Written by Chris Smith · Illustrative case study
The situation
A café owner at a property in Bilinga was closing for a week-long refit. The shopfitters were starting Monday and needed the space empty. That meant desks, workstations and partitions, office chairs and meeting tables and filing cabinets and storage units, all of which had to come out after close on Saturday.
Why the customer needed help
Their main worry wasn't the cost. It was not knowing what could legally go where, and not wanting to damage the house getting it all out. Both of those are part of the job for us.
What was at the property
By my count there were desks, workstations and partitions, office chairs and meeting tables and filing cabinets and storage units, along with the usual loose odds and ends that build up around a job like this. It's typical of what we see from businesses relocating or downsizing.
Working in Bilinga
Bilinga is a narrow beachside strip of units and homes near the airport. Bilinga has a mix of older family homes, units and holiday rentals, which means plenty of furniture swaps, end of lease loads and yard rubbish. Some streets are narrow and busy in holiday periods, so we bring the right size truck and time the job well.
The initial assessment
I arrived at the property and the first thing I noticed was the access. Before I look at the pile, I walk the route it has to travel: doorways, steps, the driveway slope, overhead wires, where the truck can park. For this job I paced it out and worked out we'd need about two-thirds of the tipper.
How the job was planned
I gave them a fixed price there and then, based on volume, and explained what was included: workstation and partition removal, filing, storage and shelving clearance and e-waste and cabling recycling. They said yes on the spot, so we planned to load in one visit rather than two.
Preparation
We checked the weather, laid out the straps and blankets for anything worth saving, and agreed a hand signal for "stop" because the truck was right on the road.
Step 1
Step one was the bulky stuff. My offsider and I took the largest items out first, tilting them through the door frames rather than forcing them. With desks, workstations and partitions, office chairs and meeting tables and filing cabinets and storage units in the mix, there was no point clearing small things while the big ones were still blocking the way.
Step 2
Step two was the heavy lifting. Anything over about forty kilos went on the trolley or got a two-person lift with straps. No hero stuff. A strained back on the first job of the day ruins the week.
Step 3
Step three was the final check. I went back through every room and corner with the customer, picked up the small stuff the big items had hidden, and swept up.
Removal, sorting and loading
I'm fussy about the load. A well-packed truck means one trip instead of two, and that's the difference between a fair price and an inflated one. We netted the top before we drove off.
From the truck it went to a licensed transfer station, where recyclables were dropped off separately, and anything usable went to a local op shop before the tip run.
Challenges we ran into
Some of the equipment contained data, so it couldn't just go into general waste, and there were desks bolted to the floor.
How we handled them
The drives were set aside for the client's IT person to remove, and we unbolted the desks with the building manager's okay.
Completion and final result
When the last load was strapped down, the space was empty and swept. The customer walked through with me, signed off, and paid the price we'd agreed at the start, not a dollar more.
What I learned
What stuck with me was how much of it could be reused. People expect office Cleanout to mean everything goes to landfill. On this job, close to a third of it went somewhere useful.