One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, especially here in Korea. Our small two bedroom apartment came with very little furniture when we moved in…basically a bed and a wardrobe. So, we often keep our eyes open for special finds on the side of the road. We ended up splurging on an $80.00 green futon.
We thought it was a great splurge, just in case anyone comes to visit and needs a place to sleep. Plus,we needed something to sit on to watch Korean tube.
When I was home for the wedding, Adam walked up the hill behind our house and found the most ornate desk. It has beautiful carvings in the doors.
I guess I should explain “behind our house.” Up the hill, behind our house are I think three buildings of the typical high rise Korean apartment buildings. At the bottom is a huge area where they sort their trash for recycling. Plastics, Styrofoam, Cardboard etc. There is a special spot for furniture, so a few times a week, on our way home from work, we ride our bikes past there looking for goodies.
This is our “endtable”
The other night, it was a fabulous night, NO RAIN, we took Olive for a walk and then to Baskin Robbins for some mint chocolate chip heaven. We went by the treasure area and found a great sight, someone, it must have been someone older, had moved out, or had a decorator come.
There was tons of furniture. We decided to haul back a painting, an arm chair made out of football material which we have covered with some cotton material and a gorgeous tv armoire. The armoire has a secret compartment that we can’t quite figure out how to open. The TV actually didn’t even fit, we had to take the set apart with a butter knife makeshift screw driver and put the tv back together once we had it inside of the armoire.
Our house is now fully furnished. It is perfect for entertaining and we love it. We talked about it last night and realized that we can make our home anywhere, with any budget.
Enjoy and come visit soon!
More from Korea
More from Korea
Intentionally and incrementally. Most families who live this way did not leap from conventional to adventurous overnight. They built remote work capacity, paid down debt, tested longer trips, and had honest conversations about what they want from their lives.
Different for every family. For some it is long-term travel. For others it is weekend adventures close to home. What connects them is intentionality about how time is spent and a preference for experiences over accumulation.
By finding stability within the adventure rather than treating them as opposites. Routines, rituals, and family rhythms travel with you. Kids need consistency in relationships more than consistency in geography.
That people are fundamentally similar across cultures. That comfort zone is a smaller circle than it feels from inside. That the things worth having in life require effort and discomfort. And that time together doing hard interesting things is the most reliable source of family closeness.
By getting clear on why you made the choices you made and returning to that clarity when outside noise gets loud. Most families living unconventionally describe an initial period of explaining themselves that gradually gives way to just living the life.
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