admin Wherever you are, most junk haulers will agree that it is best to be prepared for them to come to your home or business and haul away that junk that you need to get rid of. You can make the experience as difficult and expensive as you’d like it to be. However, it is wise to plan things out and have yourself organized before the haulers arrive. In some cases, if you are not prepared, they will leave the job and tell you to reschedule when you are ready.
Many of the companies out there will ask you the size of the pile of junk that you want to be removed, and even ask you to send them a photo of it. Other than taking pictures of odds and ends scattered throughout the property, they will ask to see a picture of the pile of junk that they will be picking up.
Figure Out What You Want to Trash
Generally speaking, places that offer hauling services are not in the business of making decisions for you. They will not go around your house and property collecting articles of junk to load onto the truck and take away.
Realistically, you should probably decide what it is that you want to get rid of and start piling it up before you even call the hauling service. In order to make things as quick and painless as possible, it is best to have everything ready to go and your payment on hand.
- Choose items you want to discard
- Choose a spot to pile them up
- Collect the items and put them in a pile
Depending on the policies of the hauling company that you contact, you might need to separate your items between the types of materials that they are. We will discuss this further later.
Consider Your Junk
Many families and business owners get so caught up in their daily functions that all they want to do is get the junk off of their hands and be done with it. However, if you consider the cost of hiring a professional hauling company to pick up your stuff and haul it away and compare it to the money you could get from selling some of your “junk” items you might see things differently.
Some people just give up on things like:
- Exercise equipment
- Bicycles
- Desks
- Dressers
- Luggage
- Aluminum ladders
- Garden tools
They assume that the equipment is old and beat up so that nobody else would want it, but many people learn that there are a lot of other people out there that would love to buy some of the things that get thrown away on a daily basis.
One of the best things to do is to take a few minutes to consider whether or not what you are throwing away is actually junk, or if it is useful for somebody else.
Hiring Help
Now that we have established the fact that junk hauling companies haul junk as opposed to collecting it from around the property you can think about how much help you would actually need in order to get your junk from where it is sitting to where it needs to go for it to be picked up.
Sometimes junk can be really bulky and heavy. Large pieces of furniture, old broken refrigerators, chunks of fence that have been removed and replaced, chunks of rock or concrete…and so on.
Depending on the size of the pieces of junk and the amount that there is you might need a lot of help. It is not recommended to move and lift heavy objects without assistance so it can be a good idea to hire some laborers to help.
Now, just because hauling companies generally do not help with moving and packing junk does not mean that they all refuse to help. There are plenty of hauling services out there that are more than willing to send out a few extra people to help if you are willing to pay the price.
When you are searching for the proper company to take away all of your trash, make sure to talk to somebody and see if they offer help with collecting the trash and putting it on the truck.
Designating a Spot for the Pile
Most junk hauling experts will want you to pile your junk as close to the street as possible so that they can pull up next to the pile and load it all into the back of their truck. However, certain circumstances may not allow for you to pile stuff as close to the street as the company would like.
The best thing to do is take the time to have a conversation with the company that is hauling your junk away and see what the best solution would be.
In addition to finding the perfect spot that will work for the haulers, you have to keep in mind any laws that might pertain to where you can pile your stuff. For example, if your home or business has a bicycle lane in front of it where there is no parking, it might be illegal to put a pile there for a junk pickup.
Even though you will most likely have a scheduled time for pickup, and your pile may only be there for a couple of hours at most, if it is not legal to put a pile there you could be at risk for a citation and a fine.
Separating Your Junk
Your junk hauling professionals may ask you to separate your junk by the kind of material it is. In fact, they may ask you before you even get started what kinds of materials you are getting hauled away.
There is a big difference between lawn trimmings and old paint. Depending on the laws that govern your area you may have to do a little bit of extra work to make sure that it is even legal to haul away what you are junking, and how it needs to be contained in order to be hauled.
Some of the different types of materials that people can ask to be hauled off are:
- Metal
- Plastic
- Glass
- Wood
- Organic, such as lawn trimmings and weeds
- Used motor oil
- Old gasoline
- Paint
- Solvents
Most dumps that take junk will have a hazardous material area where they will accept old paint, gas, solvents, and other things that could potentially harm people and the environment. However, you have to inform the company that is hauling your junk away if there are any substances that might be considered hazardous in your load.
Some of the companies will only ask to keep hazardous materials separate because they can separate the metals from the woods and plastics as they load everything onto the truck. However, many companies would prefer it if the stuff was already separated and ready to go on the truck as is with as little friction as possible.
Conclusion
The best way to prepare for a company to come to your place and haul your junk away is to be informed about the expectations of the company before you even move forward with the service. As long as you have a clear vision of what will be expected from you for the pickup, you will have a better understanding of what you will need to do to make the experience as flawless as possible. Not only will you have a stress-free experience, but you will also be rid of that junk that has been an eyesore for who knows how long.
