Case Study: A Long Day pt 1
Monday, we had a double-header of jobs lined up. First stop: an apartment cleanout — our first one yet.
We pulled up, backed in, and the building owner met us at the door. He unlocked a back entrance and showed us how to use the service elevator. Jay joked it felt like some kind of VIP access. Truth be told, it did feel like a backstage pass — hauling style.
Inside the apartment, it was wall-to-wall boxes. Books, antiques, mirrors, phones, papers — basically the whole story of someone’s day-to-day life. The gentleman who lived there was 87 and had recently gone to the hospital. With no family around, everything needed to be packed up and moved into storage. Unlike some jobs we do, this wasn’t a trash-heavy cleanout — it was about carefully moving his belongings to a new place.
At first glance, it looked intimidating. But once we started, we realized things were packed in our favor: lots of boxes, neat enough to stack on dollies. The heaviest pieces we were dreading, like the living room couch, turned out to be laughably light. Daysean and I braced our cores, ready for a fight through the doorway… but as soon as we picked it up, we both cracked up. That thing was maybe 20 lbs. Easy win.
There were plenty of memorable little discoveries along the way: a few old suits, luxurious briefcases, and travel luggage that told us he really had been a lawyer, traveling and working cases back in the day. It felt like packing up chapters of a long life.
The real grind wasn’t the weight, it was the repetition: up and down, in and out, endless trips in that elevator. Without our dolly, it could’ve taken the whole day. Instead, we were stacking 6 or 7 boxes at a time and rolling them out fast. A few times, though, we crammed the elevator so full that we couldn’t even get out. Daysean had to literally climb over the boxes to let us escape.
And since it always seems to be the hottest day of the week whenever we work, we were sweating buckets. At least on outdoor jobs, you get a breeze. Here, the air felt trapped. Every time we got down to the truck, we’d savor those quick seconds outside before heading back in for another load.
By the end, the truck was packed tight. We played boxy jigsaw until the door finally shut.
Haul Stats:
1 couch (the world’s lightest)
75–100 boxes/bins
1 desk
1 TV stand
Several garbage bags
1 rolling dolly (yes, we even moved a dolly with a dolly)
Way to many trips up that elevator
After loading, we drove it all over to the storage unit. Compared to cramming the truck, unloading was a breeze. The unit had way more vertical space, so stacking everything neatly made the room feel generous. Just like that, job one of the day was done.
Things were looking up — but something crazy happened at the next job that even we weren’t prepared for (and no this isn’t just a lousy cliffhanger, stay tuned and find out ->).
