‘I spend my days searching through trash – I’ve made £1000s’-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

Sarah Moore is an expert at turning trash into treasure (Picture: BBC/Money For Nothing)

Sarah Moore has spent almost a decade loitering at recycling centres hoping to find treasure in the rubbish.

As the host of the BBC show Money for Nothing she’s been travelling the UK and stopping people in their tracks before their stuff goes to the point of no return.

Along with a team of experts, the 51-year-old designer will then upcycle the unwanted items and sell them for a profit. All the money goes back to the original owner, who didn’t expect to be the star of a TV show when they loaded their car up with ‘rubbish’ earlier that day.

The show’s concept came to Sarah when she noticed somebody disposing of some Christmas decorations she wanted while on a trip to the tip.

Describing herself as a third generation thrifter and keen upcycler she didn’t enjoy witnessing the disposal, and her brain began churning about how she could stop this from happening so often.

In a twist of fate, the week before she’d met a TV commissioner at a dinner, who told her to get in touch if she ever had a format idea and now she did. That chance meeting and festive sighting have led to 17 series, over 350 episodes, and 1000 transformations (they are still very much counting).

‘I was very lucky. I stood in for the pilots, and they said they wanted a series with me hosting it,’ she told Metro.co.uk.

Sarah has got an eye for potential (Picture: BBC/Money For Nothing)

Spending all day standing by skips may not sound joyous for everyone, but Sarah finds getting to mooch through people’s belongings is always fun (she even occasionally looks through her own trash to make sure her husband Pete Smith hasn’t binned something great), and she assures us that 95% of the time it doesn’t smell.

Each day, she’ll try to find at least three items to restore, but on some days she can spend eight hours on location and come up with zelch.

Even those who don’t want to appear on the show get Sarah’s advice. ‘They often don’t want to be on camera because they are dressed in their “tip clothes”. For instance, a guy in socks and flip-flops wouldn’t be on the show and… fair enough.’ One camera-shy person was about to throw away solid silver Italian cutlery worth £2000 before Sarah came to the rescue.

The people who have accepted a camera in their faces have also been the happy recipients of thousands of pounds. Her TV show transformations have included turning a cast iron frame into a garden bench which was sold for a whopping £1400, and a tired sofa that was upholstered and went for an impressive £2500.

There are also the more common moderate turnovers such as around £100 for transformed drawers, or a rocking chair for £50. Although the contributors are handed cash, Sarah reveals that as soon as the cameras stop filming they immediately take it back and instead give them a cheque due to BBC wanting a paper trial of every penny.

The profit from the items is given to the owners (Picture: sarahmoorehome/Instagram)

Mostly, people are happy to have received an unexpected income in any form, and they’ll often donate to charity, or use it for something special.

‘I love that we’re helping to create memories for people. One man told me he would use the £1000s we earned him to fly in some family from Canada for his grandma’s 100th birthday – that was special,’ Sarah enthused.

‘More than ever, people will say to me off-camera: “This will really help us”. They’ll put it to a broken boiler, or bills.’

Sarah has one recycling centre criticism (Picture: sarahmoorehome/Instagram)

While it’s mostly fun working at recycling centres, there is one thing she doesn’t enjoy – people’s driving.

‘You have to watch your back because people seem to operate with completely different driving rules because they are so desperate to get rid of their polystyrene.

‘Once I got smacked by a van door that flew open in the wind and it nearly knocked me out,’ she recalled.

Richard is a fan of Money for Nothing (Picture: Getty)

The risks are worth the reward and the programme already has two more series in the works. Sarah is hoping for a future appearance from Richard Osman, who is a proud fan of the series, or Julie Walters, who lives near one of their filming locations in Guilford, in another celebrity special.

However, the beauty of the show which plays an episode on a BBC channel almost daily is it doesn’t need stars to attract viewers.

Sarah believes the alure of the show is its simplicity. ‘There’s something very earthy about finding old stuff and recognising value where other people don’t see it. It’s more relevant now than ever to try to make the best of what we have.

‘We were the first ones to look at making stuff old stuff better again before The Repair Shop and Find It, Fix It, Flog It and the genre is still growing.’

Sarah is happy that the show has women at the helm (Picture: BBC/Money For Nothing)

As long as people want it, Sarah will do it as she still gets the same amount of enjoyment out of making money for nothing as her very first find.

She also sees it as important to be part of a show with two women at the helm. Jacqui Joseph, 64, is part of the team, as well as JJ Chalmers, 37, and Jay Blades, 54.

‘It’s so vital to see older women on screen. We’re flying the flag that girls are strong and capable… and we’re on tools,’ she stated.

Money for Nothing airs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2:15pm on BBC One. Episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer

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