Category Archives: Los Angeles Junk Removal

Garage Clean Out

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It is another sunny, summer Saturday here in Los Angeles, California. I texted a friend to see if he wanted to watch the Kings game later. Much to my dismay I received back, “Can’t. Cleaning out the garage.” So sad.

And it is totally unnecessary. There is no need to spend a weekend cleaning out a garage, year after year. This dismal doom can be mostly avoided by taking control of your garage. Here are five ways to show your garage who is boss.

1. Keep Your Cars in Your Garage

This is a piece of advice that is so obvious it sounds counterintuitive. One of the best ways to keep your garage clean and organized is to use your garage for your cars. You can’t fill a garage with junk when your car is in the way. Right?

Right.

Not to mention storing your car in a garage spares your car’s paint job a pounding from the weather and will lower your car insurance premiums.

2. Hang Your Tools on a Peg Board

When of your dining room chairs has a loose screw that is threatening to collapse the entire chair. You say to yourself, Hey, I can fix that! I just need to grab a screwdriver from the garage! Two hours later you’ve located four stuffed animals, a pair of pliers, some loose bolts, and a hammer. But no screwdriver.

There is an easy and cool solution. Hang your tools on the wall. You can either arrange your tools on a peg board, a rack, or specialized hangers. This also gives you an excuse to bring that work bench you’ve always wanted. What else compliments a showroom of tools better than a work bench?

When you are finished organizing your tools grab a couple of empty coffee tins and start organizing your screws, nails, bolts, nuts, etc. One coffee tin for screws, one coffee tin for nails, and so on. Depending on the type of Do-It-Yourself jobs you do you may want to get even more granular — a coffee can for wood screws and another coffee can for machine screws.

You can also use store bought organizers to store fasteners and screws, but I tend to like coffee cans. There is something deeply nostalgic about fishing a screw out of an repurpose Folger’s tin.

3. Install Shelving

There are a ton of shelving solutions that are aimed squarely at getting your boxes off the floor. You can buy free standing shelving or shelves that screws (or bolts) directly to the wall. You can even find garage shelving that is designed to hang down from your garage’s rafters (this is an ideal way to store infrequently used stuff like ladders.

Another way you can get boxes off the floor is to install quarter inch plywood boards running across the rafters of your garage. This can serve as an “garage attic” where you can store seasonal items like Christmas decorations.

If you’ve made an effort to carefully install shelving do yourself another favor and buy some sealable plastic boxes. Plastic boxes will last a lot longer (possibly forever) than cardboard boxes and do a better job of protecting the stuff you are trying to store.

4. Label Everything

Either buy a label maker or a couple rolls of masking tape and a marker. Now label everything. Even if you know what is in a box today, label it. Why? This will prevent you from the, “Well I know the Christmas decorations are in THERE!” syndrome. Labeling keeps you from guessing and prevents you from making a mess when you guess wrong.

If you want to get really serious, after packing a box for storage, write out an inventory list of what’s in the box (1 Xmas wreaths, 4 boxes Christmas bulbs). This technique is particularly effective if you have multiple boxes filled with similar items (.i.e. Christmas decorations).

5. Don’t Store Used Chemicals

Paint, household cleaners, and automotive fluids are all considered household hazardous waste and you can’t put them in your normal curbside side trash. So many people store used chemicals in their garage. This is a bad idea on multiple levels of bad.

Firstly, an excess number of poorly store chemicals creates a fire hazard that can damage or destroy your home. Secondly, chemicals laying around your garage pose a hazard to small kids and pets. Instead of storing household hazardous chemicals drop them off at a city approved drop off center. Or call a hauling service like Green Clean Junk Removal Services to haul away old paints, cleaners, etc.

Getting control over your garage takes a little time, a little effort, and a lot of planning. But the results can be amazing. You not only reduce clutter but you turn your garage into another show piece inside your home.

Bulky Item Removal

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If you ever found yourself in a situation where you wake up one morning and you see a sofa or table on your driveway of front lawn that somebody just left there, then you’re pretty much screwed with it. Unfortunately, California law says that you are responsible for the junk and trash in your own property.

 

You could take the easy road and do the exact same thing to someone else and dump that thing in his or her property in the middle of the night. But if you’re someone with a conscience or someone with morals, then you wouldn’t. Like it or not, you have to get rid of the junk yourself.

 

One way to do it is to call the city and ask for a bulky item. This is probably the most affordable way to get rid of it. But there is a downside though; the city only picks up once a week. So if you missed your window then you will have to wait for a week.

