This weekend was full of amazing.
The twins and nana and I went on our local historic home tour.
(total aside: I saw the cutest idea on the tour where someone hung a globe from the ceiling. Please immediately let me know if you have ever done this and let’s be friends.)
The twins baked Christmas cookies in the new kitchen and decorated them with icing and calligraphy and sprinkles and I supervised and danced to Jingle Bell rock and made sure the cookies tasted okay.
Our family started our Christmas season with this beautiful advent book.
We went to see the Nutcracker in Ft. Worth and watched Clara fall asleep and the Sugar Plum fairy spin under a thousand twinkling lights.
And just when I thought the weekend couldn’t get any better.
Just when I so full of amazing your head would spin.
This showed up at a local yard sale.
Yes, Virginia.
Christmas came early this year.
I’m not really sure exactly what it is.
Please chime in if you have ever seen one, used one or currently are pushing one around your own home.
Here are my best guesses in no particular order.
A restaurant cart?
And industrial service vehicle on wheels?
A library organizer?
Here’s a clue to our mystery yard sale find.
It came with these metal inserts. They fit down into the holes on the middle of the shelves. They look like racks that were used for printing? Or dishes? Or books?
I can’t decide if I like it better with our without them.
And these sturdy wheels are at the bottom of each of the legs.
They lock in place and twist in all directions.
The cart called to me from the side of the road. We were driving by heading to the historic home tour. The sun was shining. The birds were caroling.
And then?
This little slice of affordable, amazing, incredible, once-in-a-lifetime yard sale heaven hopped into the back of my car.
But now?
What am I going to do with it?
I am so glad you asked.
I have a few ideas.
(total aside: please tell me you are not the least bit surprised.)
Here are my top five.
1. Use it with the inserts and roll it into the office with file folders in all the compartments.
2. Use it with one insert on the bottom and a basket on top to hold gift wrapping supplies.
3. Use it without inserts and three spray-painted numbered baskets on each shelf to hold craft supplies.
4. Use it without inserts and stack vintage games on it in the family room.
5. Use it with both sets of inserts and organize all my vintage marquee letters in the craft room.
The possibilities are endless.
Here’s to amazing weekends and yard sales everywhere.
PS I just thought of another one. Wouldn’t it be cute next to the tree stacked with presents?
Christmas is so much better with a rolling cart. 🙂
Interesting find! I bet you it lived its first life in a doctor's office.
That's my guess!
So many fun ways to use it, KariAnne! Great find!!
Yep. Thought the same thing. I have 2 similar in my garage. Married to a doctor!
Looks like a mail cart used to distribute mail from floor to floor, office to office in big companies. Something similar on early episode of The Americans! I like the office - files idea. I have a rolling file - made for that purpose so not as kitschy as yours, but sure helps. I work from home, too, so like flexibility it gives me. Sounds like you are settling in well. You brighten my days.
What about using it to display pretty plates in the separate "slots".
I was thinking this also. Milk glass perhaps.
I don't know what it used to be in it's former life, but if it were mine, it would hold my Victrola record player on the top shelf, and all those wonderful dividers would be for my vinyl record collection :) Jealousy is an ugly thing, :)
Definitely one of your ideas with the inserts. Those clever spacers are what make it unique! Just shelves tha roll, to boring for something you would create. Looking forward to the amazingly results, in 2018,of course. Happy holidays.
It’s a medical chart holder. Newer (less cute) ones still used in hospitals. You have such creative ideas to repurpose it!
Yes, I agree. They still exist in my medical world!
Love that you can see all the various ways to use this cart! My first thought is I would use it as a shoe holder~ and when company is coming~ I could roll it into a closet and VOILA! Clean entry. Of course, I do love all your ideas and can't wait to see what you do....and if you paint it, I vote for purple. Because I love purple and your desk didn't stay purple. :)
I can't wait to see what you come up with but even more.......how you decide to clean it up!! I moved this past year too and no yard sales where I am. I so miss them!!!!
A very interesting find! It sure looks like it held files. Book carts would not have dividers like that (book carts have one solid horizontal divider in them on each shelf). It looks like a great piece for organizing periodicals. Have fun with it!
