I've just been going through this. Was repainting a bedroom and found 3/4 of a gallon of the old paint--gone solid. Started going through cans and found a nice yellow, set it down on the kitchen counter to come back later to find it was leaking out the bottom in two pinholes! So I'm going through all of the cans now and cleaning things out. It was long overdue, anyway, but to find one leaking, well, that was too much. But I did find a nice leftover blue for the bedroom. :)

My 40 year old tub WAS pristine till I lost my grip on the hammer during the remodel. So I now have a decent sized chip on the outside of the tub. I just tried (just as in I did this yesterday) to use Krylon paint. First I used some torn masking tape to isolate the area in a less linear way, then used a few layers of primer to bring it up to the level of the porcelain. Then removed the one taping, sanded lightly, and taped again, similarly but a bit wider area and sprayed three layers of Krylon gloss white. So far it LOOKS very nice (the chip was about the size of a silver dollar) and I have "cleaned" it and it isn't budging. I won't be ready to use the tub for another month, but again my ding was outside the used area, so I think it will be fine. . .Since it seems to have worked, I have a sink given me by someone re-doing their bathroom. It is exactly the same as my current sink except less wear and tear. SO I am going to take it out to the shop (not installed yet) and try this on the sink. I'll let you all know how it goes. Just a note, after reading a few other forums about the companies that refinish bathtubs, I am less than convinced it is a good idea. Those that "just" had it done seemed pleased, but those who had it done five years or more ago, didn't think it was so great. The reasons varied and included color shifts and peeling/chipping off.

I love vintage kitsch, but in small doses! But if you paint them, they just won't be what they are, which is goofy smiling fruit! My SO would hate them too, but I hate his mug collection and inspiring Vince Lombardo framed quote too. I love, love Nosoccermom's montage, but that would definitely not work in some kitchens. But there might be some place in your house that could use a punch of color, like a half bath or a skinny wall spot next to a door or something. I'd find a place to hang a set of three and rotate them. I have two ceramic parrots that came from my grandma's old house and I'm gonna have to find a discrete little corner to hang them because they remind me of grandma's house and I always like them as a kid. They do not go with the current decor, but they could brighten up a little nook or corner and just be a fun surprise, not dominate the whole room. Grandma had them in a place like that, a skinny wall between a door and another wall. My friend had some goofy old fruit advertising pictures framed in a small plain half bath on one wall.

IdaClaire, such interesting photos. I'm glad to hear you're preserving them. I've scanned a lot of photos, some very old, negatives, slides and tin types. Plus all of our family photos taken over the years. Boxes and boxes, most not yet scanned. I had to ser that project aside for a while, but found it very rewarding. I just had a simple HP flatbed scanner and Photoshop. For people doing a lot of scans, there is equipment that will do batches and much faster. with Photoshop, I could crop, adjust the hue, contrast, saturation and remove or fix some of the artifacts (like your dots). Mold can create "foxing" and many album materials like plastic can leave marks, encourage mold, cause the photos to adhere to the plastic. Cellophane tape leaves brown marks. Inks can flow and transfer to other photos and leak to the image. Nowadays there are special archival quality materials that are kind, but in years past, these were not likely to be (readily) available. You might want to look into a preservationist as well as a scanning service, especially for any photos that are rare. The third photo down looks like a "Rough Rider". My grandfather was a Rough Rider, joining when he was 16 yo (fibbed to join). I have a bunch of photo from that era -- some showing all the tents where they trained (Florida). The men wore various types of "uniforms" -- apparently cobbled together from former campaigns. The uniform on the last chap does look like it belongs in a marching band; or possibly a conductor or circus performer. You might want to run that past an historian, or theatre production person. Someone at your towns historical society might be a good resource. When I was scanning a lot of old black and white family prints from those little booklets the photo shop used to put the 120 prints in, I got a huge kick out of enlarging them on my display screen. A regular wool skirt came alive with memories when I zoomed on it. I could see the flecks of colored wool dots amid the charcoal and found that I could remember that skirt of my mothers in detail and with that came a flood of memories and associations I was not informed of by just viewing the 3x3 inch gray toned glossy print. Now I want to post some of my photos and ask questions! So interesting.