Junk in the Country sale Saturday

Heading to Coeur d’Alene this weekend for Art on the Green ? You might want to squeeze in a second stop.

Coeur d’Alene couple Robin and Ron Lowe will hold their ” Junk in the Country ” sale on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. They offer antiques, vintage goods, handmade and repurposed items and food.

This is the third time the Lowes have hosted the sale in the last four years. They sell castaway items that they know still have life left in them.

“People know we’re going to do this (sale), so they give us things that they don’t want to see go into dumpsters,” Robin says.

Sometimes, though, it’s Robin herself who goes into the dumpsters. She recently pulled a couch out of the trash, removed its metal springs and repurposed them as napkin holders for the kitchen table.

For the Lowes, breathing new life into old junk is a lifestyle. When the couple married, they vowed to never go into debt.

“If we needed a couch cover, we’d cover it with a sheet that we already had,” Robin says.

The couple raised five children on Ron’s salary as an electrician. Despite a lack of health insurance and expensive medical bills for their middle child, who has diabetes, the Lowes managed to acquire—debt free—10 acres and three homes in Coeur d’Alene. Robin attributes it to their resourcefulness and frugality. Ron, for instance, recently built a barn using lumber from the couple’s property.

“It’s all because we’d use lights someone else didn’t want or a sink that was left at the dump,” she says.

Robin’s advice: “Appreciate what you have, and then make it work.”

The Junk in the Country sale will be held on the Lowes’ property at 6601 W. Kidd Island Road, Coeur d’Alene. It’s about six miles south of Coeur d’Alene off Highway 95 on the way to Moscow.

Admission is free.