1. Organization Starts with A Vacant Apartment

When you rent your first apartment you’ve got an awesome opportunity. You’re starting your post-collegiate adult life largely clutter free. Your first apartment is a blank slate (mostly) that you can fill or not fill with stuff. So when you are shopping for furniture for that new apartment, remember less is usually more.  

Also take the time to buy organizing solutions like racks, holders, and drawer organizers. Life is a lot easier if you start off organized.

2. Start Recycling

Most modern apartments have some sort of recycling program, either a separate dumpster for recyclables or individual blue bins for recyclables. Most of the time you don’t have to sort your recyclables, just separate them from your regular trash. If your apartment building doesn’t have a recycling program, talk to your building management about setting one up. 

3. Buy Only What You Need (Or Things You REALLY want)

When I moved into my first apartment I was extremely dedicated to the idea of keeping a fully stocked bar at all times. As part of my effort to keep a bar to rival Don Draper I had every bar glass ever made, including the ones bars don’t use anymore (sour glasses anyone?). And you know how many of those glasses got used? Four. Maybe eight on a big day. This taught me something:

Buy the things you only need, or the drew things you really really want. When you are shopping ask yourself, “Do I need this? Do I want this? Will I use this? What am I willing to throw out to replace this?” If you don’t need something, don’t buy it.

4. Know when to Hold ‘Em

We live in a disposable culture, especially when it comes to clothes. A shirt gets ripped at the seam our first instinct is to throw it out and buy five new shirts to replace it. You can save money in the long run and keep your wardrobe under control by mending and properly cleaning clothes. 

5. Know When to Throw ‘Em

While you can have your clothes mended, fixed, and even rewoven there are certain things in your life that just aren’t worth saving. No, you aren’t going to fix that toaster and know you aren’t going to fix that lamp. Instead the broken stuff you insist your going someday is just going to pile up in a closet. So know when to part ways with your beloved toaster and just buy a new one.

6. Love Your Boyfriend, Not His Toaster

Continuing on with the toaster metaphor … At some point you’re going to meet someone, and fall in love, and they’ll want to move into your apartment because its a lot bigger than theirs. And the day after that special someone moves in you’ll discover your kitchen populated with two of everything. Your toaster, his / her toaster, his/ her dishes and your dishes, his / her silverware and your silverware, etc. 

Your first exercise as a couple should be to pair down those possessions into one of everything. Consider it your first relationship challenge!

7. Establish Cleaning Habits Early

Cleaning is about routine. Don’t clean when things are beyond livable. Instead establish a cleaning schedule. Clean your bathroom(s) on a certain day. Clean your kitchen on another day. Appointment yet another day as a time for cleaning your kitchen and vacuuming your living room. If you live by a schedule your life gets easier, simpler, and cleaner.

8. Get Rid of Bulky Items the Right Way

Sooner or later you will add buying a major appliance, like a refrigerator, to your list of first. And the reason will most likely be that your old refrigerator finally died on you. When this time comes make sure your dispose of bulky items properly. No, hauling a television or refrigerator to the curb isn’t proper disposal. Call your city’s sanitation department or a private hauling service to have your bulky item haul away.

9. Be Careful with Chemicals

Chemicals like paints and certain types of household cleaners are considered hazardous materials. So practice judicious use of these chemicals. Instead of using harsh, chemical cleaners, for instance, use a biodegradable cleaner. If you paint your apartment make sure you dispose of leftover paints appropriately. You can typically dispose of paint at a designated drop off center.

10. Don’t Get Sloppy

It is easy to get sloppy or messy. Six months into your new job and you’re sleep deprived and under-appreciated. You toss your clothes on the floor, you leave your dishes soaking in the sink, you don’t vacuum when you are supposed to vacuum. Don’t get sloppy. Stick to your routine.

These ten tips only scratch the surface of how to organize and keep your apartment (or, in the future, home) clean and junk free. If you want to read some more helpful hints or tips about organizing, cleaning, and hauling away junk and garbage click here.

1. Are You Licensed and Insured?

Every business needs to have a business license. This is a simple bar to pass. If a junk removal company isn’t license than may advice is to stay away from that junk removal company. You also need to verify that your junk removal company is insured. Insurance protects you against legal actions in case a worker is harmed during a junk removal on your property. Insurance also protects your property from damage by the junk removal service.

