Tis the season!

Happy Holidays everyone! Your favorite blogger Shannon is back and ready to vent!

So I hope everyone got some killer deals this shopping season and let me tell you I did! I am one of those crazy people that loves to go shopping on black Friday. I am pretty sure it is genetic since I have been doing black Friday shopping since the beginning of my time. Of course I studied all the ads on Thanksgiving and made up list of the stores I was going to and the items I was going to get at each of them. I was all pumped up and decided I was going to wake up at 4am and go fend off the crowds to get those door buster deals. Then comes the 4am alarm, oh no I'm going back to bed, so then I really get up at 7am. Yeah I do it every year, say I'm going to get up at a certain time, then I sleep in. I am not a morning person and I never have been. Just ask my mom, she used to call me sissy witch in the mornings, I'm not pleasant. So I get to my first store, which is Target, at about 7:30am. Target has to be my first store, I mean come on, it is the great store on earth! In the words of my brother, who doesn't love tarjay! (Just picture him saying that) I took the big orange College Hunks Hauling Junk Phoenix truck, because I am always branding, and was able to find a great truck parking spot without a hitch. I get a bunch of stuff at Target and end up saving about 100 dollars... A-MAZING, I know! After Target I head over to Tempe Market Place, and was able to find a great truck parking spot that wasn't too far and got great exposure. I hit up multiple stores there and get a few things for myself of course!  I call Kristen, get her to take a lunch back from work and come join the festivities with me. Kristen isn't the biggest fan of huge crowds but she did want to buy some clothes, so she came on down to the craziness! We both got some really cute pea coats for 60% off! Things are going great and there really weren’t any crazy lines, until we got to Kohl’s and JC Penny. Their lines were out of control and wrapping around the huge buildings every which direction. Yep, we waited in the JC Penny line to buy some bedding. Bedding is very expensive so this was way worth it! After that, every place was insane and we were done shopping for the day. Kristen only almost killed about 5 people so it was a great black Friday shopping day!

Cyber Monday proved to be a great shopping day as well. I was able to get 2 more presents marked off the list and I am feeling great about the Holidays. I have my Christmas tree up, house decorated, presents under the tree and I think I am going to go make a hot cup of coco! Wait a sec, it was 76 degrees here today! I think I'll have some ice tea with an umbrella instead!

PS We recycled the ad paper! Yep, I'm green!

Stay classy my friends,

Shannon Perkins
College Hunks Hauling Junk, Owner
shannon.perkins@1800junkusa.com
www.collegehunkshaulingjunk.com

Adventures and Events

We were very busy weekend last weekend. It all started Friday night. The breast cancer 3 day walk was this weekend and their base camp was right down the street from us. Women are a big target market for us and with this event right down the street we had MANY women concentrated in one location. So, Shannon and I went our “signing”. “Signing” is the act of putting little yard signs in various public locations so people can see them. This has taken us some time to get used to and we’ve realized it is a little easier (mentally) to do it at night under the cover of darkness. Living in Arizona makes it a bit more difficult to get the signs in the ground since most of the landscaping is rocks and the ground is hard as heck. After we stay out past bedtime putting signs out we come home and relax a few minutes before hitting the hay. On Saturday morning team College Hunks attended one of my favorite events, the Walk to Save Animals. This is a yearly 2k or 5k walk that you bring your dog(s) to which means there are dogs EVERYWHERE! As many of you know I am a major dog lover and treat my dogs as my children and being able to bring them to an event is quite exciting for me. Our favorite handyman Pat and Jeray joined us with their pack of dogs. We cut Jayden a special College Hunks Hauling Junk shirt which he wore with pride. Abby didn’t wear a shirt because well…she’s a princess and simply didn’t want to. Abby is very much like a cat in that she does what she wants when she wants and she didn’t want to wear a shirt…so she didn’t. After a fun and exciting pet walk we dropped the “kids” off and went out to eat with Pat, Jeray, and their friends from out of town. For dessert we got Aloha yogurt and boy oh boy was it yummy! Shannon and I are frequent Aloha yogurt visitors and like to bring our friends there for dessert so they can taste all of the awesomeness that Aloha has to offer. For those interested in trying it out it’s at Baseline and Mill in Tempe, I HIGHLY suggest it.

