For many people, renting a roll-off dumpster is a big deal. It means that you have to face the truth that you are drowning in junk, have to deal with the possessions of a deceased loved one, or have a massive project that you need to clean up after. But what do you do beforehand? How do you prepare yourself to use a roll-off dumpster rental efficiently? Here are some ways to organize the mess to prepare for the arrival of a roll-off dumpster.
Get Help
One way to learn who your real friends are is when you ask them to help out with your major clean-up operation. Seriously though, getting help makes the job go faster and reduces injury risk—because you won’t try to overdo it by trying to move heavy objects by yourself. It can also make a boring job more enjoyable, even memorable.
Tackle One Room at a Time
This might seem a bit silly, especially if you have a lot of help, but the best way to manage a major cleanout is to break the work down into rooms—or for huge rooms—zones where you get the job done at one time instead of gradually reducing the overall clutter in the home. Breaking the work down room-by-room allows you to ensure nothing is overlooked and clearly shows progress as you tackle the big clean-up.
Get Everything Out of the Room
The best way to remove the clutter in a home is to take everything out of the room, even the things you know you’ll keep, and start fresh. Find a good staging area with lots of floor space, such as a living room or garage that has already been cleaned out and organized, or take it out to the yard. From there, you can see all of the possessions you are dealing with and make it easier to decide what to do with them. Do this with each additional room until you have everything out to see what you are dealing with.
Sort the Stuff
Once you have removed all of the items from a room, identify four separate areas for sorting all of the stuff.
- Keep – Put things in this area you know you want to keep. This area should have the fewest items in it out of all four areas.
- Sell or Donate – These are the things that have value but you do not use or no longer need that can be sold or donated to support a good cause.
- Recycle – Some items can be recycled. Plastic items such as toys and décor, glass, metals, and even some construction materials are recyclable. Cardboard is another source of clutter than can easily be recycled. Check the recycling centers in your town to see what can be recycled and plan on making a trip (or trips) to the recycling center.
- Throw Away – What you put in this area helps you decide the size of the roll-off dumpster that you need.
Try not to spend a lot of time agonizing over which area to put each item in. Make decisions fast and try not to second-guess them. Try to touch each item only once during this process. Once you have selected a category for it, keep it there.
Make Hard Decisions
This is the most challenging part of the process. Once you have separated all of the items in the room into categories, you need to take a hard look at your keep pile. Especially if it is larger than any of your other piles. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself about each item in the keep file:
- Is this something you have used in the last year? If not, do you foresee a reason to use it in the next year? If not, move it to one of the other piles.
- Is this something you borrow or rent as opposed to owning it? What are the benefits of continuing to hold onto it?
- Do you have more than one of the item? Why would you need more than one?
- Is this something you can digitize instead of keeping physical copies of it? For example, digitizing CDs into audio file formats, purchasing eBook versions of your books, scanning in photos and sentimental papers such as your children’s artwork.
- Is it something that you always planned on using “someday?” If that day is not coming in the next 3 to 6 months, get rid of it. You can always purchase, borrow, or rent it again when you need it.
Manage Paperwork
Most households are drowning in paper; people hold onto old newspapers, magazines, receipts, even junk mail far beyond the time needed. Recycling it keeps it out of your dumpster rental and landfill. Here are a few ways to help you manage paper in your home or business.
- Go paperless – Sign up for electronic billing for your monthly bills, and many stores now email receipts to you as an option. Take advantage of these to reduce the amount of paper you have flowing in.
- Keep a Recycling Bin by the Door – This is especially helpful when dealing with mail. You immediately toss junk mail, advertisements, and catalogs that you don’t need directly into the recycling bin so you don’t let them pile up.
- Scan in Useful or Sentimental Documents – Instead of keeping the take-out menu of your favorite restaurant, why not scan it into your computer or take pictures of it with your smartphone? Do the same with cards and letters you want to remember but don’t have room for. Do the same with business cards. Many software applications on the market allow you to easily capture and organize this information, which is far better than collecting them and forgetting them in your wallet.
- Keep Only Critical Documents– This includes tax records, insurance policies, titles, personal identification information, leases, insurance information, and medical records. It is always a good idea to scan these into the system as well in case the original gets lost or destroyed.
Estimate the Roll-Off Dumpster Rental Size You’ll Need
With the pile of debris and junk remaining, it should be easy for you to get an idea of what size of dumpster you will need to remove it. However, if you are still having trouble, contact the dumpster rental company and have them help you select the best size for your project.
At Circle J Roll-Offs, we can provide you with the dumpster rental size that is right for your clutter removal needs. Just complete our online contact form or call 334.271.6900 (for Montgomery area customers) or call 251.661.0001 (for Mobile area customers) or send an email to sales@circlejroll-offsinc.com, and one of our roll-off dumpster experts will help you select the dumpster rental size that is right for you.