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Our Story
Our family business began on Vancouver Island, springing from a “there has to be a better way” moment.
When his father passed back in 2018, Benjamin Ryder had to sort out all that had been left behind. Dealing with his father’s hoarding problem while grieving proved too significant a challenge to manage alone, so he recruited 7 of his friends and family to help him dispose of his father’s possessions.
But his father’s trailer sat, unused, in Benjamin's storage unit for 2 years. When his father was still alive, Benjamin and his father had planned to fix up the old trailer together. They missed that opportunity. So the trailer sat - occupying space in his storage unit.
Myriam (Benjamin's Wife and Business Partner) asked him to sell it since they had no need for it, and the storage fees were adding up. He asked if he could put some money into fixing it up, and together they made a decision to invest $2000 into it before selling. But once it had been fixed up to a state that Benjamin's dad would approve of, it continued to sit unused and unsold in storage.
Frustrated, Myriam asked him, "What are you going to do with it? You don’t have any need for it."
To which Benjamin replied, "I can't sell it, I'm too emotionally attached to it."
Myriam, now amused, asked, "So what are you going to do with it?"
And in classic Benjamin fashion, he said, "I'll figure something out."
Not long after this, Benjamin had to take a load of things to the dump, so he decided to use his newly refurbished trailer to facilitate the trip. Having lots of extra space, he knocked on his neighbour’s doors, asking if they had anything they needed disposing of. They readily agreed, and between 5 houses they filled it up.
On the way to the dump, he noticed many large items rotting away on the side of the road. Mattresses, desks, couches and more. Many people had things that needed to be thrown out, but hadn’t managed it on their own so far.
And so, ever the Entrepreneur, he went online and made a post “Does anyone need help getting rid of their furniture?” And the responses came flooding in. Within a month, this post had ballooned into a serious side hustle, filling up his evenings and weekends.
During one of his jobs, a client suggested to him that he should turn this into a full business. Not long after, he held an online poll and his past clients helped him choose a name. The leading entry was “Throwy McThrow-a-way’s Furniture Ferry” - and through that process The Furniture Ferry was born.
Arifin, one of the original 5 neighbours, happened to be an illustrator and offered to design the logo. The Heart represents Ben’s desire to do good in the world and also pays homage to the popular heart symbols used during the covid19 pandemic. The wings represent the swift transportation side of the business, and the couch is the cargo that started it all.
Requests for our help often represent times of transition for our clients, whether it be throwing something away, giving it away, or just moving it from one place to another. The dream his father and he shared of working together to rebuild the trailer may not have manifested in his father’s lifetime, but following that thread to the end led to an opportunity to help so many more people than Ben had imagined.
To everyone who has called on our help as we grow, thank you!
Our History
