ReSource: A Great Place to Work [Part 2]

(This is a continuation on my previous post, “ReSource: Why I Love My Job.”)

Another room off the Showroom is the ½ I was talking about. It’s the brake room. Honestly, It’s an eclectic filthy mess, crumbs on the counters, years old goo in the fridge. And the table has a 1/16” layer of dirt … I try not to eat off it.

Then there is the real Yard, made up of four main areas, the Warehouse, the Yard, Donations, and the Lumber and Landscaping section. The warehouse is a dark dingy place, hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. But it’s dry so we keep doors, cabinets, appliances, and other randoms that should stay out of the rain. There’s also a walrus hidden in here somewhere. Took me a good 8 months to find it.

Outside to the east of the Warehouse is the Yard. It’s a big area of somewhat organized chaos. If you were to come up and ask me where something was I could probably walk you right to it. But it could take you an hour to find without asking. The area is all scorched on hot black asphalt and uneven cracks and things in the yard have to handle rain, snow, and wind to keep their place out of the landfill. It’s not that big a deal though. Windows, roofing, irrigation, filing cabinets, barrels, sinks, that old canoe with the pot leaf painted on the side … I’m not going to name it all. I couldn’t if I tried.

Past that is Donations. There’s a little fence that we put up with caution signs that say, “Caution! High Voltage!” but customers ignore it and walk past anyways. There’s a little shed with enough room for a chair and a door that closes for windy days. It’s hot in there on the black top, really hot. And it’s freezing in the winter, often icing over. We’ve got some propane tanks out there for a little heater, much like the one I sold to Tony, but you’ve got to keep the door open when you use it. Through all that though, I like Donations. It’s the first place you get to see the trash to treasures come in. There’s always the denial though. How about a toilet with a turd still in it? Yeah that was a good one. They’ll get all grouchy with you too. “You don’t take anything!”

Others praise you up and down though. “Thank you so much for what you do.” Blacks, whites, and greys out here, we get all types. You just have to take in all the judgments you’ve gotta take and come to a balance if you can. We don’t let it stress us out.

Past Donations is Lumber and Landscaping. Our heavy pallets of donated flagstone or bricks and pavers go out here. We once had a pirate ship donated, complete with flags, mast, and birds nest. It’s flags flew for about a month until some lucky kid got to bring it home. I can’t remember how. Miscellaneous lumber badly sorted precariously sits on racks often badly swarmed by yellow jackets and wasps.

Put it all together and you get ReSource. By now it’s a comfortable place for me. The staff in our blue shirts and steel toed boots, trading positions from organizing the yard to taking donations and helping customers. Sometimes getting a little rest from the heavy lifting to sit in the shed and be the cashier, making up prices on the spot. Or the TL, renting out tools still not sure if they’re in 100% working order.

But it’s a job, a low stress job, a job with perks, an eclectic place and even more so community. And I really love it here. In fact I keep playing with the idea of starting my own. Who knows … maybe I just will.

Do you know of any junk and salvage yards near you? I’d love to hear about your own experiences and what some of these other centers of resource conservation are. Let me know!