 

Another way to do it is if you have a pick up and the muscles to do some heavy lifting, then load up the junk and take it to the dump and pay for the disposal. I’m sure this sucks but at least you got rid of it.

 

Now if you can lift the trash or don’t even want to touch it, there are companies out there that specialize in these bulky item pick-ups. They have guys that can do the lifting for you then they load it up in their truck and dispose of it. It not free of course, but then again so is most of everything else.

Junk Removal Trash Out

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If you are buying or just bought a foreclosed home in Calabasas, congratulations! Foreclosed homes provide a great value. You can often get three times the home for about half the price. But foreclosed homes come with a few immediate disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that foreclosed homes often need to be completely cleaned out before you can move in. But cleaning out a foreclosure doesn’t have to be a nightmare. There are many junk removal services in the Calabasas area that specialize in foreclosure clean outs.

When foreclosed homes became an issue for neighbors, realtors, and banks in 2008 there were an array of junk removal companies that rose up to solve the problem of junk collecting in and around foreclosed homes. Even today in 2013 those same junk removal companies do a brisk business in foreclosure clean outs.

Protect Our Planet

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Protect Our Planet

We have all been left with the task of having to care about our planet to help and make it greener and safer for our future generations. That is why we need to make sure that we recycle whatever objects we can and keep them out of our ecosystem. With so much junk that gets disposed of everyday it might be a little daunting to try and recycle as many objects as possible. With a knowledgable and great staff at a local junk removal company getting your carbon footprint to be smaller than what it is now can be a huge and vastly improvement. Plastics, glass and many other objects are but a few that can be taken into account and should be separated for recycling purposes at all times. Not only will it help out our environment but make planet earth a very enjoyable and pleasant place to be living on for all of us. So help us protect our planet and get rid of that trash, clean out, garage clean out etc and many other tasks.

Los Angeles Junk Removal

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Junk removal in Los Angeles is a growth business. Since 2008 and the implosion of the housing market in Los Angeles junk removal has experienced a growth spurt. More and more real estate agents are turning to junk removal companies to help them clean up properties, more contractors are relying on junk removal to clean up their job sites, and individual homeowners are turning to junk removal services to help them de-clutter.

But junk removal in Los Angeles also comes with its dark side and with its bad apples. Luckily, you can avoid these bad apples (mostly) and we’ll show you how.

The most common way junk removal companies in Los Angeles scam customers is the tried and true bait and switch. You call up a junk removal company and say, I have This, That, and This Other thing. And they say, Great! That will be $170. Then a couple hours or a day later that junk removal company arrives at your door, they look around at your stuff, and then say, “Oh that will now be $500.” Because of stairs, because they had to park the truck on the street, because one of the workers stubbed their toes…

So how do you avoid this tactic?

First and foremost know who your junk removal company is before you hire them. How? There are dozens of internet review sites online like Yelp and Angie’s List. Chances are your junk removal company has been review by other customers. You can also check with the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau to see if your junk removal company has had any recent complaints.

When you book your appointment ask the junk removal company you called if their price quote includes labor. Junk removal companies frequently provide low junk removal quotes, but conveniently leave off the labor charges. If you plan on having your junk removal service dispose of hazardous materials, ask how much extra they’ll charge for disposal of toxic materials.

If your junk removal company in Los Angeles does try the bait and switch, send them packing. Bait-and-switch companies rely on psychology to bully you into paying extra. Don’t give in. Hold firm to a quoted price and if they don’t want to do a job for that price, send them packing and find a new junk removal company that honors their original price.

Lastly, if a quoted price seems too good to be believed, it probably is too good to be true.

Junk Removal Questions

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A junk removal service pops up every day in Los Angeles. It is a business with a fairly low bar for entry. Really all you need is a truck and a strong back. But how do you know you are getting your money’s worth when you hire a junk removal service? Here are some questions to ask your junk removal service before hiring them.

1. How Do You Price Your Junk Removal Service?

Junk removal services in Los Angeles will generally charge based on volume (i.e. how much you fill the truck with) or a flat rate per load. You also want to find out whether their quote includes labor or whether they charge a separate fees for labor. Also you want to find out if a junk removal service charges more for electronics, like computer monitors, and large bulky items like appliances and televisions

2. Will Your Junk Removal Service Remove All My Junk?

When you call a junk removal service make sure you describe all the junk you want removed. Some junk removal services in Los Angeles will not dispose of certain types of junk. Some junk removal service may not handle certain small jobs, or large jobs.

3. How Will You Get Rid of My Junk? You can your junk recycled or disposed of properly at a local landfill. You don’t want your junk to be dumped illegally.

