Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Where it all began ...

After purchasing our first home, my husband decided to buy a trailer to complete a project. He was digging large amounts of dirt and rock from the basement area in order to make an even larger basement area.

After completing this project, he wanted to keep the trailer so he placed an advertisement on craigslist to try to pay off the trailer: "Hauler. I have a 10' hydraulic dump trailer that I can help you haul your unwanted items to the landfill. Please call Blake."

At this time, I was still working as a High School Teacher and Blake was working as an Information Analyst. On the weekends he would make extra money hauling debris and slowly this business expanded.

We were a newly married couple, without any children, so the weekend jobs were just extra money to play with after the trailer paid for itself.

The phone began ringing so regularly that we had to get a second line to take the calls and book the jobs around our already full time schedules.

At this time, our family was expanding. In January of 2007 our first child arrived and we made the decision for me to stay home from work, run the hauling business and raise our family.
With this decision, we also had to hire employees, acquire the proper insurances and, eventually, purchase trucks and trailers to complete all the jobs coming our way.

Throughout the years we have acquired many items that came from other people's lives: furniture, art, household accessories, etc. At first, we saw value in everything. Our garage filled quickly! I vaguely remember a time when we once parked a car in our garage.

Over the years we have learned that not everything has value. We donate much of what comes our way, however, the higher valued items we either keep or sell.

And then there are the other items ...  the ones that once meant something to someone: the silver salad tongs, the currency from overseas, the once prized baseball cards and comic books, the miniature figurines, the priceless photographs, the jewelry .. the list goes on. These items were all valuable to somebody at one time. I can't help but to think they would like their stories to be passed on ...