It would be great it you kept it for files (and didn't lose the intended purpose!)Lol But whatever you do show us!!!
I am soooo jealous of your cart! I would love to know what you end up doing with it!!!
Have mercy and pass the grits!!! Texas is already reaping extra benefits...,can’t wait for the reveal! Merry early Christmas...✨
It looks like a medical chart rack. Back on the day there were actually patient charts with REAL PAPER. Always enjoy your posts.
We simply call it a utility cart- have several in our house. So handy and useful!!
Its either a library cart or for office. Looks kind of like medical cart as well. Very cool and with your talent it can be just about anything.
It holds medical charts and could roll for rounds - pushed many of these before the computer charts. we actually still have some folder type charts for some paper records. It will be good for crafting and holding projects
Did you find this at Becca's market sale? I drove by the sale on my way to the shoppe and purchased MANY items....I am such a naughty girl...many items will be for sale at the shoppe. I love their sales!!!
Thank you so much for sharing the Advent book...just signed up for her blog.
Yep...gotta agree that it’s a cart for holding medical records, either on the units-when there wasn’t enough counterspace for one of those ‘“lazy Susan” style chart racks and for rounding; for clinics; or in physician offices - normally for patients to be seen that day. Of course, this was prior to advent of electronic records (My [old] BS is in medical record administration.). If you use it for your files, be sure to get tabs on the side, not on the top, which will allow you to more easily ID the folder you’re seeking. When using hardcopy records, those in healthcare literally are dealing with “tons” of paperwork and these carts made the job so much easier. These were built to hold a lot of weight! And, if a folder becomes to full, one or more of the dividers may be removed temporarily. BTW, on those side tabbed folders, we use either numerical or alpha tabs which were color coded to help to quickly ID the one we were seeking. PS - a chart is an active (living/growing) group of patient documentation which describes the patient’s progress while he/she is being treated; once the patient is discharged, it becomes a record...
That;s too full, not to full. UGH. Autocorrect!
KariAnne, what a find. I'd leave out the insets, clean it up, add mirrors to the shelves (you'd have to have those custom cut.) and make a gorgeous bar cart. I can just see it with beautiful decanters and crystal glasses. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
Love the medical chart cart and can’t wait to see how you repurpose it. Ordering the Advent book for my son’s families!
Can't wait to see where it ends up........, and when are you going to reveal the finished kitchen to us?
ooo, what a great find! I would have guessed a library cart but it seems medical cart it is. :) Love your ideas! I went to a historical house tour this weekend too but didn't see a cool yard sale to stop at. :) Can't wait to see what you do with it. Seriously fabulous!
It sounds like you had a fabulous weekend! How wonderful to be so near your mom and to be able to have all sorts of holiday fun with her and your girls. Love your find. But most excited to see the new kitchen!
Thank you for repurposing those found treasures by the road, yard/garage sales or anywhere else you can find useful items. We put usable items that we want to give away a week before the garbage comes. Everything has always been taken so I assume others have had a better use for whatever is out there. I was thrilled when we put drop ceiling framework and panels out and they were gone in no time. Most memorable was when we put a lot of different sized newish tires from my husband's various company cars. One older man stopped and knocked on the door to see if they were really free. When I said yes, help yourself, he cried. So nice he found them and could use them.
I agree with the consensus on "rack for medical charts". Yes, I'm old enough to remember paper medical charts. Ha. I have to admit, KariAnne .... my first thought would be "ugly hunk of junk" and I would pass it right on by. It takes someone like you to see the potential.
This piece is so cool. I am in LOVE with anything on wheels! I would scrub the heck out of it and leave all the grit and glory on it. I can think of so many uses for this lil cart.
Showing my age: record albums? doesn't matter but such a great find!
Finally! I have got you back in my Inbox and life is good!! Sooooo many possibilities, why settle for one? I particularly like No. 3 but I have a feeling this little gem will be purposed and repurposed for many things in the coming years. Love it! But here's the big question: How are you going to refinish/paint it? (I know you have the paint brush poised and ready for action...)
Whatever it was in it's OLD life is nowhere near as exciting and creative as it will be in it's NEW life! No doubt about it! And I can only imagine how thrilled Nana was to be able to spend all that time with you three girls....suhWEET!
