Turning Nothing Into Something

Ever since I was quite small, I have been fascinated by the idea of turning "nothing" into "something" of either value or beauty, or preferably both.

My earliest recollection is of a winter storm — while I was growing up in Denmark, as maybe a 7-year old — occurring in early December, and I went out and tidied up the fallen fir and spruce branches, tied them into neat bundles, and sold them as Christmas decorations from a table out on our street.

My dad had originally wanted me to just pick them up and put them in a pile, so we could burn them later.

As time went by, the idea of gathering things like berries and mushrooms from the woods and selling them to various people around the neighborhood was always part of my reality. I expect this was made more possible by the fact that we lived in a somewhat affluent neighborhood, so most of the people there weren't in the habit of scrabbling around for found goods.

As I grew up from childhood into teenagehood into early adulthood, I was always a serious stamp collector and one of the things I discovered was that — since I had no money — what I could do was save up to buy large boxes of stamps from estate sales, take out the really good ones I wanted for my collection, and sell the rest at a profit so I could do the same thing again.

It was a practice that came to stand me in good stead many years later when we were in Covid lockdowns, and I had no money coming in. But I was able to sell off items from my stamp collection on eBay, and it gave us enough money to live for about 18 months.

When I moved from Texas here to Washington State, one of the earliest ways I discovered to pay my bills was to pick up interesting things on the beach and sell them to artists and crafts people who worked with "found objects."

Once again this was a case of turning something that most people would regard as rubbish into treasure that people used to make art and decorative items with. Or, as you might say, turning nothing into something!

It is something I continue to do, to this day, although not as prolifically as I once did.

One of the things I really appreciate about this process, is that there is generally no cost associated with it. With the exception of minor outlays for the boxes of stamps, I don't have to buy anything in order to have things that I can sell.

In essence, I end up brokering something which in most cases amounts to some variation of my expertise.

Although some people might argue that it's a high risk proposition, I find it to be quite low risk because I don't have to invest anything other than my knowledge and time and what I'm doing, and against that backdrop it's actually quite successful.

I could make the same argument for my painted rocks, in as much as I don't have to invest in canvases or buy clay or raw materials... the raw materials are free for the picking up on the beach!

In their own way, the words we write represent a version of turning nothing into something. Writing is not like making shoes or selling books, because the value created is not manufactured.

Of course, I also love the fact that I am not working for anyone!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Have you ever tried to turn what seems like nothing into so.ething va? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.03.25 00:57 PST
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