After the pet walk we had a few short hours to continue our “hunk hunt”. Due to a few different reasons we needed to hire 2 hunks over the weekend. This was quite a tough task simply because we had 2 days to post the job, interview, and hire 2 new employees all while we were busy with multiple events. To make a long story short we posted the job and had a large number of applicants flowing in all weekend. In our 2 hours in between the pet walk and Iron Girl setup we had to sift through multiple job inquiries and respond to those we deemed fit.

Next up was helping to setup the Iron Girl Tempe 5k/10mile event (held at the same location as the Walk to Save Animals). The ladies at the Iron Girl organization were so gracious to allow us to help setup their event in exchange for a vendor booth. This event has been going on for the last few years and I have run in the 10 mile race the past two years. It has been one of my favorite events because they take good care of the women running by providing a free breakfast afterwards and nice setup with multiple tables and flower arrangements…and everything is pink : ) So, we helped setup the 40 or so tables, tents, barricades, and whatever else they needed. We had a great time…it was a beautiful day and all of the people we were working with were very nice and happy to be there! After our setup duty was over we had to go to the party store to pick up a few items for our booth the following morning. Apparently, orange is not a popular color for tablecloths so we had to go to the party store to get one. For some reason only party stores seem to sell orange tablecloths…this we learned the hard way. Shannon and I somehow resisted buying many other items (beads, party favors, etc.) and made it out of Party City with exactly what we went for, orange tablecloths. We finally make it home for the evening and need to try and schedule interviews for Sunday…that was an adventure!

A 4:45am wakeup call came all too early on Sunday morning. Shannon and I took the early shift which meant we had to be at the Iron Girl race at 5:45am to start setting up our booth. This is this first time we’ve had a vendor booth at an event so we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants. Needless to say I think our booth turned out pretty good! We had a great time manning the booth and talking to all of the ladies that stopped by. We got many funny looks and comments which was fabulous! After we finished up at the Iron Girl race we headed off to do our “hunk” interviews. After the interviews and some deliberation we hired 2 new “hunks”.

It was a long, tiring weekend but we accomplished a lot and had a blast doing it all. I am so appreciative of the opportunity the Iron Girl organization gave us, thank you! Check out a few pictures below. To see the full photo gallery check us out on Facebook.

Jayden in his shirt

Our booth at the Iron Girl race

Our new hunks!

Cornhole boards

Ok, so you know how in my first blog I mentioned I burned up our drill making cornhole boards, by popular demand here is the story of the cornhole boards:

The beginning:
So I have always had this certain kind of obsessive affinity for playing the game of cornhole. To put it short, I am good at many things and cornhole is not one of them. Therefore, I take it as a challenge and I will beat this game, damn it! This made me want to have my own cornhole boards so I can play more often and of course get better. (Oh P.S, I don't think I have even won a game of cornhole, many of my partners can attest to this.) I started researching them on craigslist and I couldn't find any for under $100. So of course I thought I could make them myself, no problem! I talked my buddy Drunko Downs into making them with me and a few days later she comes over to help make some. For those that don't know Drunko Downs is Lily and she has well deserved that nickname, just ask her.

The body:
So, I went to Home Depot to get all the wood and materials we would need. I drag Hays along and at Home Depot a very nice man helped us and even cut the wood! I take the College Hunks Hauling Junk truck down there so we could fit the plywood and everything into the truck, as this stuff would not be fitting in my little Scion xD.

All the wood and materials, check, this is going to be so easy, or so I thought. Lily comes over and we start putting everything together. We are screwing the frames together and everything is going great! Now comes time to make the holes in the board. I totally thought this wouldn't be a problem and we could use our Sawzall to do this. Little did I know that the sawzall has more kick than a shot gun and there is no way we could control this thing. If we would have used the sawzall, you would have seen the must ghetto circles of your life. They would have been squares for sure. Lily brought over this crazy drill tool her brother-in-law uses to cut circles in wood, perfect just what we need, right??? Wrong... too bad the drill we have at our house is made to drill screws into dry wall!!! So, I still attempt to use our drill with this tool and it seems like it was going great but it only made it half way and the drill died. We have come to the realization this isn't going to work and give up on the cornhole boards for the night.