Lucky! What an awesome find. Are you going to paint it? I'm not personally liking the inserts but I do like the basket idea. I'm sure you'll come up with something awesome.
Hospital patient's chart holder definitely ~ I've worked with similar. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
AWESOME weekend, awesome find. Any of those would work - my fav is a file holder rolling cart in office - but that's what I need so that what I thought of first that it's prolly what it was in its former life...??? Well done.
I'm not sure what it was, but I can't wait to see what it will become!
Cookie taster is THE most important job, by far!
My first thought was that you would find a way to display milk glass bowls, plates, platters, etc. Can't wait to see what you decide!! xoxo p.s. Weekends don't get much better than that!! : )
I wonder if it was a library cart?
It is a medical cart. When the doctors would round at the hospital or nursing homes his nurse would follow him with his charts that were usually oversized. The nurse would not have to run back and forth to the nursing station for charts. Patients charts are electronic records now so these carts are not utilized in that setting any longer. Great find,,,
I see it in prison. Some prisoner rolling it down the hall filled with books (or have I seen too many films ?)
Looks like it might have been used to manually collate pages before printers had the capability. We had something similar where I work about 30 years ago! I love the cart for whatever it will be repurposed for!
I believe you may have landed a medical record(s) cart. These were used pre-electronic medical records in hospitals and are still found in many physician offices. Great find!
Oh I can't wait to see what you do. I have two old rolling metal carts, no dividers and smaller, that found their way into my car this summer and that I have been daydreaming about re-purposing lately.
That's pretty cute. I can't wait to see what it becomes with your touch. It sounds like a great weekend.
What an amazing cart. I love carts. Never can have too many. I think you have actually solved the problem. Do them all! When you are tired of one idea...switch to the next. It's like buying doll clothes for a doll--just changing roles for the cart. I'm sure the cart will thank you.
I think the best part of your weekend was the girl time! The cart... the icing on an extra giant metal cookie. You inspire me to get out my sander and go at a metal cart I could repurpose. Would sanding down the rust and burrs, and then clear coating over the imperfections work as an industrial finish?
What a great find! All of your ideas for its use are good ones, but the one I love best is the one in the comment from another reader and that is to use it to organize magazines. I describe myself as a "magazine slut" because I love, love, love reading and looking at all the eye candy in them. I tend to have quite a few subscriptions and I hate the idea of throwing out old magazines because I just know there will be something in one of them that I will someday need or want! Whether I would be able to find it or not is the question! Anyway, that is what I would use it for and perhaps try to limit myself to only the number of magazines that will fit in the slots. Ha, ha, who am I kidding? I think I would paint it, too? Are you considering giving it a make-over? Can't wait to see what you actually do with it.
you make us all and certainly me squeal with delight like a little piglet me thank you happy days
At first glance, being a librarian, I thought it was an old library cart. But, with the inserts, I'd agree with others it's an old medical file cart. I personally would use it for my working files, the ones that I use nearly everyday, so I don't have to bend as much to file things away in my 2-drawer file cabinet.
You are so cute! I would try a bunch of different things until something sticks. Kinda like how you know spaghetti is done by throwing it against the wall. Thanks for such a jolly post. I needed a little jolly this morning. Maybe it's time to turn on the fireplace. That is always jolly too. Here's sending you "I can't wait fir Christmas" thoughts. I'm hoping I get your book from Santa. All the best, The Other Marian
I love #3, the craft room with numbered baskets idea! What a great storage piece!!!
Cant wait to see what you will do! 🤗
Great find! I would use it in my studio for my art supplies.
I think it might be a mail cart used in offices...you could put folders or scrapbook paper or art supplies in it.
What a fantastic find!!!! I love all of the endless possibilities. I just ordered the Advent book you recommended. Thank you! My mother had an advent book that we read nightly from at dinner and when she passed I don’t know what happened to it. I had been wanting to find an advent book for my family and thanks to you mine is coming in a few days. I love following your adventures. Thank you for sharing. Megan
I'm almost positive that is an old cart for hospital medical charts. Like you would see on each floor in the nurse's station :-)
I love all of your ideas! This cart was a great find!