I was preparing to hold a sale in a nearby town, when a lady driving by saw the sign on my truck and stopped to talk. She had grown up in a house a few blocks away with her parents and three brothers. Both parents had died years ago and the last brother had recently passed away, so she was in town to “settle the estate”. I went with her to take a look to see if I could be of any assistance.
All three of her brothers had been architects or engineers and had built many of houses in the neighborhood. The house sat on a full acre and the land was covered with heavy equipment (backhoes, bulldozers, front loaders, etc.) as well as piles of building materials. There was also a huge shop full of power tools, more building supplies, and smaller equipment like forklifts, Bobcat loaders, cement mixers, etc. She said that she was still going through the house and was not ready for me to look at anything inside, but the two problems that she needed solved were selling the stuff outside and someone to keep up the grounds on this piece of property and another in town. I told her that it was obvious to me that she needed to have an on-site auction sale and I called a local auctioneer who agreed to meet with her. I also gave her the name of a guy who does yard work.
I ran into the auctioneer the next week and he said that he had gone by the house the day after I had called and there was a semi-truck parked in the driveway and people were loading up the tools. When he talked to the lady she said that she had decided to give everything to a ne’er-do-well nephew who had never held a job in his life because he had inherited nothing (I wonder why) so he “needed the money”. The auctioneer did not pursue it any further. Satisfied that I had done my best to help her, I never gave the place another thought.
Three years later …. I was talking to the wife of the same auctioneer I had recommended, and she said “do you remember that place you sent us to that had the semi-truck in the driveway”. She said that she had been called to that house by the same lady the previous day and they had gone over to take a look. All the equipment, tools and building supplies on the grounds and in the shop were gone. The lady said she had sold all the antiques in the house (to a local dealer who is notoriously cheap and unethical) and all that was left was a basement full of a huge amount of boxes of paper, stacks of magazines, and a massive library of books as well as big metal desks, file cabinets and drafting tables.. Selling the good antiques to the dealer had taken “all the draw” away from any sale, so the auctioneer turned her down. She had told them that she had ordered a six cubic yard dumpster and was going to throw away all the books and magazines and had a shredder truck coming from out of town to shred all the boxes of paper (mostly architectural drawings and house plans that do NOT need to be shredded). Since I started my company to keep things from going to the dump, I asked for her phone number to see if I could help her make some better decisions.
When I called her she remembered me as the one who had recommended the auctioneer and said that the guy I had recommended for the yard work was “the only one in the last three years to do good work”. I explained that I was calling to see if I could be of assistance with her process and she wanted to know how much I charge. I told her it was “The same as last time, nothing.” and that I hate to see things go to the dump and was just trying to help. She said that she would call me back the next day and we would meet then.
The next morning I started making phone calls so I would have the information ready for her.
The six cubic yard dumpster (which would have to be filled many times) would cost $137.60 each time. The shredder truck would cost 40 cents per pound of paper shredded (that’s $800.00 per ton). However if she had a set of six one cubic yard bins delivered on a trailer from the recycling center, the total charge would be $50 ( they would hold between 4 and six tons of paper).
I also called a book dealer who specializes in vintage engineering and architectural books and he agreed to drive from out of town to see if she had any books that he would purchase.
I called the manger of a local thrift store which normally does not provide pick-up of items, but since I donate dozens of truckloads each year agreed to come with a truck and crew to haul away usable items and books that they thought would sell.
I called some out of work guys that I know who are hard workers and would carry the stuff out of the basement for her at minimum wage.
She did not call me the next morning, so I called and left a voice message that I had some information that I thought she would find of use. She never returned my call. My friend at the garbage company says they emptied the dumpster eleven times.
Postscript: Every time I am taking a box or bag of stuff to the recycling center, I am forced to realize that at the same time there are people like her throwing literally tons of recyclable material into the landfill (and paying extra to do it).