The very first time we got a huge shipment of donations in, Nicole was horrified to find an easily measurable layer of grime on the top of one of the pallets. Most of us had worked in warehouses or with bulk shipments before, so we were very aware that warehouses aren’t the cleanest places in the world. But the products are safe, wrapped in plastic inside taped-shut cardboard boxes, so a layer of industrial…well, dust, doesn’t really matter.

Cut to today, when we have our own “warehouse” (really just the climate-controlled basement of the Worldbuilders office). Our storage area is actually pretty clean, but the boxes we get aren’t always dust-free. After a lot of unpacking, repacking, and stacking, folks will be able to tell if you scritched your itchy nose recently.

Most of the time, when we’re moving boxes around, it’s just Something You Have To Do. Hunter, who’s always pretty darn cheerful, seems to have figured out a way to make it fun and get some Aikido practice in. Rock on!

Don’t worry, all our perks are packed to the nines and ready to withstand way more than a few throws. Nicole is obsessively particular about how things are packed around here. We’re not even kidding.

If we have a weird thing to ship, we’ll approach her and say, “Hey, Nicole–weird thing,” and hand it to her. She’ll heft it once, then say something like, “Use a 12x10x2 with peanuts and send it USPS Priority because it’s $2.38 cheaper than the next best shipping price.” And we walk away in a strange, impressed daze.

Don’t mess with Nicole and her shipment process.