The Joy of Junk

Best-selling author Mary Randolph Carter is back at it with a full-throated celebration of junk and thrifting. The Joy of Junk shows us how to live stylishly and creatively with the personally meaningful objects we love to collect for our homes.

From the author who taught us that "junk" in not a four-letter word, and drawing on her years of experience as a passionate thrifter and collector, Carter highlights her favorite junking moments, revels in the thrill of the hunt and imparts many personal tips for finding treasures in flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, shops, on the web, or wherever you may find yourself. With her passion for self-expression and her personal approach to decor, Carter speaks to our desire to surround ourselves with belongings that bring beauty and meaning to our lives.

Along the way, Carter interviews other designers and high-profile collectors--such as Lisa Eisner, Bunny Williams, and Mike Wolfe from "American Pickers," among others--revealing their favorite treasure hunts and showing us how they live with their collections. Inspiring and liberating, The Joy of Junk shows how we can integrate our passions and histories to live creatively and happily with the special and quirky objects that give our homes soul."From the author of Never Stop To Think…Do I Have Space for This comes another apologia to collecting. Carter, a Dutchess County resident, loves junk, loves searching for it, loves telling stories about it." —Chronogram

"'I wanted to witness the whole junk concept with diverse collectors,” she says... At the heart of it all is a search for the stories and memories attached. When Carter asks each of the collectors 'why do you do it?' the answer always comes back to: because it makes me smile. It’s fun. It’s joyful. In the new book, Carter also shares her favorite junking haunts, and while many shops in the Rural Intelligence region have closed over the years, there are still enough to keep a junker occupied."
—Rural Intelligence.com
Mary Randolph Carter is an author, photographer, avid collector of junk, and longtime creative director for Ralph Lauren. She is the author of Never Stop to Think Do I Have a Place for This, A Perfectly Kept House Is the Sign of a Misspent Life, For the Love of Old, and the Junk books, a series of books on discovering and decorating with flea market finds.