Of course the next week I tear up my ankle sliding into to 2nd base at our softball game and all I can think about now is how am I going to walk, not making the cornhole boards. So, a few weeks later our buddy Pat says he can saw the circles with a jigsaw he has and it won't be a problem. We bring them over there and I swear he busts out all the circles in 10mins. I literally spent an hour and could only make half a circle!! Pat is the handiest man in the world I tell ya!! Pat pretty much finishes up the boards for us and Jeray and Hays sand out the boards, now all we have to do is paint!

I am always branding for the company so it made total sense that we would make them College Hunks Hauling Junk cornhole boards. Hays got our paint codes so we could match the colors to College Hunks colors, went down and tried to buy some paint with them and they pretty much had no idea and told her they needed more information. So we took down one of the door hangers to Lowe's and they were able to make us some paint that matched perfectly! We started painting the boards and everyone at the house helped out, Hays, Court and myself. We painted them up and then I applied some company logos without a problem, then sealed them and wah-la! They are done and look great.

The conclusion
It only took me over a month, but hey, I got them done! Now I will become a master at cornhole and you will all have to bow down to me! We are having a tailgate at the ASU homecoming football game this weekend against Washington State at 12:30pm in LOT 59. Come down and check out the cornhole boards and you can even enter into a cornhole tournament with prizes for the winners. We will have plenty of signs and balloons so you won't miss us!

This is us trying to use the sawzall





Stay classy my friends,

Shannon Perkins
College Hunks Hauling Junk, Owner
shannon.perkins@1800junkusa.com
http://www.1800junkusa.com/

Recycling Partnership

The College Hunks Hauling Junk of Phoenix is taking their mission of promoting sustainable living to the community, partnering with the Arizona Academy of Science charter school in Downtown Phoenix. We were contacted by the academy because they are interested in teaching the kids about recycling, sustainability, and reducing their carbon footprint. Further, the academy is taking this project on in order to apply for the "Disney Planet Challenge" which is meant to "inspire students to think differently about their roles as environmental stewards and members of society." This project could help the Arizona Academy of Science win a $20,000 grant to continue their project and extend their dreams past the boundaries of their school and in to the greater Phoenix area.

The plan is for the College Hunks to "donate" their big orange container to collect the recyclables from the school. We will then pick up the filled container once per month to recycle all that was collected. The students are hoping to get some community members (for example, they share a parking lot with the Phoenix Art Museum and a community church) involved as well. The College Hunks will do what they can to help the Academy achieve their goal to use less, and recycle what they use!

This is only one piece of the project that the students are engaging in. They have started a beautiful garden, multiple compost piles, and are cutting down on paper use. Hopefully over the next few months the students and community members will be able to make enough changes to win the Disney Planet Challenge! Good luck to the Academy and Whooo Hunk!

Composting: Day 5

I want to start off by saying how excited I am to be starting a compost pile!  Ever since we started College Hunks Hauling Junk here in Phoenix I’ve felt the need to live a ‘greener’ lifestyle.  One of the aspects of College Hunks I like best is that it is a green company and recycles or donates at least 60% of everything we take.  While out networking or just talking about our business the fact that it is green is one of the first things that comes out of my mouth.  So, all this talking about being green has inspired me to live a much greener lifestyle.  Don’t get me wrong, we have been recycling for many years.  I would say we’ve recycled just like most families by doing the ‘easy’ stuff (recycling boxes, empty food/beverage containers, paper ,etc.) but we can do better which is why we’ve made a few changes in our activities, which leads me back to the topic at hand: Composting!