4. Are You a Licensed and Bonded Junk Removal Service? License and bonding is a requirement for most businesses operating in Los Angeles. Also a company that has a license shows a commitment to responsible business practices.

5. How Long Have You Been in Business? Junk removal services come and go in Los Angeles at a rapid rate. Finding a junk removal service that has been in business for a while ensures you are doing business with a junk removal service that has a long standing reputation.

Tips to Help Our Environemnt

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With all the landfills getting dumped on a daily basis you have to wonder how long we can last with all this trash. If you think about all the trash that gets dumped on a daily basis you might get depressed and think that there is no hope for humanity. That is one way of looking at things but have you ever looked in the mirror and decided that you want to make a change and help in preserving our future? There are many personal steps we can all take in order to help out our environment and ensure that our loved ones and their children have a planet to call home. Here are some easy steps you can make in order to reduce the amount of junk you dispose of everyday.

1.The first one is an oldie but a goodie. Recycle your cans and bottles! Nothing can be easier and in the long run pays off because you can get cash for all those bottles and containers.

2. Re-use those scraps of paper for various uses! Remember that not your loved one left you this morning? Well you can keep it and re-use by leaving another note on the back!

3. If you change your own oil, make sure you save it and take it to a location that can dispose of it properly. That one will really help our environment.

4. Turn off all your lights and appliances when not in use. This one is also a no brain-er as it saves you money when you aren’t wasting electricity.

As you can see there are many things you can do to save money and also help our environment and protect our planet.

Construction Debris Recycling

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Back in the old days most, if not all, construction debris was sent to the landfill. And the old days aren’t that old. Sending construction debris directly to the landfill was a pretty regular practice fifteen years ago. Now things are different.

General contractors use hauling services that recycle construction debris on a regular basis. What do these hauling services recycle? Wood can be recycle quite easily into other wood products. Recycled concrete is highly sought after by contractors who turn that concrete into aggregate. Even things like bathroom fixtures are frequently recycled. Items like faucets and fixtures recovered from older homes are often resold to people seeking an antique look in their bathroom or those seeking to restore a home to an original style.

How do you make sure your general contractor recycles? First and foremost ask if your general contractor uses a hauling service that recycles. You can also ask your general contractor to provide recycling receipts from the recycling centers they use to dispose of construction debris. 

Recycling construction debris isn’t just the smart thing to do, it can also save you time and money. Many larger cities are expediting permits and reducing the cost of permits for those who choose to recycle construction debris.

Cleaning Out Your Garage This Summer? Recycle, Don’t Throw Out

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Summer is here and its time to clean out your garage. If your garage is anything like mine you’ve probably got boxes piled to the ceiling and you just want to get rid of that stuff. And if you don’t want to do it there is an entire mini-industry based around garage clean outs (click here to find out more about junk removal and professional garage clean outs).  

But before you start hauling all your garage junk to the garbage STOP. Okay, now that we’ve got your attention, before you throw out the stuff in your garage consider donating to local thrift shops and charities instead. Why?

Donating Unwanted Items Keeps Them Out the Landfill

Donating items can keeps them out of the landfill and gives those items a second (and sometimes third and fourth) life. Less trash in the landfill means a better environment and less trash left behind for our kids and grandkids.

Donating Unwanted Items Helps Charities and Local Stores

Many charities depend on income brought in by associated thrift shops to fund their charitable efforts. Also charity thrift shops often provide dignity and employment to disabled individuals and provide valuable services to your community. 

Donating Unwanted Items Helps You

Donations to charity can provide you with a valuable tax write-off. Make sure you ask for a receipt from your charity.

Be sure you check with your charity of choice or thrift shop of choice before donating. Many charities have rules about what they will and will not except (some don’t take appliances older than a certain date for instance). Also be aware that thrift shops don’t accept paints and other household hazardous materials. You may also want to ask your thrift shop or charity of choice if they have an “Items Wanted List” and no doubt some of the things you’ve cleaned out of your garage are on them.

Disaster Clean Up…

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Natural disasters can strike at any time, during any part of the year. In some cases you may have some warning, in other cases you may have no warning and no time to prepare. Once the immediate danger has passed you are often faced with a daunting task: disaster clean up. 

The most important thing to remember when you are faced with a disaster clean up — whether flood, fire or tornados — is that you are not along. The American Red Cross can provide you help and support during a natural disaster. During major natural disaster you can find aid from FEMA and state governments. 

Your insurance company should be able to refer to a disaster clean up service that can help you clean up and rebuild. Depending on your insurance your insurance company should pay for most of the cost of a disaster clean up.