Why Professional Trash Removal is the Best Way to Get Rid of Your Junk

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Professional trash removal is the perfect solution for anyone with a lot of junk to throw out.

Whether you’re a homeowner looking to do some serious spring cleaning, in the middle of a renovation, flipping a property, or trying to find your inner Marie Kondo and get rid of everything that doesn’t bring you joy, professional trash removal can be a godsend.

For renters and landlords, trash removal can also be helpful. Renters may need it for a quick solution for an old couch they don’t want anymore when moving out (kind of important if you want to get your deposit back), and landlords may need to clean up a unit between tenants.

Trash removal is perfect for things you can’t just put out on the curb for weekly trash pickup, including:

Other options beside professional trash removal are either renting a dumpster or renting a moving truck and taking all your garbage to the landfill on your own.

What are the pros and cons (and the cost) of renting a dumpster, taking a moving truck to the landfill, and hiring a professional trash removal service? Let’s take a closer look at each.

Renting a Dumpster

Cost:

  • $530 on average
  • $120 for 4 yard dumpster per week
  • Up to $1,400 depending on size and length of time
  • + Additional fees for distance from dumpster provider, weight of trash, and special materials

When you rent a dumpster, the rental company comes and drops it off on the curb in front of your house. You pick the size of dumpster you need and how long you need it for (typically by the week).

Other factors affecting the cost of a dumpster could include the weight of the trash you need to get rid of, the types of materials, and how far you live from the dumpster provider.

The average cost of renting a dumpster is $530. On the low end, you can get a small 4-yard long dumpster for a week for about $120.

Depending on how long you need and much stuff you have to get rid of, this could cost as much as $1,400!

The main pro of renting a dumpster is you can fill it up at your own leisure over the course of the rental period. The cons outweigh the pros, though.

The cons of renting a dumpster are:

  • You have to pay for entire week at least, even if you just need it for a day
  • You have to do all the work yourself to drag materials out to the driveway or curb and fill the dumpster
  • If the dumpster you rent is too small, you won’t be able to get rid of everything you wanted to

Taking a Moving Truck to the Landfill

Cost:

  • $20 to $40 per day for truck rental
  • + $85 to $128 per load at landfill
  • + Any specialty item fees (couches, electronics, construction materials)
  • + Gas for truck

Another option for removing trash from your property is to rent a moving truck, fill it up, and then haul it to a landfill.

The cost of the moving truck itself will run around $20-$40 per day, depending on the size of truck you need.

At the low end, you’re looking at a 10’ truck for $20, while the $40 options are going to be quite bit bigger, around 26’.

Assuming you can do all your trash removal in a single day, the cost of the truck isn’t too bad. It’s the cost of the landfill visit itself that will add up.

In Boulder County and at landfills along the Front Range, each load will cost you approximately between $85 to $128.

That doesn’t cover appliances, furniture, and other specialty items, which you pay for disposal of on a per item basis.

A couch or mattress will cost you $51 to get rid of, for example. Certain types of construction materials such as drywall, wood, and concrete have minimum fees of $138, even if you only need to throw out a small amount.

That doesn’t include gas for the truck. All of that considered, the very minimum you could expect to pay with this method for a small moving truck for one day and a single load is probably about $130. Of course, that number could balloon to hundreds of dollars or more depending on your needs.

The main pro is flexibility to use a moving truck as you need — if you only need to get rid of a few things, for example, then it could be an affordable option. But even that doesn’t negate the cons.

The cons of taking a moving truck to the landfill:

  • You have to go the rental place, get a truck, and return it yourself
  • You have to drive and park a large truck, which can be dangerous if you don’t have experience with these types of vehicles
  • You have to do all the work of filling the truck and emptying it yourself
  • You don’t know how much it will end up costing until all is said and done

What happens when you don’t have experience driving a moving truck? This.

 

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Hiring a Professional Trash Removal Service

Cost:

  • $129 flat service fee
  • + $49/hr per crew member
  • + Any applicable dump fees

The best option for ridding a property of unwanted trash and scrap materials in the Boulder/Longmont area of Colorado is to go with a professional trash removal service like GSC.

The best thing about professional trash removal is that you don’t have to lift a finger or get your clothes dirty. But there’s a lot more that makes hiring a trash removal service a no-brainer.

The pros of hiring a professional trash removal service include:

  • We do all the work for you — lifting, loading, carrying, carting, and disposal
  • You don’t even have to be home for us to take care of removal — we can come when at you’re at work or out of town so you’re not inconvenienced
  • You don’t have to do any advance work — we will remove items from anywhere on your property
  • We’ll remove any quantity of junk, from a single couch to an entire household
  • You only have to schedule removal services 2 to 3 days in advance — for small pickups, we can sometimes do same-day removal

The final pro is the cost.

Professional trash removal operates on a per hour basis, so it fits your needs. You’re not paying for a dumpster for an entire week if the job can be done in a day.

Our hourly rates are $49 per crew member. The number depends on how much material you need to get rid of — but of course the more hands on deck, the faster the job goes. Additional costs include a flat service fee of $129, as well as any applicable dump fees.

Do the math and you’ll find that in many cases, professional trash removal will cost you less than your other options while coming with a huge benefit: You don’t have to do any of the work yourself!

Here’s what doing it yourself looks like, by the way:

If you’ve got a garage to clear out, a home renovation to clean up, a landscaping job to polish off, or anything else that requires trash removal, we’re the professionals for the job.

Learn more about GSC’s professional trash removal services here »