Helping a Piano and a Little Girl Play On. Why Listening to Customers is Key in Living Out Corporate Values.

Pianos are going extinct.

It's sad.

But it's true.

Pianos are beautiful instruments with whole histories wrapped into them. Countless hours of intimate time spent with their players, together; coaxing, creating, emoting. Laborious scales, endless repetition, along with freedom, joy, rage channeled into its keys, pedals, hammers and strings. For anyone who has ever played, a piano is more than an object or a piece of furniture. It's a destination. A resting place. A partner. A friend. An enemy. A therapist. And a respite. It's sturdy, constant, unwavering and non judgmental. It's always there. Waiting. Supporting. Steadfast.

Pianos are so much to so many.

And then there is reality. They're big. They're heavy. They take up a lot of space. And in today's busy world we just don't sit down to play them.  Space is at a premium and priorities have to be made. The difficult decision to say goodbye to the piano is made. And then we find out that no one, literally no one, wants it. As evidenced by Facebook Marketplace, Offerup, and Craigslist you can't GIVE a piano away. That's just the economy of it. Lots of supply and no demand. 

As music lovers ourselves, Junkluggers understands it's hard to say goodbye to a piano. Its hard to say goodbye to history. It's bittersweet. We get it. And that is why we're the #1 paid piano removal service in the greater Portland area. We respect the piano and our customer. We know everyone's situation is both unique and personal. We don't judge. We understand. Junkluggers has helped remove dozens and dozens of pianos each year from our customers' homes - giving them back valuable living space! Our goal is to find a new home for each piano. Majority of the time, sadly, that's not possible so we deconstruct the piano and recycle its various parts. Which follows our corporate goal of ethically recycling and donating and keep items out of a landfills. In our warehouse you'll hear our seasoned Lugger, Jordan, tap out a final melody, in a sense allowing each piano a parting breath and blessing it before it transitions to its final resting place. 

We love pianos so much we donated over 125 hours of moving services, transportation and labor in July of 2022 in support of Piano. Push. Play  a ten year endeavor of Megan Diana  @hellomegandiana. Junkluggers crew carefully moved each of the twelve artfully restored pianos 5 different times throughout the greater Portland area to be enjoyed by the public.

In the course of moving the Piano.Push.Play pianos around the city, we conversed with many music appreciators. One of those people was Jon, a veteran and father, who talked about his young daughter's newfound interest in piano. She had recently begun taking piano lessons and they were interested in getting a piano for their home. Knowing we have many customers saying goodbye to their old pianos, we told Jon we'd keep in touch and let him know if we removed any pianos that were in good condition.  It took months, but in November 2022, we helped remove a lovely, still-good, upright piano from a customer. We got in touch with Jon and made arrangements to deliver it to his home. His daughter was thrilled. Her very own piano. Right there inside her home, available to play at any time (well, maybe not ANY time!). 

This is what makes Junkluggers special and our junk removal business more than just a profit and loss sheet. More than a capitalist venture. We know a GOOD business is about people. It's about supporting things that matter - the community we live in, the Arts, history, music. It's about living out our values of being good neighbors and good stewards. About keeping items out of landfills and helping connect good things with good people. We were happy to gift Jon and his daughter this piano and give it a fresh start. May the two of them enjoy a long, lasting and loving friendship.