When a medical office was closing its doors in San Luis Obispo, the doctors called Flo Murray at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to haul away some of their medical equipment.

That included an anesthesia machine and several examination tables.

&#8220The anesthesia machine appeared to be in good working order,C said Murray, an Arroyo Grande resident who owned her own medical billing company before opening her 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise. &#8220I don/t want to just throw away expensive equipment like that. I want someone to use it.C

So Murray stored the equipment for two months while making countless phone calls, finally hooking up with a group called VIDA, for Volunteers for Inter-America Development Assistance.

The organization sent representatives from San Jose to pick up the machine and tables and pack them into a container of medical equipment bound for clinics in Central America.

Since then, another anesthesia machine and some defibrillators were given to VIDA after being picked up by the local franchise, which specializes in hauling away whatever anyone doesn/t want.

That/s just typical of what happens to much of the tons of usable &#8220junkC that Murray and her crew haul away every month. Only the real trash and garbage end up in the local landfill.

If it/s usable, it will be donated to some nonprofit organization or public-benefit company.

For example, Murray and crew give boards to Achievement House at Cuesta College, where they/re used to make benches. Mattresses have gone to the San Luis Obispo County Women/s Shelter.

They donate bicycles to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff/s Department to be refurbished by Honor Farm inmates and given to needy children at Christmas.

&#8220We get bicycles that there/s nothing wrong with but the chain is rusted or the tires are flat,C said Thomas Cee, marketing director for the local franchise. &#8220Sometimes there is nothing at all wrong with them.C

A load of furniture 7 enough to furnish an entire apartment 7 was given through Casa Solana in Grover Beach to a young single mother who was escaping an abusive relationship and looking to start a new life.

That donation drew a thank-you note that Cee keeps tacked to a bulletin board over his desk.

&#8220That/s a good notice for me, to remind me of what we do,C Cee said. &#8220Anybody can remove junk; that/s a no-brainer. What/s important is how we do it 7 what we do with it.C

Murray opened her 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise in October 2005 after deciding she needed a change.

&#8220As I got older and sat behind a desk all day, I realized I wanted something to get me outside more, something that was more fun,C she explained. &#8220When I saw this (company), I just got excited.C

She now employs five people 7 a fun-loving group she refers to as &#8220familyC 7 and, from a small Grover Beach office, operates three trucks that haul off as many as seven loads a day for businesses and residents who want to &#8220unclutterC their lives.

Strange stuff

Sometimes Murray/s crew hauls away an unusual load. When a pathology lab abandoned a storage unit/s contents, the company hauled away a mortician/s closet and three-door freezer.

&#8220We knocked before opening the freezer door,C Cee joked.

Another freezer the company hauled out of a restaurant had to be cut in half and the pieces lifted out over the front counter.

&#8220My favorite thing is that we recycle a lot of books,C noted Cee, a credentialed teacher with training in journalism who substitutes in Lucia Mar Unified School District in southern San Luis Obispo County.

Many of the books the company hauls off are donated to Rich Neufeld of Grover Beach and Bill Senna of Oceano, who periodically borrow Murray/s pickup and haul books to a Southern California port, where they are shipped to schools in the Philippines.

A rare find for Cee was Volume 5 in a limited edition of just 1,500 copies of Shakespeare/s works that Cee discovered in the bottom of one of several boxes of books the company was hauling away.

Digging through the remaining boxes, he found the other 12 volumes, all intact.

Murray said her franchise rents a 300-square-foot self-storage unit in Santa Maria where she stockpiles items to be donated to charities. The storage company owner, who also works with local charities, helps Murray find nonprofit groups that can use them.

Right now, Murray has a tanning bed she hopes to give to a nonprofit organization that can auction it off as a fundraiser. Then, she/ll deliver the bed to its new owner.

&#8220Having a wish list is a major thing,C Murray said, explaining that she wants nonprofit groups to give her their wish lists so she can watch for specific items.

&#8220If I know what people want, when I find it I can deliver it right to them,C she said.

Beyond making nonprofit organizations happy, Murray said the main goal of her 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise is satisfying customers, from Santa Ynez to San Miguel, by hauling away everything from construction debris to green waste.

The company gives free estimates and doesn/t require that anything be bagged, raked or even piled in one location.

&#8220We just tell people to point to what they want hauled away, then sit back and watch us sweat,C Cee said, adding, &#8220That/s one of the things that gets to me 7 the look of satisfaction on our customers/ faces.C

Mike Hodgson can be reached at 739-2221 or mhodgson@santamariatimes.com.

E-waste collection days in the works

The local 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise plans to hold e-waste collection days in a number of Central Coast cities in the near future.

The collection days are the brainchild of franchise marketing director Thomas Cee, who said he has been on a &#8220save the world campaignC ever since he was young.

Cee, who lives in Grover Beach, said he knows of many people who have old computers sitting around but don/t know what to do with them. The same is true for televisions and other electronic equipment.

Local landfills charge extra to accept such equipment, which is considered hazardous waste, so many people just hold onto it or, worse, dispose of it illegally, which is bad for the environment, Cee said.

So he came up with the idea of e-waste collection days, which has gained the support of many local organizations. Cee/s idea is to park 1-800-GOT- JUNK? trucks at a collection site and allow people to drop off their electronic waste.

The franchise, which is a state-certified collector of e-waste, would then haul it off to recyclers at no charge to the owners.

Cee said he is looking for a site for an e-waste day in Santa Maria.

7 Mike Hodgson