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Junk Removal Blog

Limiting the Cost of Storm Damage

After the storm, you need to clear the debris of fallen branches. You have three choices:

  1. Call a real tree removal service.
  2. Hire one of those fellows in a pick up truck going door to door.
  3. Call Junk King.

Here are the pro and cons.

If you have a tree in a potentially dangerous situation, you need to call a fully insured, licensed tree removal service.

The fellows going door to door are convenient, but they are not always adequately insured, and they often cost more than the established tree removal service.

If you simply have a big mess of debris, your best value is to call Junk King. We can usually provide same-day service at no extra cost so we are as convenient as the door-to-door crews, and we cost less. We have the tools to cut up the debris and our huge 18 cubic yard trucks can hold four times the debris than a large pick up truck. We are fully insured.

So actually, you have two choices. If you have a tree laying across your house or threatening to fall, call the experts at an established tree removal company. If you have a mess of debris to haul, call Junk King and save a bundle.  1-800-995-JUNK (5865)

Storing Junk compared to Dumping Junk

This article is not a knock on public storage. I, myself, have rented storage space for my inventory until I could build my own storage. When I had a temporary overseas assignment, I rented storage space for my furniture, until my return. Note, in both cases, the decision to use temporary storage had a specific exit strategy, and I had specific uses for the items stored.

The Self Storage Association reports that 50% of storage unit renters store what won’t fit into their homes. 1 out of every 11 Americans rents storage. However, too many of those people use public storage to store junk – stuff they’ll never use again. They do not have an exit strategy.  In effect, they use public storage to postpone the decision to get rid of unused furniture, junk, and clutter.

Public storage isn’t cheap. In the DC Metro Area, a 10 foot by 5 foot climate controlled storage unit (about the size of a walk-in closet) costs $75 per month, or $900 per year. In addition, you provide the labor and hauling to move your stuff to the storage unit.

As an alternative, getting rid of the unwanted items requires decisions, time, labor, and often some expense. A 10 foot by 5 foot unit with an 8 foot ceiling packed tightly holds about 16 cubic yards. You can rent a 15-yard dumpster for around $450, and you provide the labor. You can hire Junk King to perform all the labor and remove the unwanted items for less than $450.

As a rough rule-of-thumb, the cost of disposing unwanted items is equal to the cost of 6 months’ rent to store them.  A lot of people opt for the “free” first month of rent and slow $75 bleed than paying the cost for disposal. The problem is that at the end of 6 months rent–$450–you still have the unwanted items and you face the same decision: pay to dispose or pay to store.

If you need help solving this store vs dispose dilemma, you may want to engage a Professional Organizer.  These professionals are excellent at helping people prioritize.  Check out the National Association of Professional Organizers, or contact us for a referral.

Finally, here’s an enlightening case study written at another blog.  This person spent $48,000 over five years to store junk.
https://www.wisebread.com/5-ways-self-storage-units-are-more-sad-museums-than-savvy-solutions

Do-it-yourself Junk Hauling?

By nature, I’m a Do-it-yourselfer. But I’m also busy, so now I pick my Do-it-yourself battles more carefully.

Here’s a short case study comparing Do-it-yourself junk removal and Junk King. The bottom line is that if you have access to a free truck and you value your time at zero, the Do-it-yourself option is best. If you don’t have a truck, and you value your time at greater than $13 per hour, then the Junk King option is best.

Case Study
You are a homeowner in Falls Church and you want to get rid of an old couch, a mattress set, a few boxes of old papers, a broken lawnmower, old grill, an old TV and a stack of used ceramic tile from a left-over bathroom demo. The volume would fit in two pick-up trucks or a small stake-body truck.

