Some people see an old chair on the side of the road and keep driving.

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I am not one of those people.

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I’m Robin, the treasure hunter, furniture rescuer, road-trip taker and questionable-purchase maker behind Junk Is My Life.

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My love for old things started long before Junk Is My Life had a name. Some of my earliest memories are tied to my grandparents’ farm in Huntington County, Indiana. It was the kind of place where family gathered in the yard, old cars sat beside barns and outbuildings, and there was always something interesting tucked away somewhere. I didn't know it then, but I was learning to look at old things differently—to notice what had been used, saved, repaired and kept. Years later, I'm still looking.

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I grew up going to farm auctions with my family, exploring my grandparents’ Indiana farm and learning early that something didn’t have to be new—or perfect—to be worth keeping. The farm auctions became garage sales, estate sales, flea markets and back roads. The things I'm hunting have changed, but the instinct hasn't.

 

Somewhere along the way, I became fascinated with the things other people overlooked. The battered cupboard hiding in the back of a barn. The stack of old dishes under an estate-sale table. The primitive crock nobody else noticed. The chair with good bones and terrible upholstery. The handwritten GARAGE SALE sign pointing down a road I absolutely did not have time to investigate. Naturally, I investigate it.

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The hunt is half the fun.

Today, Junk Is My Life is part antique business, part creative workshop and part ongoing American roadside adventure. I hunt garage sales, estate sales, auctions, flea markets and backroads looking for vintage pieces with a little history left in them. Some come home exactly as I find them. Others get repaired, refinished, reupholstered, repurposed or reimagined. And some come home simply because I panicked when someone else looked at them. Those are the rules.

 

But what I love most isn't necessarily the value of the thing I find. It's the story of finding it. The people you meet. The places you end up. The old houses you get to wander through. The barns you probably shouldn't enter. The roadside diners. The handwritten signs. The dusty boxes. The negotiations. The one thing you almost left behind—and then thought about for the next 40 miles.

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That's the good stuff.

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FIELD NOTES FROM A LIFE SPENT LOOKING.

Around here, I document those adventures through my Field Notes—stories from the road, favorite finds, furniture rescues, projects, places and occasional evidence that I have once again underestimated the cargo capacity of my vehicle. You may also encounter a raccoon from time to time. There is a reason for that.

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I've realized vintage treasure hunters and raccoons have quite a bit in common: we're curious, resourceful, easily distracted by interesting objects and perfectly willing to dig through things other people have discarded in hopes of finding something wonderful. I call it foraging. It sounds much more respectable that way.

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TAKE THE BACK ROAD.

Junk Is My Life isn't really about having more stuff. It's about noticing things. Old craftsmanship. Worn surfaces. Beautiful imperfections. Objects that have survived long enough to have stories. Places most people drive past. Things someone once loved enough to keep—and someone else might love enough to rescue. So I'll keep taking the back roads. I'll keep following badly lettered garage-sale signs.

I'll keep stopping at auctions, poking around estate sales and opening boxes marked $1 EACH. And I'll keep bringing you along for the adventure. Because there's always another sale just down the road.

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And there might be good junk.

— Robin
Junk Is My Life
American Roadside Adventures in Vintage

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WHERE CAN YOU FIND MY TREASURES?

Pipe Creek Mercantile in Peru, Indiana—Leave the bustle of the highway and take a step back in time. It is in a convenient location just off of US 31 just south of Peru, Indiana.

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Dutch Lady Antiques in Nappanee, Indiana—This is a wonderful antique shop in an old building called Coppes Commons. There are a variety of really cute shops that just need to be explored!​

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Mustard Seed Mercantile in Rochester, Indiana—An eclectic shop with a wide variety of unique items!

 

In addition to the antique stores, I also participate in Primitive Gatherings, an occasional gathering of a variety of vendors in Mentone, Indiana.

 

Many of the projects featured on my blog can be found in these shops. Take a moment to peruse my website, follow me on my junking journey, take a road trip to find these shops, and maybe stop at a few garage sales along the way and find your vintage treasure!

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Below are the links to the Facebook sites for the shops.

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Primitive Gatherings

Mustard Seed Mercantile

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Pipe Creek Mercantile 

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Primitive Gatherings

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Dutch Lady Antiques​