What has been your experience using a junk removal service?
I need to clear out a house and dispose of most the contents.
It’s hard to get a sense of how expensive it is to use one of these services, as they price “by the truckload” or tell you they will show up a truck and give you an assessment on the spot.
I’d also prefer to use a service which resells, donates, and recycles as much of what they remove as possible.
I’m in Massachusetts, so any experience with services in MetroWest is especially of interest.
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We had to do this last fall, but I am guessing our circumstances (huge house, certified hoarder) made it unusual. Anyway…
The company provided a foreman, who hired 4 workers and brought a box truck in addition to arranging for a construction dumpster (so, a big one). They met us at the house. They were given a list of things we were looking for, and there was a discussion of order of operations. Then they started clearing the house.
The five of them and 4 of us worked from 9-3pm. Anything still in boxes, anything of possible value they cleared with us before dumpstering, or got the okay to put in the box truck (items they were going to resale) .
Again, our circumstances were unusual, so we had these guys there for 3 days, two separate weekends (in between, we recovered things and UHauled them to storage). We also got them to agree to leave an empty dumpster for us to fill ourselves, saving a bit of money.
Largest dumpster was $300-600 for drop/pickup arranged on our own. The company w/crew & dumpsters cost $5k/day. I contacted a used bookstore and they came and bought about 600 of the books once we had sorted them. We filled 5 dumpsters with the company, 2 Uhauls, and one cheaper/smaller dumpster on our own. If we were todo it again,I would still pay that much for the company as they were exceptional.
The volume you are dealing with will determine what you can do with things. Most salvage companies want to pick through the house if there is a lot. If it is a smaller property, you may find someine willing to do a total cleanout,but those can also be costly bc the company needs to defray their own costs for dumping all the stuff that has no value.
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We used an auction service to clear out my in laws house. We removed the things we wanted, donated clothes, books, and nicer items, then the service’s owner looked at the place and gave us a quote. He actually paid us, because he resells household items in lots. They took everything, relatively worn furniture, beds … including the garage things, grill, patio furniture, etc. My in laws were in their 90’s, and their things were not in great shape. After clearing out the house, they threw away everything they weren’t taking, including emptying junk drawers. In laws made about $1,000 … and it was amazing to not have to do the hardest part ourselves. If you can find a service like that, I highly recommend it.
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Friends used a service similar to @kelsmom. They first tagged the few items they planned to keep. Some were actually removed (went to their kids). The service then came in and took anything of value to either consign or sell themselves. They had a huge dumpster and anything that needed to be tossed…was tossed! Then they had a couple of weekends worth of tag sales that they service ran. After that, anything left was donated…or then thrown away.
The service guaranteed the house would be emptied by a certain date, and floor swept cleaned…and it was.
Family netted about $2000…but they didn’t have to do the planning of all of this at all.
I would highly recommend this!
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We first considered an estate sale service, but my in laws lived in a subdivision that didn’t allow public sales. The estate sale company we contacted told us that the workaround was to have a private sale - we could invite my in laws’ friends and advertise it to their church. MIL said NO WAY did she want her friends rooting through her stuff! We were really happy when we found a service that didn’t insist on an in-home sale as part of their service.
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We had a tenant leave a house full of stuff when they moved out. So different because I had no emotional attachment to the stuff. We called a junk service recommended by our realtor. They met us at the condo, gave us an estimate ($1500), and then started hauling stuff away. It took four of them two loads and about 4 hours. They were really thorough and swept when they finished. And it ended up to only be $1275.
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My former neighbors used a service like this when they moved. It was a quick move as they found a house they loved/could afford in their new location and jumped on it. They were happy to just get rid of stuff quickly.
We hired an auction house to clean out my parents house. The upside is that they take EVERYTHING you do not designate them not to. I mean they will take a box of tissues if it is there. So it’s easy. The downside is that we got pennies on the dollar for some really nice stuff. Had we had more time (and honestly we didn’t all get a say in this) I would have had a trusted family member who is experienced and knowledgeable sell some of the items privately.
I strongly recommend you supervise the crew.
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I helped two somewhat hoarder friends clean out, and pack before they relocated out of state.
The first person was very willing to get a dumpster. Actually over the course of three weeks, she got two of the largest ones delivered…and filled them to the brim. It did take her some time to decide that she didn’t need many of the things that got tossed! But she did. She also donated to a worthy charity, and we helped with that. Then at the end, she hired a local guy who does final clean outs. He was offered a number if things that were left…plus he could take anything he wanted that she wasn’t moving. It really worked out well.
The second person absolutely refused to get a dumpster. Three of us spent about a month helping pack and sort things. And we filled our own cars for trips to the landfill. It was actually not a great situation. Finally she found a local guy to do clean outs. I don’t think he knew totally what he was getting himself into (think…thousands of old, mildew books for example). He was amazing and in the end did clean out the whole place. Even the owner agreed (after the fact) that a dumpster would have been a better plan to start. And when this owner got to her new place, she also agreed that she had take at least twice as much stuff as she should have, and was donating there.
I think getting a third party in once the owners have removed what they want to keep is a good idea.
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We hired one of these when we moved last year. The one we hired does both junk removal and moving (they don’t pack for you, however). We were very happy with the service and the price was very fair.
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So glad to hear about so many positive experiences!
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I found one that aims to donate as much as possible (to divert things away from landfills), while also sorting out the stuff that donation centers truly can’t use and disposing of those items separately.
I put bright post-it notes on items I wanted to keep, and then they arrived with trucks. One truck took everything in the house that could go to a local women’s shelter, then another section went to Goodwill, and then another took all the things that needed to be disposed.
They swept the floors and handed me all the paperwork for charitable donations filled out by themselves and the donation centers (they listed everything they brought) for my tax records.
They took a full day to do a house, and at the time I think it cost me $2k (~10 yrs ago) - but I hadn’t been able to tackle it myself for far too long and I wish I had done it so much sooner.
Finding a service that quickly pre-sorted the house into donation categories and took it away so efficiently was such a relief to me - highly recommend, it will save you so much agony and TIME.
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We live in MetroWest. I’ll PM you.
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I live in Central MA and I know a women who does liquidation services in Cape Cod and Eastern MA. Happy to send you her info. She used to live in my town and we both volunteered for a local non-profit. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll send you a PM.
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Thanks @Bromfield2 , it would be great if you could send me her info.
I think there is a growing demand for that kind of business.
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When my younger brother moved out, he left a lot of old stuff behind. it was kind of our headache. Though he asked me to take all of his belongings, there wasn’t anything that could be beneficial. That’s when we had to approach junk removal service ( Appliance Removal Services | Junk Works ). You know, it was an actual relief after everything was cleared. There’s plenty of room, so now I’m using it to store some stuff.