We’ve owned our junk removal service for almost twenty years (I started it as an excuse to get out of the restaurant my wife and I owned). Over the years, many of the neighborhood kids worked for us – especially the jocks. They loved that we basically paid them to lift heavy items and work out.

I remember once clearing out a hoarder house with a number of these young guys. The boys were removing furniture while my wife bagged trash and unusable items. Suddenly I heard someone squeak out, “eek,” so I ran into the kitchen, where I found my wife continuing to bag items. She calmly explained to me that a mouse had leapt out of one of the lower cabinets as she was removing items and run across her thigh. Other than being at little startled, it hadn’t bother her that much. But she couldn’t say the same for the group of big, manly guys who she’d watched flee the kitchen (and subsequently the house).

I’m not sure what was more fun: Tunneling our way through all the garbage, or ragging on my crew for their “manliness.” You know what? I do know. It was the second thing.