Bagster Pickup, Dumpster Rental or Junk Removal Pickup?

There are a couple options out there when it comes to clearing out junk from your house. A new popular trend is known as Bagster. We’ve talked about it before, but let's review the Bagster process.

While Bagsters are an innovative take on an old process, they may not live up to the hype. What appears to be a grand bargain on the surface comes with some fine print.

How It Works

1. First, you go to your local home improvement store and pick up a bag. This $30 bag will hold 3 cubic yards of debris, that’s 81 cubic feet. In layman's terms think of a cubic yard as one washing machine. Three cubic yards mean a Bagster can hold up to three washing machines worth of debris. To successfully use a Bagster you must be willing to read and follow their instructions, if not then stop reading right here and move on to the next section.
2. Then you take it home and set it up being careful to follow the instructions explicitly. If you don’t set the bag up correctly, it won’t be picked up. You have to set up the Bagster right on the curb or in your driveway with plenty of clearance.
3. Once you have set up the bag you need to fill it up, by yourself. That means hauling all the debris, trash and waste out to the curb and into the bag. Time to be careful again, because Waste Management won’t accept everything. A brief list of what they don’t accept includes, appliances, electronics, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, railroad ties, old tires and many car parts, and in some areas they won’t even accept yard waste like dirt. One hidden gem, they keep in the fine print section, refers to heavy material. The Bagster can hold 1 cubic yard of heavy debris like concrete or rocks. That means you can only fill it ⅓ of the way.
4. When the bag is full then you schedule a pickup. In our area, the pickup is $130 and you are given a 3-day window in which a pickup will occur. If Waste Management cannot get to your bag, if the clearance is too small, or if they find unaccepted items in the bag, they will not remove it. And they will charge you for making the trip to you home, even if they don’t take the bag.

Using a Bagster is a slippery slope. It is only effective if you have a small job with a limited variety of junk.

Renting a Dumpster

Another way to go is to rent a dumpster (click here to read about our rental service). Unfortunately, you still run into a lot of the same problems with dumpsters as with Bagsters. For instance, once you order a dumpster, you have a giant ugly container sitting outside your house for an unknown period of time. Once you schedule a pick up, you might have to wait days before the dumpster is actually retrieved. Meaning, for a lot of us, HOA fines.

Also, you can’t put everything into a dumpster. If it has hazardous material, such as things found in appliances or old lawn mowers, they can’t be placed in the dumpster. And finally, you have to go through the hassle of filling the dumpster yourself. Hauling load after load from the backyard all the way out to the curb alone.

Dumpster rentals vary drastically in pricing, depending on the size you need, the length of the project and the location of the property. Prices can range anywhere between $50-$1,000. In addition, other fees may apply, such as weight limit fees and parking permits. Also, don’t forget you’ll probably have to pony up dump fees on top of the rental.

Another thing to be aware of is the weight of the dumpster. When filled with debris dumpsters can easily weigh 2 tons. These heavy containers can cause damage to driveways and property.

After doing a little research, we found most people will choose a dumpster over a Bagster just because it is easier to manage and will hold more volume.

How Junk Removal Works

With AZ Junk you don’t have to do any of the work, there are no containers to set up or fill up. No manual labor and no back injuries to worry about. No parking permits or additional fees.

We are licensed and insured to haul off junk from anywhere on your property, not just the curb. Instead of making a thousand trips to fill up the Bagster or dumpster, will we make the trips for you. You don’t have to haul any debris or junk out to your driveway. You don’t have to move it anywhere actually.

We will remove any debris, clutter, junk, trash, garbage, crap, rubbish or waste from where ever you have it stored and will haul it out for you.

There are no limitations to what we will take. Our list of unacceptable items is entirely blank. We’ll take appliances, mattresses, car parts, dirt, concrete, heavy machinery, old tires, you name it.

Finally, unlike Bagsters or dumpsters, AZ Junk Removal supports Keep Phoenix Beautiful by recycling or re-uses everything we can. We do not simply take the entire load to the landfill.

As we load our trucks, we sort through the items for what can be recycled, donated or re-purposed and drop those items off at designated centers across the Valley.

About Our Trucks

Speaking of trucks, have we mentioned ours are huge?

We don’t like to brag, but we have BIG trucks. Our trucks are 14’ X 8’ which means they carry a big load. To completely fill up one of our trucks you would need to get rid of 560 cubic feet of waste or 21 washing machines.

You pay upfront pricing based on load size.

About Our Junk Removal Pricing

When we talk about load size pricing, we're talking about how many washing machines you are getting rid of; how much does your junk fill our trunk?

If you only have a little bit, say five washing machines to haul off, we’ll call that a small load. Ten washing machines are medium and 16 machines … a large, but in the event you have that beautiful, large, girthy pile of junk that all junk removers pine for, then you get the full load, 21 washing machines. A full load is less than $500.

Depending on the job, prices for junk removal are usually less than dumpster rentals. See our pricing calculator for a quick look at junk removal costs.

There are no hidden fees, what you see is what you pay.

Using a Truck & Trailer...The Old Fashion Way

Just to make sure we have canvassed the entire field of options let's talk about alternatives. Like renting (or borrowing) a truck (and/or trailer) to haul stuff off, all on your own. For obvious reasons, this is a terrible idea.

First, the sheer amount of work you will have to put into loading and hauling the trailer makes a half marathon look like child’s play. You’ll need to strap everything down and mark any pieces that stick over the edge just to avoid getting a ticket or worse getting into an accident.

Second, you need to be prepared to pay dump fees, which can vary depending on what you are bringing. Also, the dump won’t take anything with hazardous material, for example, a refrigerator.

If not done exactly right, from beginning to end, you’ll wind up paying more than any of the other options. It's just not worth it. Any of the other choices are better than trying to be a solo renegade cowboy.