Junk Haulers to the Rescue

The Rubins have their own theories about why there is so much junk in Washington. The region has been one of the hottest real estate markets in the country in recent years, and the stuff piling up in basements and spare rooms is a potentially damaging eyesore for people trying to sell their homes. Many other people who don't want to move -- or can't afford to -- are trying to reclaim space lost to decades-old collections of National Geographics and knickknacks.

Goodwill Industries of Greater Washington has enjoyed a series of year-to-year increases in donations in the area, which the organization's spokesman, Brendan Hurley, attributes to "the transient nature of the housing market." But Goodwill officials also say that companies like the Rubins' put a dent in their business, which relies on sales of donated products to run job-training programs.

"There are a lot of people out there who are benevolent and want to help our mission," Hurley said. But he acknowledged that for many others there are more convenient options. Nonprofit organizations, for example, often don't pick up the next day, and they usually don't go into the basement to wrestle out an old pool table.

Whether the junk franchise's customers know it, Dan Nissanoff, an entrepreneur and author of an upcoming book on consumer culture, said that contacting a pickup service is often the first step people take upon leaving a culture of accumulation and embracing a lifestyle of temporary ownership.

In this new paradigm, he said, consumers employ two different but similar buying strategies: either buying expensive items that they will turn around and sell on eBay a few years later, or buying less expensive versions of the same things that they will eventually throw out. Take, for example, a Chanel handbag. A consumer can buy a new one for $1,500, then sell it on e-Bay for $1,100 or so. Or she can buy a $400 bag and throw it away when it's no longer fashionable. Either way, she has spent the same amount of money before disposal.

"A company like 1-800-Got-Junk will haul away your stuff without any effort on your part at all," Nissanoff said.

To meet demand, the Rubins have 10 trucks and 24 employees who roam Montgomery County, Northern Virginia and parts of the District six days a week. They'll pick up one item for $119 -- no matter how bulky.

"No trash man is going to pick up a treadmill," Claudine Rubin said. "Too heavy. But we will."

The company's trucks have a capacity of 400 cubic feet, about the size of a standard FedEx truck. If the junk takes half the truck, that will be $375. A full load is $578. When the trucks are full, the junk staff drops the load at the Montgomery County dump. Occasionally the staff will keep things for themselves, particularly when the junk is 25 cases of wine or a new alternator for a Volkswagen. O'Brien once snagged a sombrero. "That was cool," he said. "It was real."

Charlton prefers books. "People throw out all this boundless knowledge," he said.

Earlier on that afternoon in Rockville, O'Brien and Charlton were making their way around in the truck. It was a beautiful day for junk. Not too hot, no rain. Charlton was driving. O'Brien was navigating, somewhat. They eventually found their way to the Rockville townhouse with the cat-bitten chair. The customer, a woman who would not agree to to having her name used in the newspaper, had sent her middle-age bachelor son on a vacation. One could not describe her son as being neat. While he was gone, his family planned to give the house a sort of Extreme Home Makeover. New floors, new furniture, new life.

But first, the junk had to go.