Short version: I built the company I needed when my mother died.
Here is the longer one.
Service is the family business
My mother was Army and served during Vietnam. My grandfather served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Two uncles, two brothers-in-law, and my nephew all served as well. One of those uncles is a retired full-bird colonel who spent five years in Iraq, and not because he was ordered to. Three separate times he volunteered to extend, and once he turned down a desk job so he could go back instead. Add it up across the family and it is more than 100 years in uniform. I grew up an Army brat inside that standard.
I had to join three times
The first time was 2003. I was 17 and I signed an infantry contract. Before I shipped to basic, a car accident left me with a permanent rod in my leg and nearly cost me my right arm. That voided the contract, so I went to college instead.
I graduated straight into the 2008 financial crisis and decided to try again. This time I went after the Navy, because I wanted a shot at BUD/S. It took two months of doctor visits and a hearing in front of the Naval Medical Board before I was granted a waiver for the metal in my leg. Then I waited another eight months and made four trips to the military processing station, and the Navy still had no job available that would guarantee me a chance at SEAL selection.
So in 2010 I walked over to the Army. They could not guarantee an Option 40 contract either, but they told me I could try out for special operations once I got to my unit. I chose artillery. It is combat arms, and it opened the door to Air Assault and the combatives instructor course. I served with 1st Battalion (Air Assault) 377th Field Artillery Regiment. Our unit deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2012 and 2013.
I left active duty in 2014 and almost immediately felt lost, so I waived my inactive reserve time and did another four years in the active reserve before calling it. I joined three times, all three during two ongoing wars, and I never did get a selection slot. After eight years and a lot of friends in the special operations community, I will be honest with you: I do not think I am quite that caliber of man. Those guys are a specific type of person, and they are even more impressive in real life than they are in the movies.
What the Army actually gave me
Grit. That is it, and it is worth more than everything else combined. I used the GI Bill for three degrees including an MBA, and I do not credit a single business success to any of them. I failed at seven businesses before anything started to click.
The part I am actually proud of
My wife Lina runs her own marriage and family therapy practice and still shows up to help on junk removal jobs. Talk about grit. We have a daughter who got her mother’s looks, brains, and toughness, and who unfortunately inherited my borderline delusional optimism. Maybe that one is a good thing.
Why junk removal
My mom lived in Sierra Vista. She had a stroke, and afterward she became a hoarder. For ten years I watched her collect and live inside an endless amount of stuff. I would clean it out, come back, and it would be worse. She passed away a decade after the stroke.
Overwhelming is the word that comes to mind when your mother dies and you are standing in an apartment full of endless stuff with no idea what is important and what is not. Plus two storage units. I had three days. On the third day the apartment manager slipped an eviction notice under the door. They were evicting my mother, who had died a few days earlier. I still do not have the words for what I felt.
I called every cleaning company, every mover, and every so-called junk hauler in town. At the end of the day my brother, my sister, and my wife were there, so at least I was not completely alone. But it was painfully obvious to me that junk removal is not picking up someone’s trash. It takes compassion, availability, ability, and work ethic, and almost nobody was offering all four.
So I went back up to Flagstaff and created the solution I wish I had.
— Ryan Kanaley, Owner, AZ Haul
What that means when we show up
- We answer the phone.
- We show up when we said we would.
- If it can be donated, it will be.
- We handle estate and hoarding cleanouts the way I wish someone had handled mine.
Every person who steps onto your property has passed Google’s Local Services screening, which includes identity and criminal history checks plus cross-checks against the national sex offender, terrorist, and sanctions registries. The company was screened too, including civil litigation, judgments, and liens. That is not a promise. It is a background check.
Get a free quote or call (928) 600-2035.