Business Matters: Junkluggers
Whether it’s a move to downsize, or a simple desire to clean things out, we all have stuff that needs to go. A new franchise in Brooklyn Park aims to help. Junkluggers tries to find a home for hard to remove items.
Junkluggers Has Big Take-out Orders
For Richard Glodek and his siblings, it’s an order for take-out at their parents’ townhome in Saint Anthony. The cleanup comes with moving their mom to assisted living.
“We’ve been actually taking care of three floors of furniture and stuff,” says Glodek. “It’s been a task to say the least.”
That’s when a big green truck and two guys in green shirts from Junkluggers showed up. The company helped Glodek get rid of furniture and miscellaneous items that needed a new home.
“Some of this furniture, it’s all really donatable, and I would like to get it in somebody else’s use,” says Glodeck.
Keeping Stuff Out of Landfills
Junkluggers bills itself as an eco-friendly company that helps people reduce and reuse. The goal is to keep items out of the landfill.
“It’s not necessarily always junk,” says Jamie Schwartz, president of Junkluggers in Brooklyn Park. “Sometimes it’s really nice items that they would like to have donated. They just don’t have the means to have them all hauled out.”
The company serves both residents and businesses.
“We do everything from coming to pick up one sofa to cleaning out a whole, entire 4,000-square-foot home,” says Schwartz.
Costs for removal services at Junkluggers range from a minimum of $109 to the cost of filling a whole truck, which is about $600.
Finding Homes for Donations
The majority of items collected are donations. Some things get recycled. Other items end up for sale at Second Chance, Junkluggers’ on-site store.
Once an item sells at Second Chance, 20 percent of the proceeds go to local charities.
“We’ve had big sectional sofas that we haven’t been able to donate. They’re too big to put in our space, and so we end up just posting them for free and finding some family that can use the item again,” says Schwartz.
Customers receive a tax-deductible receipt for their donations.
After more than two months of cleaning out, Glodek is thrilled to have the last batch of furniture removed, just in time for the closing of his mother’s home.
“Right now we’re relieved,” says Glodek with a smile. “We’ve had enough, and we’re ready to sit back and relax for a change and not worry about what we’ve got to do next.”
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