By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Every time Alabaster resident John Waltz walks into a building he has been hired to liquidate, he said the feeling is similar to Christmas morning.

“It’s like Christmas every time you go into a store. Every time you open up a box or go into a room, you don’t know what you are going to find,” Waltz said.

Waltz recently moved his business, Clean Sweep, to an air-conditioned warehouse next to the BP gas station near the intersection of Shelby County 11 and Shelby County 68 in Alabaster.

Through his business, which has been family owned for more than 25 years, Waltz is hired by landlords to liquidate and clean restaurants, stores and other buildings after they go out of business.

“We go in and buy the shelves and any merchandise left out and then we clean the building out so it can be ready for the next tenant,” he said.

After cleaning out the building, Waltz holds an on-site auction to sell off most of the items left in the business. What he is unable to sell on-site, he collects and brings back to the warehouse in Alabaster.

June 15-17 will mark Clean Sweep’s first public sale in Alabaster, which will feature thousands of items purchased from failed national chain pharmacies and other businesses. The sale will run from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. each day, and will feature everything from makeup and extension cords to coolers and a 1970s Coca-Cola machine.

“People have a chance to get some nice things for cheap prices because I am able to purchase them cheaply,” Waltz said, noting about 60 percent of the items at the sale will be $1.

Over the past few weeks, Waltz has been advertising the sale by installing a short-range FM transmitter at the warehouse broadcasting information on 88.1 FM.

“It’s pretty neat. I can’t believe more people around here don’t use that. Legally, you can broadcast about half a mile,” he said.

Waltz said he is planning to hold sales at the Alabaster warehouse once a month, and said each sale will bring different items depending on the businesses liquidated.

“I’m always looking for neat stuff,” Waltz said.

For more information about Clean Sweep, including pictures of sale items, visit Cleansweep411.com.