10 Quick Tips for Renting Trash Dumpsters
Renting trash dumpsters is a convenient and efficient way to clean out your home or office without being limited to what can fit into your weekly-pickup trash bins.
A good rental dumpster can fit larger items (such as furniture or broken appliances) while still accommodating smaller pieces of junk or debris.
At Junk King, we are the number one national leader in rental dumpsters. If you are preparing for a project that is likely to produce a lot of refuse—from a pre-move house clean-up to a big renovation—we can help. If you have never rented a dumpster before, though, you might not know what to look for or even where to start.
Below, we have compiled a list of 10 quick and essential tips for renting a dumpster. Taking these tidbits of advice into account before you rent will make the process just a little bit easier.
- Don’t pay for space you aren’t going to use
Perhaps the most challenging part of renting a dumpster is trying to guess how much space you’ll need. Some dumpster rental companies offer bins in a wide range of sizes, from 10 cubic yards to 40 cubic yards (if not larger). While it’s difficult to estimate precisely how much junk you need to get rid of, one thing you absolutely want to avoid is paying for space that you aren’t going to use. Renting a 20-cubic yard dumpster might seem like “playing it safe” if you aren’t sure how much capacity you need. If you only end up throwing away about eight cubic yards worth of junk, though, a lot of your money is going down the drain needlessly.
At Junk King, we take a lot of the guesswork out of the process. We only have one size of rental dumpster (12 cubic yards) and only bill customers for the space they use. If you only fill the dumpster halfway, you’ll pay less than you would if you filled it all the way. If you fill up our dumpster and need another one for excess junk, we can help you on that front, too.
- Know when you need your dumpster (and for how long)
Before you make a call to a company that rents out trash dumpsters, make sure you know the timing of your cleanout or renovation project. What’s the start date? When do you think you’ll finish? Answering these questions is crucial to making sure your rental goes smoothly. You don’t want to be starting a renovation and not have a dumpster there where you can toss debris. You also don’t want to finish your project and then must deal with a dumpster full of trash sitting in your driveway for two or three days. Junk King offers three, five, and seven-day rental periods and is always timely about drop-offs and pickups.
- Demand price transparency
Especially when making price comparisons between different dumpster rental companies, it’s important to ask about price transparency. Will you get a dependable upfront price quote that you can count on to stay the same? Or will you get hit by hidden fees and surcharges that you didn’t expect? Some companies advertise their rentals as bargains, but then bury you in fuel surcharges, built-in tipping fees for drivers, and other unfair charges that kick up the price. At Junk King, we pride ourselves on fair, flexible, and transparent pricing.
- Organize your junk, when possible
You might not want to start on your cleanout until the dumpster is there and ready to fill. However, there are definitely benefits to getting organized beforehand. For instance, breaking down boxes instead of just tossing them into the dumpster can conserve space. Putting your lighter-weight junk on the bottom of the bin is also a good idea because then the heavier stuff will push it down and maximise your space.
- Think about what you are throwing away
Depending on the dumpster rental company you choose, there might be restrictions on what you can throw away. In some cases, there might even different types of bin rentals for different varieties of debris. You probably won’t need to worry about these limitations for the average home renovation or office cleanout, but it’s always good to double check.
Junk King can handle pretty much any debris you want to toss in your dumpster. The exception is hazardous waste—a limitation you will find with most other dumpster rental companies, too. You might not think you have any hazardous waste around the house, but there are probably a few items. Wet paint, motor oil and other automotive fluids, pesticides, and batteries all qualify as hazardous waste. If you need a full list of items you can’t throw away in your dumpster, ask the rental company to provide one.
If you aren’t sure which dumpster-for-hire company to choose, use the Internet as a resource. There are customer reviews for most companies and franchises out there, and you can learn a lot from reading them. At Junk King, we are proud to have a rating of 9.6 out of 10, based on more than 123,000 Listen360 reviews.
- Spare a thought for the environment
Trash disposal and environmental sustainability don’t often go hand-in-hand, but they can if you choose the right dumpster rental company. Junk King’s slogan is “America’s Greenest Junk Removal Service,” because we don’t just take your junk to the dump right after collecting it. Instead, we take each dumpster back to our warehouse and sort through the stuff you threw away. Some of it does end up in landfills, but a lot of it can be recycled, repurposed, or reused. We take this process upon ourselves, to save you the time and effort.
- Make sure the dumpster is safe for your driveway
Not all dumpsters are the same. You need to take factors such as weight and dimensions into account, to make sure that the dumpster can fit in your driveway without damaging it. Our rental dumpsters are all 8x12 feet, making them easy to fit into any driveway and avoid damage to asphalt, sidewalks, lawns, gardens, or other features.
- Figure out the right spot for your trash dumpsters
When you rent a dumpster, simply finding the right company from which to rent is only half the battle. The next step is filling the thing, and you want to make sure that doing so is convenient as possible. Get your dumpster as close to your house or office as possible. That way, you can toss lighter debris out the window directly into the dumpster. You also don’t have to carry bulky items as far to dispose of them—saving you and your helpers a lot of the strain of cleanouts and renovations.
Are you interested in learning more about the trash dumpsters we rent at Junk King? Start planning your big cleaning or renovation project by getting in touch with us today! You can call us at 1-888-888-JUNK to get started, or you can book your dumpster rental online to save $30.
10 Quick Tips for Renting Trash Dumpsters