House cleanout dumpster rental: what fits and what stays out

A house cleanout dumpster from RO RO Rentals is one 15-yard roll-off: 405 cubic feet for $499 flat, with delivery, 7 days, up to 2 tons (4,000 lbs) of disposal, and pickup. At EPA’s figure for loose mixed trash, a full box weighs about 3,750-4,500 lbs, right around the 2 tons included.⁠¹

Garage, attic, estate, move-out, or hoarder house, the plan is the same. Know what is coming out. Keep the banned items out. Load it tight.

Size the cleanout against 405 cubic feet

Measure the pile in feet: length × width × height. A pile 9 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 3 feet high is 135 cubic feet, a third of the box. If the house holds more than one box, each additional haul is $300.

What each job tends to turn up:

• Garage. Shelving, tools, scrap lumber, bikes, boxes. Also the items that cannot go: liquid paint, fuel, propane tanks, tires, car batteries.
• Attic. Boxes, bags, old furniture, decorations.
• Estate. Furniture, mattresses, carpet, clothes, kitchenware. Check appliances and electronics against the list below before they go in.
• Move-out. Whatever did not make the truck. Furniture, mattresses, boxes, bagged trash.
• Hoarder house. Volume and weight both. Packed rooms, and items you will not see until you dig. Sort as you go.

Run the weight math

Loose mixed trash. EPA lists uncompacted mixed MSW (residential, institutional, and commercial) at 250-300 lb per cubic yard.⁠¹ Fill all 15 yards and that is 3,750-4,500 lbs. Divide 4,000 lbs by 300 and you get about 13.3 cubic yards. Divide by 250 and you get 16, more than the box holds. A full box sits right around the 2 tons line. Your mix is not EPA’s mix, so treat this as a ballpark.

Carpet and pad. EPA lists carpet at 147 lb per cubic yard and carpet padding at 62.⁠² A full box of carpet is about 2,205 lbs. A full box of pad is about 930. It takes about 27 cubic yards of carpet to reach 4,000 lbs, nearly two boxes. Roll it tight and tape it.

Mattresses and furniture. SC DHEC’s conversion sheet lists a mattress at 55 lb. It also lists office furniture, sourced from U.S. EPA: desks at 82-422 lb, credenzas at 140-251 lb, and chairs at 16-51 lb.⁠³ Four mattresses come to 220 lbs. The heaviest desk on that list is about a tenth of the 4,000 lbs. Single pieces rarely sink you. Volume does.

Those are conversion factors, not your bill. Every load is weighed at the disposal facility and billed by certified scale weight. Past 2 tons, it is $85 per ton. Pack it tight and you fit more junk under the rail, and more weight with it. Run your mix through the dumpster rental cost estimator before you book.

Break it down and load it tight

You pay for 405 cubic feet. Air in the box is space you lose.

1. Break down furniture. Pull drawers out of dressers and desks. Unscrew table legs. Take bed frames and shelving apart so the pieces lie flat.
2. Flat and heavy on the floor. Doors, table tops, shelving panels, and rolled carpet go in first.
3. Bulky on top. Couches and chairs go in after the flat layer.
4. Fill the gaps. Bags, boxes, and small pieces go in the holes. Flatten empty boxes.
5. Stop at the top rail. Debris goes no higher than the top rail. Nothing sticks up past it.

What stays out of a cleanout dumpster

The binding list is our prohibited and restricted materials policy. These are the ones cleanouts turn up most.

• Refrigerators, freezers, window AC units. Prohibited. Any appliance containing refrigerant stays out. Under EPA rules, the final person in the disposal chain must make sure refrigerant is recovered from household refrigerators, freezers, and window air conditioners before final disposal.⁠⁴
• Washers, dryers, ranges, water heaters, dishwashers. Ask before you load them. SC law bars knowingly including white goods, a list that names all five, with municipal solid waste bound for an MSW landfill.⁠⁵
• TVs, computers, monitors, printers. Electronics and e-waste are prohibited unless we explicitly approve them. SC law bars consumers from knowingly putting computers, monitors, printers, and TVs with screens larger than 4 inches diagonal into a waste stream bound for a solid waste landfill.⁠⁶
• Tires. Prohibited. SC law bars knowingly depositing whole waste tires in a landfill as a method of ultimate disposal.⁠⁷
• Car batteries. Batteries are prohibited. SC law bars knowingly putting a used lead-acid battery in mixed municipal solid waste. It may go only to a battery retailer or wholesaler, a DES-registered collection or recycling facility, or a permitted secondary lead smelter.⁠⁸
• Paint, stain, and sealant. Prohibited if liquid or partly liquid. SC DES says residents may put latex paint in household trash once it is dry, and that most experts recommend oil-based paint go through a household hazardous waste program or event.⁠⁹ If you cannot tell whether a can is dry, keep it out.
• Propane tanks, aerosols, gas cylinders, fuel, oil, solvents, automotive fluids, chemicals. Prohibited.
• Hazardous waste, asbestos, sharps, medical and biohazard waste. Prohibited. Watch for them in hoarder and estate jobs.

Restricted materials need approval before delivery. Prohibited material can get the load refused, and you pay the cleanup and special disposal. If you are unsure about an item, text a photo of the pile to (843) 284-3707. The plain-words version of both lists is in what you can put in a dumpster.

Dumpster or junk removal

You do the loading. A few heavy items and nobody to carry them points to a junk removal crew. A full garage or a full house over several days points to the box. The dumpster rental vs junk removal guide lays out the call.

Placement and time

Driveway placement usually needs no permit. Street placement may need one, and getting it is on you. The guide to a dumpster in your driveway covers placement.

Your rental runs 7 days. If sorting runs long, extra days are $10 per day.

Next step

Call or text (843) 284-3707 with the address, what you are tossing, and the day you need it. Say up front if appliances or electronics are in the mix. Or request a quote online.