One person's junk removal is another person's treasure of memories

Junk removal isn't one of the more glamorous aspects of the job for movers but for Paul Wagner of Two Small Men, it's often where the real work gets done. More than a question of just getting rid of stuff as quickly as possible, it requires understanding, sound judgement and timing when it comes to sorting through possessions that have been with their owners for many years.

“I do a lot of junk removal,” Paul says simply. And it always goes hand-in-hand with moving.

It often starts the same way. It's time to move and there's the dreadful realization that some things will need to stay behind.

“It’s usually just stuff that people don’t want when they’re moving,” Paul explains. “Broken furniture, or stuff that they know they can’t fit into the new house.”

Moving and junk removal are intrinsically tied. And because of this, they need to be planned in unison.

“If it’s a junk removal and a move, we’ll pack up all their junk stuff first, put it on the truck, and then we move their house in,” says Paul. “After that, we take the junk out to the dump.”

This order makes sense. There might be value to the junk but it won't get treated with the same measure of delicacy as your prized possessions.

“You want to make sure you put your junk on first, cover that stuff up so it doesn’t damage any of the other stuff,” Paul says. “Then you do the move, and then you go do the junk removal after.”

This process can save customers time and money, especially when they don't have to coordinate multiple moving services. This can make a big difference when a customer is going through a big life change and that's usually the case for seniors.

“It would be mostly the seniors,” says Paul. “I’ve had a couple seniors where they wanted us to do some junk removal. It was a huge move. They weren’t sure if we were going to be able to take the junk, but I got it on there, loaded the truck up.”

When the moved was all wrapped up, the clients were obviously relieved.,

“Once we got to the offload, they were super happy,” he says. “They thought they were going to have to pay somebody else to go do it. But we were able to get it all on the truck.”

This can make all the difference when budget is a concern.

“It made their day because they didn’t have to spend more money than they needed to,” Paul says.

Some junk removal jobs take the movers completely by surprise.

“I had this one house,” Paul says, “and it took us four days to empty this one house. That’s how much stuff was in it.”

The monotony of these longer jobs is often broken up by some of the wild treasures that can be found.

“I’ve found some crazy stuff,” Paul says. “I got a brand new clown bike out of the deal. A whole bunch of McDonald’s toys still in the wrappers. Cards. All kinds of stuff.”

While the discoveries can be fun, the reasons behind the need junk removals are often more somber.

“The only bad thing about that junk removal was that the person died prior to this,” Paul explains. “It was their family trying to get rid of it.”

Cleaning out an estate is not something anyone looks forward to. It can leave families feeling overwhelmed and exhausted as they are suddenly confronted by memories long-since forgotten.

“It’s very awkward,” Paul says. “You don’t know if the family wants any of this stuff gone. A lot of family members are sitting there, and you’re going through their stuff. It brings up a lot of heartache.”

And then there's the question of what truly is junk.

“They’re finding stuff like, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen that forever,’ or ‘I didn’t even know he still had that,’” Paul says. “And then they end up breaking down and start crying.”

Sometimes, it's best to slow down.

“You have to kind of take a break and give them some time,” Paul explains. “Then come back to it.”

While antiques and other possessions need to be treated carefully, the real care needs to be extended to people.

“Talk to them, pull them off to the side,” he says. “See if there’s anything they want to talk about. Try to help them make it through that time.”

And even when everything is written off as junk ahead of time, Paul says it's still important to exercise caution.

“I’ve had that happen a couple times,” he says. “They told us everything in the house was junk. Then we found a piece of furniture that’s been in their family forever,” Paul says. “You call up the customer and say, ‘Hey, we found something back here. I wasn’t sure if you knew about this.’”

It's better when these discoveries happen earlier in the process.

“There’s been times where we’ve actually had to offload half a truck just to get that one piece,” Paul admits. “Because we didn’t call ahead.”

The inconvenience, however, is just part of the job. Because it's not just about making sure the space is cleaned out, it's about respecting the people who made those spaces special to begin with.

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