Trash vs. treasure programs piling up
August 7, 2012 – 4:18am By The Associated Press
Shows capitalize on fascination with junk
Toy hunter Jordan Hembrough stands in his storage space in Ridgewood, N.J. Toy Hunter premieres on the Travel Channel on Aug. 15. (Travel Channel)
Tracy Hutson wanders through a graveyard of ovens that haven’t roasted a turkey or baked a ham since decades before she was born. Picking through their discarded parts, she muses: “The rust on this is just so gorgeous.”
Her Picker Sisters partner, Tanya McQueen, agrees — yet another item to bargain for, purchase and turn into a high-end piece of furniture on their Lifetime network TV series.
You’ll find a similar pair of women, the Junk Gypsies, doing much the same thing over at HGTV. And these two pairs are not alone.
The list of television shows about hunting for elusive treasure amid mountains of discarded stuff keeps growing like a suburban landfill. At least three new entries are premiering this summer, adding to the already double-digit roster of shows about “pickers” and pawn shop owners and people who bid for the contents of storage containers.
Why, especially when we’re so overloaded with our own clutter and junk, are we so fascinated with the search through other people’s castoffs?
https://thechronicleherald.ca/artslife/124437-trash-vs-treasure-programs-piling-up