2. Will You Haul Away All My Junk?

Many junk removal services have limits on what types of junk they will haul away. For instance paint and cleaners are almost always verboten. But many junk removal services also won’t haul away electronics like televisions and computer monitors. Some junk removal companies have even more esoteric limits on what they won’t haul away. One major junk removal company for instance won’t haul away pianos. 

So make sure the junk removal company you’ve chosen will haul way the junk you want hauled away.

3. How Much Do You Charge and Does that Price Cover the Cost of Labor?

As a general rule of thumb junk removal services price their services one of two ways: a flat rate per load, or by how full you fill the truck. Regardless of which pricing structure they use make sure the price you are quoted includes labor. Quite often junk removal companies will give you an estimate that does not include labor. If a junk removal company charges for labor ask them how much extra they charge.

If you ask these three questions you’ll be better informed and be able to make a smarter choice when it comes time to choose a junk removal company. 

So which should you do?

The decision largely comes down to a question of speed vs. budget. When I was in film school we often  talk about a triangle. On the right side of the triangle was written the term Cheap, on the left side of the triangle was written the term Good, on the top of the triangle was written Fast. You could only choose two. In other words, you could have something that was good and fast, but it wouldn’t be cheap. You could do something fast and cheap but it wouldn’t be good. Etc. 

This paradigm applies to whether you need to rent a dumpster or hire a hauling service. 

Junk removal services often provide an all in one solution for hauling away junk and trash. It is also a fast solution. Most junk removal services will handle everything for you. They’ll bring a truck, typically two guys, and do everything for you. They’ll haul away what you tell them to haul away and some junk removal services even do a bit of light cleaning. 

But junk removal services tend to be a bit pricey. If you have a large load or multiple loads of junk its not uncommon to spend as much as $1,000 on a junk removal. Perhaps more.

Dumpster rental is cheaper than junk removal, but when you rent a dumpster all you get is a dumpster. You’ll have to supply the labor and the manpower. You’ll also have to spend a significant amount of time cleaning or supervising a clean out. 

So which is best? That’s completely subjective to your situation. You can achieve your goal using either a dumpster or a junk removal service. It just depends on which of you choose. Good. Fast. Cheap.

1. Bring Everything Downstairs

A lot of junk removal services will charge extra if they have to go up and down stairs. A lot of junk removal companies simply don’t like cleaning out second floor or third floor rooms, so make it easy for them. The day before your junk removal company is scheduled to arrive bring all your junk down from the second and/or third floor and put them in a central location near an easily access door.

2. Label All Your Hazardous Materials and Bag Them Up

Some junk removal services take hazardous materials, some don’t, so check with your junk removal service first … but if they are expected to haul away your household hazardous materials make sure you wrap all your hazardous materials in plastic bags (for easy disposal) and label those bags clearly. Make sure you keep everything grouped together. Paints with paints, etc.

3. Sort Your Junk 

Try to pre-sort as much of your junk as possible. Make three piles, or find three plastic bins. One for items to keep, one for donation, one for for the junk removal company. Since the objective here is to declutter make sure your donate and throw away piles larger than your keep pile.

Doing some of the work of a junk removal service before them will make your junk removal run faster and smoother. 

Step 1. Make a Plan of Attack 

Figure out how much junk you have and how much stuff you need to get rid of … You can accomplish this by just doing a simple walkthrough of a house and assessing where you need to clean. Also plan how and where your going to get rid of your junk. A lot of landfills aren’t open to the public (you need to be a licensed waste management company to dump in a landfill) so you may need to dispose of some of your trash in the normal curbside trash pick up, rent a dumpster to dispose of the large trash, and donate the unwanted stuff that still works to a charity or thrift shop of your choice.

Step 2. Rent a Truck

If you need to get rid of an old appliance or piece of furniture you will want to rent a truck and a heavy dolly so you can haul away your bulky item. You can either find a charity that accepts appliances or furniture, or take them to a scrap recycler.

Step 3. Pick a Weekend and Take the Time to Do It Right

Pick a weekend to clean up and stick to it. Remember you may need the entire weekend to clean up. Junk wasn’t accumulated in a day and may not be cleaned up in a day. 

If you use these tips you’ll be hauling away junk like the pros. 

1. I made a plan and stuck to it

Eventually. Like everyone else I procrastinated cleaning out my garage for about six months. I didn’t want to think about it. I avoided doing anything about it. Until I needed to find my set of golf clubs for a business trip to Las Vegas. After four hours I found my golf clubs, lost my mind, and said I’ve got to clean out my garage. So a couple of weeks later I took my two week summer vacation and said, “On Saturday I am doing a garage clean out…” and did it.