Today is the day I am going to beef up our compost pile.  So far it only has a potato in it : (  I spent quite a bit of time today trying to figure out how this whole composting stuff works, it can be quite simple and complicated all at the same time!  It is simple if you just try to think of everything as either green or brown.  Green items are (you guessed it) GREEN and are things like grass clippings, vegetable scraps, and fruit peels.  Brown items are much to nobody’s surprise, BROWN and are things like hay, paper, and dried garden debris.  You want to have a 1.5:1 ratio of browns: greens.   That is about as simple as it can get.  On the more complicated side you want to have an appropriate mix of carbon and nitrogen.  Too much carbon – your pile is too dry and too much nitrogen – your pile is too moist.  In an effort to minimize how overwhelmed I’m feeling I am going to go for the simple route…not too much brown or green matter.  (Go to earth911.com for many different articles on what you can compost.)  I had read earlier that weeds were something good to put in your compost pile.  Boy oh boy was that exciting since we have our fair share of weeds around the house.  Plus this project would be a good reason to go pull them.  We’ve been dreading those darn weeds but knowing now that they will be used for something good makes it less daunting to get my behind out there and pick them.  These were my thoughts until I started to dig deeper into what you do and don’t compost.  Weeds were kind of in the middle.  You aren’t supposed to compost weeds that are beginning to seed or that are pernicious.  Now, as your standard human being I haven’t the slightest clue if my weeds are seeding or if they are pernicious so…I guess I will be leaving them out of my compost pile for now.  If you put them in your pile while they are seeding or if they are pernicious they may sprout in your compost pile making MORE WEEDS or the seeds may stay in your compost so if you use it on your grass you have simply spread weed seeds ALL OVER YOUR YARD!!!  Needless to say I’m sure the weeds in my yard will be hanging out for a little bit longer before I come up with the motivation to tackle the back breaking activity that is pulling weeds.  Ok, back to composting.  Another exciting compostable item I read about is pet hair!  I have 2 fabulous dogs named Jayden and Abby…they are like my children.  Jayden is a 3 year old black lab mix and Abby is a 10 year old Yellow lab/greyhound/many other things mix and if there is one thing they are great at it is SHEDDING!!  I don’t know how these two dogs still have any hair left on ‘em because they never stop shedding excessively.  Now, I have something I can do with all this pet hair!  It is time for me to go compost pile hunting in and around my house.  Shannon mowed the lawn (in her boot : ) ) last week and there were some grass clippings left that I am going to add.  We don’t have too many “brown” items around here so I’ll have to go scavenging around the house for some.  I know they are out there!  OK, I am off to “shop” around the house for our compost pile : )  I will post a few pictures so you can see what everything looks like!

Kristen Hays

This is the container after I drilled all the holes

This is what it looks like now

These are the dogs!!!

Going Green, Compost Pile - Day 1

First off, let's begin with how we decided to start a compost pile. Kristen Hays, one of the owner's of College Hunks Hauling Junk PHX, was surfing the web and read an article and it mentioned something about a compost pile. So she decided it would be a really good idea for us to get one and thus here we are today writing a blog about it, go figure!

So the first thing Hays did was start looking online for what compost binds cost. She quickly found out that they were far too expensive for our taste. Next she researched how to make a homemade one and sure enough, about.com had a nice little how-to article(About.com never fails!) on how to make a compost bind. Then, next thing I know, we are at Target getting a 20 gal storage bind with a lid. We were able to get this completed super fast due to Target's jimmy-rigged motorized cart that goes 25 miles an hour, no joke! For those that do not know, I am in a boot and cannot walk long distances. Tore up some ligaments in my ankle sliding into 2nd base, long story don't ask. :)

Ok back to the compost pile, Oh Kristen wants me to say how excited she is to do this and be green, it means a lot to her, etc. So really back to the compost pile, for real this time I swear, so we got back to the house and Kristen was quickly getting the electric drill out of the garage. Next, Hays started measuring out and marking every inch, up, down, left, right. She has a little problem with numbers and perfection if you know what I mean. She sets her alarm clock for only even numbers because she doesn't like odd numbers(Ya, number crazy!) So, every mark is where she will have to drill a little hole so the pile can get oxygen to help accelerate the compost process. Hays started drilling the holes with the smallest drill bit we had and our drill sounded like some pathetic animal dying slowly! Oh damn! I burnt out the drill motor making cornhole boards the other week! She is now very angry and we must go get a new drill ASAP!

We go get the drill at Lowe's and found a little hidden gem for a great price. We made sure and got the lithium battery per Patrick(he's the handiest man ever!). So Kristen started drilling and I look over to see how it's going and she is wearing a head lamp and the drill has a automatic light that comes on when you drill. It is actually hilarious and I got a picture but she will die if I post it.. Black mail much! So she busts out all the holes and wah-la, we have a compost bind!! It was totally easy and anyone can do it! Here's the link to the how-to article if you are interested: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/ht/storagecompost.htm

Stay classy my friends,

Shannon Perkins

College Hunks Hauling Junk, Owner

shannon.perkins@1800junkusa.com

http://www.1800junkusa.com/

http://www.collegehunks.com/