Most of what we haul is boring in the best way. It's the everyday stuff people clear out of a garage or a spare room. Every so often, though, a job comes along that you don't forget. Here are a few of those.
The cow
Somebody had a garage full of chest freezers, packed with beef, a couple of cows' worth, butchered and put away for later. Then the power went out. The freezers quit, the meat sat, and by the time anyone got to it, well. It was a dumpster full of rotting beef in the Florida heat. I've loaded a lot of things into a truck. That one I could still smell on the drive home.
Rust soup
A customer filled a dumpster with old rebar, the rusty kind. Then we got a solid week of rain and it just sat there. By the time we came for it, the whole load had turned into rust soup, leaking out the bottom and running across their driveway in a long orange stain.
I'd seen that coming, so I keep iron remover in the truck for exactly this. We got the stain off, and I handed the customer the bottle for any spots we missed. Told them if they needed something stronger, toilet bowl cleaner does the trick, just rinse it off after. They were thrilled. We got a great review over a twelve-dollar bottle of cleaner.
The carpet
This one was an eviction and remodel. The first thing out of the house was the carpet, and it came up in pieces. Turns out the last tenants had pets, and the pets had strong feelings about that carpet. I'll leave it there. We loaded it, hauled it off, and I changed my gloves twice. If you've ever dealt with an eviction cleanout, you know the carpet is rarely the worst part.
The lot that wasn't their mess
Not every odd job is gross. A guy who lives out of state bought a lot here in Port Charlotte as an investment. Someone drove out and dumped a pile of garbage on it, and the county was about to fine him for a mess he never made. He called around. We answered. We went out, cleared it, and wrote up the before-and-after photos he needed to square it with the county. He was ecstatic, mostly that somebody picked up the phone. That part still surprises people.
Why we tell you this
None of it is a brag. It's just the work. We pressure-wash and repaint our dumpsters between jobs so they show up clean, and we photograph every drop and pickup, partly so a rust stain never turns into an argument. Whether it's a junk removal pile or a rolloff full of who-knows-what, odds are we've hauled something like it around Charlotte and Lee County already.
So if you've got a mess you're a little embarrassed about, don't be. We've seen worse. Send a picture to 239-412-3283 and we'll tell you what it'll take.