2. I rented a dumpster

I knew I had a lot of trash — particular old, empty moving boxes — stacked up in the garage. Instead of hauling them to a landfill (which is problematic in Los Angeles because most landfills are in places like Calabasas) I rented a dumpster and had it dropped in my driveway. So when I started my garage clean out I could just toss trash straight into the dumpster. When I was finished I just called the dumpster company and had it hauled away.

3. I sorted my chemicals and took them to a disposal facility

I couldn’t put the paint I had stored in my garage in the dumpster or the regular trash. So I collected all my paint, boxed it up, and took it to a collection facility in the San Fernando Valley. The city of Los Angeles runs these collection centers and generally has them open every Saturday.

4. I donated a lot of stuff and did it immediately

As I got deeper into the garage clean out I started to really pile up a lot of stuff I wanted to donate to Goodwill. So instead of waiting I made periodic runs to the local Goodwill collection point in my neighborhood in Los Angeles. This minimized the risk of the stuff going back into the garage.

5. I bought shelves to organize my remaining stuff

I bought shelves and pegboards for my tools to organize my garage and keep boxes off the ground. 

Ultimately my garage clean took a weekend but it was totally worth it. Now I have more space and I can put my car in my garage. Yeehaw!

1. Walk through your rental unit

After your tenant has vacated the unit and turned the keys over to you do a walk through the unit. You’ll want to bring with you a notepad and a cameras to document any damage, repairs to be made, or junk to be removed.

2. Hire a Junk Removal Service

Chances are your tenant left a few things behind he or she didn’t want or need anymore. These items could be old furniture, appliances, or anything else that your tenant didn’t want. Hire a junk removal service to come in and haul away whatever you need haul away.

3. Hire a Contractor or Handyman

Next up is to hire either a contractor or a skilled handyman to make any repairs needed to the unit. In most cases you won’t need a contractor. You’ll need a skilled handyman and a few laborers to make needed repairs and repaint.

4. Hire a Maid Service

Final step is to hire a maid service to clean up the unit from top to bottom. You can also save a bit of money and do this yourself.

This is some fairly standard advice. Following this walkthrough will help you keep your unit ready to rent.

First forget about call a Pacific Palisades’ junk removal company. Junk removal companies make most of their money off of junk removal. So forget about calling a junk removal company. There are easier solutions.

Charitable organizations … If your junk is still useful and/or working you can donate it to one of many charitable organizations that take in used items. Goodwill is a popular destination. As is Salvation Army and Out of the Closet. You can also find other charitable organizations that cater more towards your interest, for instance second hand stores who’s proceeds go to a specific type of cancer treatment.

Craig’s List … Craig’s List has a “Free” section where people frequently list items they don’t want or need anymore. Most of the time you won’t even have to deliver your item. You can advertise an item for free, just needs to be hauled away.

Bulky Item Pick Up … the City of Los Angeles has its own bulky item pick up for large appliances and large items. This service can take a bit of time but its either free or low cost in most cases.

These are a few of the free junk removal alternatives available to the residents of Pacific Palisades. If you get creative there are numerous ways for you to reuse or recycle old junk without having to pay to have it hauled away.

But how do you know if you are a hoarder? Here are some warning signs that you may have a hoarding disorder.

1.) You have a hard time throwing away things.

2.) You save things because you think you think you may use them later.

3.) You cannot turn down homeless animals

4.) Your parents are hoarders

5.) You won’t get rid of clothes

6.) You have problems focusing

7.) You don’t like wasting

8.) Your possessions embarrass you

9.) You’re indecisive

10.) You collect old magazines and newspapers from years and years ago.

If you exhibit some of these symptoms you might be a hoarder. It is recommended you seek support and counseling for your hoarding sooner rather than later. Late may be too late.

How do I choose between a hauling service and a junk removal service?

The choice between using a hauling service and a junk removal service often comes down to what you need hauled away. If you need to remove a lot of dirt or concrete or a mix of construction debris you will probably want to seek out a hauling service that specializes in the disposal of construction debris.

If you have to get rid of a lot of household junk, or need to clean out a garage or backyard you may want to call a junk removal service.

Remember that quite often a hauling service and a junk removal service are one and the same.