the colour of this cupboard.
Hope you all have a good weekend. Today I am cleaning suitcases, I wonder what Kitty will be cleaning ?

30 comments:

  1. I do love that blue cupboard too. That's a lot of cleaning!

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  2. Good on you for showing us the not so glamorous side of the antique/second hand business. I bet you come across the grubbiest of things...but gee, they always come up a treat at your shops. xx

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  3. Oh katherine that little green cupboard is delightful.. and I could do with you down here to help me clean all the furniture that's been stored in the garage... what are your rates? hehehe

    Hope you have a lovely weekend.. ciao xxxx Julie

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  4. Hiya, I would kill for the little pink pantry and the blue cupboard..good thing they are so far away. Tam

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  5. I love the cotton reel cupboard knob detail. The blue cupboard is gorgeous too.
    Happy Cleaning
    Carmel

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  6. Glad its you and not me. I am hopeless at cleaning!

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  7. That was a height chart I bet on the cupboard, we do the same thing here on an old sliding door out here in the lean to of the house..the childrens names, and the height, sometimes just names.....I would have left them too..x

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  8. Great bits and pieces Katherine... and now nice and clean! Enjoy your weekend. ;-)

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  9. Spring cleaning is fun and now you're spared from all dirt. Well got to start with my own now. BTW i love the table there.

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  10. I know who to stalk when I have a stubborn stain. I bet you go through a bit of bicarb and vinegar? A-M xx

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  11. Cleaning is such a rewarding job especaily for you what a buzz you must get when you see the end results. Enjoy your weekend, dee x

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  12. When reading this I cringed a little at what things I may have scrubbed off in the past ...besides dirt, maybe a little history?

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  13. Now if you have any tips for cleaning the insides of all bottles I am all ears. I've tried just about everything under the sun.

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  14. I am so loving your adorable hat katherine.
    Pam x

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  15. i really like the colour of the cupboard too!

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  16. Hi Katherine, thanks for the link. For me this week is lots of hand washing the filthiest vintage clothing I've ever had. In fact I dropped one dress by accident and it stood up by itself-UNglamour, right?! Oh and pls don't list anything I want for a couple of weeks, okay, until I get a van! *hugs*

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