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Home organizer to sell big stash of clients' used goods

Scott Goss
The News Journal

A Talleyville company in the business of uncluttering homes is asking for help to get rid of its own mess.

Organizational Bootcamp will hold a two-day garage sale near New Castle next month in the hopes of emptying a 30,000-square-foot warehouse worth of furniture, tools, exercise equipment, books, bicycles and countless odds and ends it has amassed since opening last fall.

"It's amazing, sometimes, what people will hold onto for years and years," owner Rich Bastian said. "We've got everything from freezers that date back to the 1920s to children's toys that people held onto years after their kids grew out of them, and everything in between."

As a self-described neat freak, Bastian has not found it easy to keep all of those discarded items.

"I can't stand a mess," said the 50-year-old assistant boys basketball coach at Wilmington Christian School. "My house is meticulous. I'm just wired that way, and so is the rest of my family."

Richard Bastian, owner of Organizational Bootcamp, plans a two-day garage sale in April at the company’s 30,000-square-foot warehouse near New Castle.

After selling his Port of Wilmington warehousing and trucking company in 2013, the entrepreneur turned his predilection for tidiness into Organizational Bootcamp, a venture he initially launched out of his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The business has since moved to Silverside Road, where Bastian resells his clients unwanted items on consignment and splits the profits with them.

Finding a new home for unwanted items isn't the only thing that sets the company apart from other home-organizing services, he said.

After clearing out a client's garage, basement, attic or entire house, Organizational Bootcamp's staff of 15 – including three full-time contractors – will install custom shelving and cabinets, repaint and decorate and even scan important documents.

Bastian said the people who hire his firm typically fall into one of two categories: families transitioning to a new stage in life or seniors looking to downsize into a smaller home.

They aren't hoarders, he said. But they are people who have a tough time letting go of things.

"When we do a job, the homeowner makes the ultimate decision on whether we throw something away, donate it or try to resell it, and there is a certain amount of psychology involved in helping them make that decision," he said. "A lot of times, people think, 'This is something we should be doing ourselves.' But what would take them weeks of painstaking effort to get through, we can do it in a few days."

Ron Midiri, the used car director at Martin Honda in Newark, said that's why he and his wife recently hired Organizational Bootcamp to clean out their three-car garage.

"Over the course of 20 years and three kids, we had accumulated a bunch of stuff and could only fit one car in there," he said. "When I come home from work, I don't want to deal with that stuff. So when I heard about Rich through a friend, I decided to give them a call."

Four days later, the couple were parking two cars in a repainted garage outfitted with new shelving.

"What I liked about it was, when I would say I didn't want to get rid of something, Rich was good about it," Midiri said. "Then the next thing I knew, I was throwing it away. He's really good with helping you part with your junk."

Richard Bastian, owner of Organizational Bootcamp, has amassed furniture, tools, exercise equipment, books, bicycles and more since opening last fall.

It's not an inexpensive proposition.

Organizational Bootcamp charges $50 an hour for each worker needed to complete an assignment. Bastian said a typical job ranges from $1,000 to $2,000, with add-on services like cabinets and painting resulting in higher cost.

"We do free consultations, but it's not an exact science," Bastian said. "Some people are ready for you to get rid of their stuff right away and some aren't. That's why we try to be good at holding their hand when necessary and kicking their butt when necessary."

That approach has helped make Bastian a victim of his own success.

After cleaning out dozens of homes in the last six months, Organizational Bootcamp has removed more items than it can reasonably sell at its retail store or various online bidding sites.

So the weekend after Easter, Bastian will open up his warehouse to shoppers looking for a good deal on used finds.

"Right now, we're going to see how this first one goes, and then maybe we might do this one weekend every month," he said. "All I know is, spring cleaning season is right around the corner and business is going to pick up, so we've got to make some room in here."

Contact Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Organizational Bootcamp's inaugural garage sale

WHERE: 955 River Road, near New Castle

WHEN: 2 to 6 p.m. April 10; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 11