What size dumpster do I need for a garage cleanout?

There is a sixty thousand dollar car sitting in the driveway because there is five hundred dollars worth of stuff in the garage. That is the job. Here is the bin that fits it.

The short answer

• One car garage, or one bay of a two car: 10 yard. 10 by 7 by 4 feet, about five pickup truck loads.
• Full two car garage: 15 yard. 11 by 8 by 4.5 feet. This is where most garage cleanouts land.
• Two car garage plus an attic, a shed or a basement in the same weekend: 20 yard. 11 by 8 by 6 feet.

When people get this wrong they go too small, because a garage does not look like much until it is out on the driveway in piles. If you are between two sizes, take the bigger one. The difference between a 15 and a 20 is a lot less than the cost of a second pull.

How to size it in five minutes without guessing

Stand in the garage and count what is actually leaving, in these four buckets:

• Furniture and large items. A sofa, a mattress, a treadmill, an old fridge. Four or five of these on their own will eat a 10 yard.
• Boxes and bins. Thirty banker boxes is roughly one pickup load.
• Shelving and lumber. Breaks down small and stacks flat. Takes less room than people expect.
• Yard and garden. Bags of soil, old pots, a dead mower. Heavy for the volume, so watch the weight rather than the space.

Add it up in pickup loads and multiply by two. A loaded pickup bed is roughly two cubic yards, so five loads is a 10 yard, seven or eight is a 15, and ten is a 20. Close enough to book on.

What cannot go in

The garage is where the problem items live. These stay out:

• Paint, stain, solvents and anything else still liquid.
• Oil, antifreeze, fuel, propane tanks and car batteries.
• Tires.
• Pesticides, pool chemicals and fertilizer.
• Appliances that still have refrigerant in them.
• Dirt, concrete and heavy rock, which is a weight problem rather than a legal one.

Your county runs household hazardous waste collection days for most of that list. If you are not sure about a specific item, ask on the call. It is a twenty second question and it is a lot cheaper than a rejected load. Mattresses, furniture, electronics and the rest of the normal garage archaeology are all fine.

Why the garage is the easiest job to do with these bins

• Double Doors for easy walk-in loading. French style doors swing open and pin to the side, so a workbench or a water heater walks straight in instead of going over the wall. You can organize as you go, which matters when you are pulling a garage apart across two days.
• 100% Driveway Protection. The bin lands on the driveway you just cleared a car off. Four 2×6 boards go under the rollers with stops, so the bin cannot roll on a slope, plus boards under the front rails. Nothing steel sits on your concrete, so no gouges from the rollers or rails and no rust stains left behind. Not plywood, which flexes and cracks. We protect your driveway because we care about it.
• Post-Job Cleanup. We clean the footprint and the perimeter when the bin leaves, and run a magnet if there were nails. A garage cleanout always leaves a mess where the bin sat.
• Same Day Delivery and Pickup. Decide Saturday morning, work the weekend, bin gone Monday.

Related: Will a dumpster fit in my driveway? and will my HOA allow a dumpster in my driveway.