Fitness - The Mission

Save gym from the landfill

How it started

I was scrolling Facebook Marketplace when I saw an advert pop up that said FREE WEIGHTS! I messaged the seller ASAP and said I can be there in 20minutes or less!

When I arrived, he walked up with a wheelbarrow filled with large, old, rusty weight plates. The seller said he had well over 30 people contact him within the time it took me to arrive.

SHOWROOM CLEAN

Before this, I was the preferred exit cleaner for two apartment buildings on the Gold Coast.

These units had been neglected during the 3 years of Covid lockdowns. With no contact allowed or rental inspections, this situation created an end-of-lease cleaner’s nightmare!

The housing crisis hit and many people needed a unit, this formed an environment where I had to have homes ready and FAST!

This required not only knowing how to clean well, but learning how to restore homes! Walls, windows, appliances, carpets, decking, chrome, metals, rust and do it all solo and in record time!

I got educated on the best of the best cleaning products and tried out many different cleaning methods.

Power tools were quickly introduced to speed things up and to keep me motivated.

By the end of each clean people started telling me I was making these units look like showrooms. I was cleaning too well, and they wanted me to lower my standards.

Impossible! I’m either peddle to the metal or at a stalled stop. I do not cruise.

OVERWORKED AND UNDER PAID

As I was elbows deep into cleaning an incredibly disgusting washing machine, I wondered not only if the previous tenant’s clothes came out brown, but also if there was something more I could do with such hyper focused cleaning skills.

Being attacked by swarms of bees, superbugs that wouldn't die and cockroaches that ran up my arm, I started to question my choices in life.

That washing machine looked brand new by the time I was done with it. That’s when I decided to flip home goods that people were throwing out on Facebook Marketplace.

I hoped this idea would be something that could get me out of the cleaning industry.

But could it work well enough to earn a living?

cleaning facebook marketplace items

Before heading to work each day I would scroll Facebook adverts sticking to the FREE section. I found the advert that said 'FREE Golf Clubs'!

On my arrival to collect this wonderful deal I discovered it wasn't just golf clubs. It was a golf bag, a caddy, a large box filled with gloves, shoes, golfing accessories and 100s of golf balls!

The only catch, it was filled and covered in some type of thick soil!

The soil was so embedded that it took a car drive home, hours of scrubbing and one large whack to the floor for a large cockroach to finally wriggle himself free to run out of the left shoe!

It took me a couple of days to clean all of it. But when I was done, I had made over $150!

flipping for cash

Being a Hooper I took a special interest in peoples old basketball systems that they left out the front.

Learning the hard way how to take these apart in public really helped me get over my fear of making mistakes in pubic.

Refurbishing hoops, stands and backboards really helped level up my skillset when it came to dealing with rust, metal and paint.

if it sits it flips

As I kept finding things online, I discovered people were taking perfectly good gear to the dump! I was able to save 27 office chairs, tool trolleys, wooden furniture, cafe chairs, garage shelving units & even bikes!

As I learnt more about restoration, I allowed myself to get more and more creative.

I am pleased to say that 21 metal chairs I restored were bought by a local Cafe owner and are now being used at Nerang shopping centre.

cleaning got me out of cleaning

Things really started to progress at an incredible speed when I found myself cleaning up neglected GYM gear.

After 8 hours of cleaning, I was able to release a Bowflex system back out into the wild. The previous owner said if I hadn’t collected it that day it was going to the landfill!

Everywhere I went I heard that same story.

A commercial spin bike was on death row. Then a York power tower. Even a 7-foot 20KG Olympic barbell!

sports and gym equipment

Being an exit cleaner is what allowed this idea to grow into a business.

Refurbing rusted metals and shockingly greasy neglected items required all my cleaning experience and product knowledge.

My cleaning methods & tools became my secret weapon to transforming these weight plates, barbells & home gyms into functional good-looking products to be used as intended once again!

Save gym from the landfill

Things transformed quickly. My goal of leaving the cleaning industry to flip Facebook items morphed into saving GYM equipment.

The focus now, was aimed at not just restoring, but saving.

I was picking up carloads of exercise equipment. The same story was being told to me again and again, collection after collection. If I didn’t collect it that day, all this exercise equipment was going to the tip!

People spend thousands of dollars on home Gym systems only to have it end up in a dusty garage or left outside to rust.

Overpriced Covid GYMs were less than 3 years old and barely touched. But they were looking like something out of a horror show.

With so many people moving houses due to the rental crisis this expensive unused gear is now too rusty, too dirty and not practical to take with them.

Paying someone to haul it away to the dump was sometimes the only answer.

Save gym from the landfill

I decided to fix that and save the weights, the dumbbells, the barbells, the benches, the power racks and the spin bikes!

I drove all over the Gold Coast & Brisbane to collect 1000s of kilos of rusty weight plates. Once each item has gone threw my 12 step cleaning & restoring program I make sure they go to a good home.