Do-it-yourself Option
First, you need to rent a small truck: best case is $89 per day without insurance. You need to budget at least five hours to get the truck, return to your house, load the truck, drive it to the dump, unload the truck, and return it.
You need to return the truck with a full tank of gas. Trucks get about 12 miles per gallon. You need to budget for 6 gallons of fuel at $4 or another $24.
Pay the dump fees. The best value for the homeowner is to go to the Fairfax County Ox Road Transfer Station or the Lorton Covanta Facility. Typically, a county employee will check your load and assess a fee.  County residents get a break, but dumping is not free. In your case, you have mixed debris, which means you have some burnable debris, some steel, some e-waste, and some construction debris. Most likely, you are going to pay about $10 each for the mattress and box springs, $15 or more for the TV because of the lead content, and $15 for the rest: total $50.
After you pay the dump fees, the county employee will direct you to unload your truck at different piles. the mattresses go in the mattress pile, grill and lawnmower (drained of gas and oil) goes to the steel, tile goes to the construction debris. The burnable debris goes to another pile.
Consider the value of your time and your helper’s time. You will need help to load and unload the bulky items. The average wage in Fairfax County is $28/hour (census data). If time is worth $28 per hour, you need to budget another $280.
Beware of hidden costs. In the unlikely event that something goes wrong, the Do-it-yourselfer has the risk: injury, accident, property damage . . . For example, carriers who haul stuff pay for cargo insurance in addition to auto insurance in case something falls out of their vehicle and causes damage. Typical auto insurance doesn’t cover that kind of accident.

Therefore, the Do-it-Yourself option has the following costs:

  • Truck rental  $89
  • Fuel   $24
  • Dump fees  $50
  • Labor  $280

The total Do-it-yourself is $443 plus some hidden costs.

If you can borrow your brother’s pick-up truck and you value labor at zero, you still have the fuel and dump fees at $64, plus the hidden costs of the risk. You’ll need to make two round-trips to the dump, so your time budget goes up to 8 hours.
Junk King Option
The second option is to call a junk hauler like Junk King. The load described above is about one-third a truck load for our large 18 cubic yard trucks. Junk King’s retail cost for a third truck is $328, but most consumers use a $20 coupon from the yellow pages or book on-line for a $30 discount. Therefore, one can comfortably budget $298 with no hidden costs. Junk King provides free estimates and promises to beat any written estimate by 10%.
Other benefits include avoiding the hidden costs of the Do-it-yourself option. Junk King performs all the labor and has workers compensation, general liability, auto insurance, cargo insurance, and necessary dumping permits. Also, Junk King has a network of recyclers.  They stage the unwanted items at our warehouse, donating re-usable items, and then recycling steel and paper. Junk King even has an end-user for the old bathroom tile in the scenario above.  Therefore, Junk King is better than 95% landfill free.  If you tried to replicate their recycling process, you would have to make separate trips to six far-flung facilities and spend time conducting six separate transactions—simply not practical for the Do-it-yourselfer.

Conclusion

If you do not have a truck, if you value your time at more than $13 per hour, and if you would rather keep your junk and debris out of landfills, then you want to call Junk King Fairfax.  (703) 455-3861

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Neighborhood Cleanup Day

Many homeowner associations (HOAs) sponsor neighborhood cleanup days each year. They encourage neighbors to part with all their junk: old appliances, furniture, and other debris. Sometimes they sponsor the event after a neighborhood yard sale.

Because of the neighborhood volume, the HOA can arrange junk removal much cheaper than individual homeowners can. HOAs have two main options: dumpsters and a junk hauling service like Junk King.

The Dumpster Option
The HOA estimates the amount of volume of debris and rents 20 or 30-yard dumpsters. These dumpsters rent for about $18 to $25 per cubic yard. However, beware of other fees: fuel surcharges, transport fees, and fees for overweight dumpsters that run about $60 per ton or fraction. Nevertheless, dumpsters are much cheaper than homeowners calling for individual service. For example, Waste Management’s Bagsters or AAA’s special pick-ups run about $50 to $60 per cubic yard.

Dumpsters are static. Typically, the HOA places the dumpsters at a common site such as the community pool. The homeowners drag or drive their junk to the dumpster. If they have the strength, they lift their junk over the five-foot dumpster wall or they leave it on the ground.

