Garage Sales

Featured Pro: Carter Oosterhouse
Category: Home Decor
Time: 2:54


CARTER OOSTERHOUSE: I absolutely love to repurpose, reuse and recycle things around the home. One of my favorite things to do is search for treasures at yard sales or even antique stores. The fun part is then finding creative uses for the things that you do find.

I’m Carter Oosterhouse, and this is your GMC Trade Secret.

There are so many different items in garage sales and antique stores that, you know, you may not think of at first, but when you really look at them – I mean, like this little case right here, I mean, this was used for old sodas, probably in, like, the `40s or something like that, but you could repurpose it and maybe use it for a display case or, you know, maybe put shot glasses in it. You could maybe put keys in it so it could go into a mud room or something.

Something like this, too, which was obviously used to water flowers, and it’s still functional. I’m sure you could put water in there if you wanted to. But you could also use it as a vase. Or you could, because it is so high, maybe put it in the corner of a house and just keep it as it is or put high reeds in there or something like that, because it is such a high and tall piece.

This old box is kind of cool. It obviously has a great logo on it, so you know it’s dated. But it’s pretty strong too. I mean, the joinery is really nice and tight in here. It’s something you could use just to hold things or display things even.

This ladder is actually really neat, completely dated; still has some of the hardware on there, which is really interesting. But you could also use it in, like, a bathroom to maybe drape towels over or even linens of some sort.

Now, this is a shovel, probably for some kids way back in the day. I don’t know what you could use this for; maybe like a knocker on the front door. That would be kind of cool.

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is take an old shutter, which you wouldn’t think you could do much with, but you could paint it. You could put it right up on your wall of your bathroom and you could actually put S hooks on it and you could hang jewelry, necklaces, what-not.

Washboards just look fantastic. They have this whitewash or this old rustic finish on the side. You could even put hooks in this and then use it for keys.

I feel like once I take these items home and I paint them and I clean them up, I can use them all over my house. Now, when you start with your own collection, make sure you begin with something in mind and find some creative ways to use the garage sale items that you found around your home.

From here on out, happy hunting.

I’m Carter Oosterhouse, and that’s your GMC Trade Secret.