Milk Jug House

around 2001
2004 2007
Josephine Stapleton began decorating her front lawn in Mays Landing, NJ with milk jugs in the late 1960s. Her displays included over 2,000 jugs at one time. She began collecting them to build a barricade to keep the kids with mini-bikes and dune buggies off her front lawn. She saved about 400 on her own, then family, friends and even passers-by started dropping them off. Somewhere along the line, she started painting the jugs and creating colored patterns with them.

She used two methods to color her jugs. Her favorite method is painting them but this is time-consuming (requiring two coats) and costly (filling the bottoms with cat litter). The other way was by using food coloring or fabric dye and water. This makes the jugs heavier and there are problems with freezing in winter.

Her previous designs included the numbers of NASCAR drivers killed in fatal accidents and seasonal displays: a pumpkin for Halloween, a turkey for Thanksgiving, a rabbit for Easter, and a Santa and tree for the Christmas holidays. The American Flag piece in front of the house was completed in 1992. It was made with over 800 jugs. Stapleton had a lot of trouble with vandals and hailstorms over the years. Around 2005, she decided not to create any new designs but to focus on maintaining the Flag. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2.

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