Dumpsters are “mixed” debris. Homeowners toss all their junk into the same dumpster: steel, paper, wood, plastic—everything. All this mixed debris must go to a landfill, making dumpsters the least green option.

Dumpsters have restrictions. The County typically charges extra fees for mattresses ($10), tires ($7), old TVs ($10-$20), and e-waste ($5). Therefore, dumpsters usually restrict what you can put in them, and they can charge a hefty fee if you dump restricted items.

The Junk King Option
The HOA doesn’t need to worry about estimating volume. Junk King’s crew and 18-cubic yard trucks can take care of jobs as small as two cubic yards or as large as hundreds of cubic yards. In addition to reducing the risk of estimates, our absolute costs are less than dumpsters. We charge a fixed price per volume; we never tack on extra fees.

Our trucks are big and nimble. Our three-man crews are cheerful. The homeowner takes the junk to the curb. Then, our crew does all the labor of getting the junk into the trucks.

Our crew separates the debris. One truck picks up steel, another paper, yard debris, and so on. We collect used furniture for donation to Habitat for Humanity or the HOA’s designated charity.

We have only one restriction: hazardous waste such as asbestos or chemicals. We take everything else, including tires, e-waste, TVs, and mattresses. As a service to the HOA, we absorb the extra disposal fees.

Consequently, Junk King recycles 95.5% of everything we haul. We are the greenest option for a neighborhood cleanup.

Junk King will work with the HOA Board and the property manager to ensure that the neighborhood cleanup day is a great success.

Green Report Card — Zero Land Fill for December and January!

Junk King Fairfax makes the extra effort to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. In December and January, we were 100% landfill free.

Since June, our metal recycling alone has saved 91,557 pounds of iron ore, 4,394 pounds of limestone, and 51,272 pounds of coal, which generates about one KWH per pound. We delivered 317,336 pounds of biomass to burn for energy, creating more than 512,795 KWHs.

To put these energy contributions in context, a typical Fairfax County home uses 17,000 KWHs of electricity per year. Since June 15, we have contributed enough energy savings to power 33 typical Fairfax homes for a year.

Also, we’ve donated furniture and usable appliances to Habitat for Humanity and needy families.

So far, we’ve collected more than 200 tons of mass and we’ve put less 9 tons into landfills. We recycled more that 191 tons – or 95.5% of all the waste we collected.

We are committed to do even better.

Junk King Fairfax’s Green Report Card

Junk King’s Green Contribution — June 15 to October 31, 2010

Since we began operations June 15, our recycling efforts have saved the following resources:

Our paper recycling saved 19,845 gallons of water, 65 trees, and 11,340 KWHs of electricity. In addition, we kept 171 pounds of pollutants from the atmosphere.

Our metal recycling saved more than 62,250 pounds of iron ore, 2,988 pounds of limestone, and 34,860 pounds of coal. The coal generates about one KWH per pound.

We delivered 154,093 pounds of biomass to burn for energy, creating more than 249,000 KWHs.

To put these energy contributions in context, a typical Fairfax County home uses 17,000 KWHs of electricity per year. Since June 15, we have contributed enough energy savings to power 17 typical Fairfax homes for a year.

In addition, we recycled 3,685 pounds of e-waste to include 55 old TVs, keeping approximately 200 pounds of lead out of the ecosystem.

Finally, we did have 16,143 pounds of construction debris and 9,839 pounds of yard debris that went into the landfill. Therefore, our total mass collected was 238,737 pounds. We recycled 213,245 pounds – or 89% of the waste we collected.

Junk King Fairfax
7200 Telegraph Square Drive, Ste B
Lorton, VA 22079
Hours: M-F: 8A-6P, Sa: 8A-4P

Providing junk removal services to the Fairfax area, including:

Alexandria
Arlington
Ashburn
Centreville
Chantilly
Dulles
Fairfax
Falls Church
Herndon
Leesburg
Manassas
Merrifield
Reston
Springfield
Sterling
Vienna
Washington
Woodbridge
and these nearby zip codes:
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