The queen of Cleanup Week is back on her throne

FARGO — She might be everyone's favorite late April/early May local celebrity. And as our local cities embark on collective spring cleaning, we're getting to relish in her greatness once again.

Since 2014, Sally Jacobson has been posing for goofy photos with trash. As she told The Forum in 2019, it all started when she went out for a walk with her husband and children during Cleanup Week, the week when residents of the metro area are encouraged to put items they wish to discard on their boulevard.

"We saw a desk sitting on the curb. My husband said 'wouldn't it be funny to start working at the desk?' So we did and we took a picture," Jacobson told The Forum. "When I got home I was still laughing about it."

She decided she wanted to keep at it, so she loaded her car with costumes that might work to wear when she ran across other commonly discarded items like refrigerators, couches and exercise equipment.

Her posts, at first just shared with friends, picked up steam and she started to get fans who began looking forward to her photos every year. She even had people calling recommending curbs where she might find great photo opportunities.

However, the pandemic derailed her escapades slightly in 2020.

"We weren't sure if the virus was transmitted on surfaces at that time. So I used lots of hand sanitizer and only did a couple photos. It just felt weird. But we were pretty much back to normal in 2021," she said.

And this year, she's back to normal again – if you consider 'normal' wearing a tiara on some trash bags, eating pizza in a bathrobe on a curbside couch, or cutting the grass with a toy lawnmower. Check out this year's photos on Jacobson's Facebook feed. (Click on the Facebook logo to fully see the post. If the post doesn't load for you here. Just search Sally Jacobson on Facebook and you will see this public post).

As Jacobson says in her post, part of the message here is to remember to 'reduce, reuse and recycle' while also having some fun.

"It makes me smile," she said. "I get a kick out of making people laugh."