Tucson · Pima County

Garage and storage unit cleanouts in Tucson

A garage is the room where every item the landfill refuses has been quietly collecting for fifteen years. Clearing it is mostly a sorting job.

Pull the hazardous items first, because the truck cannot take them

Walk the shelves before anyone quotes. Paint and stain, thinner, pesticides, pool chlorine and acid, brake fluid and coolant, the half-full propane cylinder, the car battery, the coffee can of old motor oil: Los Reales refuses hazardous waste, waste oil and lead-acid batteries at the gate, and a hauler who says he will take them is going to leave them at the bottom of the load or in a wash. They go to the city’s Household Hazardous Waste drop-off on the same campus — Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed the second Saturday of most months — free with a City of Tucson address, $15 with a driver’s license or utility bill from Oro Valley, Marana, Sahuarita or unincorporated Pima County.

The limits per visit are 25 gallons of paint, 10 gallons of automotive fluids in a container you leave behind, and 10 gallons of cooking oil. Dried-out paint and empty cans go in the regular trash. Alkaline batteries go in the trash too; rechargeable, lithium, button and car batteries go to HHW. Propane cylinders are accepted; commercial gas cylinders are not.

Tires, TVs and the other things with their own rules

Tires cost $5 each at Los Reales, passenger tires only, ten per load. Inside the city, Brush and Bulky takes up to five auto tires at the curb on your scheduled week. Pima County’s waste tire site at 5301 W. Ina Road, west of I-10, takes tires Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at $30 a ton with a $15 minimum, plus $75 a load if they are still on rims. Take them off the rims or pay for the privilege.

Televisions and monitors are refused by Brush and Bulky and are exactly what HHW is for: flat-screen TVs, laptops, phones, cameras and computer equipment are accepted, though CRT tube monitors are not. Scrap metal — an old water heater, bike frames, the weight bench — is worth something to a hauler and is accepted as scrap at the Catalina Transfer Station at residential rates. Everything else in a garage is ordinary junk, priced by the truck.

Storage units: the rules are the facility’s, not yours

A storage unit cleanout is a garage cleanout with three extra constraints. The facility sets the access hours, and most close the gate well before Los Reales does at 5 p.m., so a unit in the afternoon can mean the landfill run happens the next morning. The facility’s dumpster is for its office, not for tenants, and using it is the fastest way to a bill. And the hallway between the unit and the loading area is where the price is made — a third-floor interior unit with a freight elevator is a different job from a drive-up.

Say which kind it is when you get in touch, and say whether the unit is yours or one you have been given authority over. If it is a deceased relative’s unit, the facility will want to see the paperwork before it lets anyone in, and it is worth settling that before a truck is booked.

What a garage cleanout in Tucson costs, and a storage unit

A one-car garage that has become a storeroom is usually a quarter to a half truck — $150 to $550 in the published ranges. A two-car garage with a workbench, a second refrigerator and a decade of boxes runs a half to a full truck, $300 to $900, plus $20 for the refrigerator because Los Reales charges it. A 10-by-10 storage unit packed to the door is commonly a half truck; a 10-by-20 a full one. The hazardous-waste run is separate: some haulers will do it for a fee inside the drop-off’s hours, and some will leave the sorted items for you to take.

What shrinks the number is doing the sort yourself — hazardous items in one corner, keepers in another, scrap metal in a third — so the crew is loading rather than deciding. What grows it is a unit that turns out to hold a piano.

Junk removal for a garage clean-out: what goes on the truck, and the order it goes in

Once the hazardous shelf is out of the way, a garage clean-out is a load like any other, and the order is what keeps it cheap. Scrap metal first — the weight bench, the bike frames, the old water heater — set apart, because a hauler can tip it as scrap rather than pay to bury it. Then the bulky light things: boxes, plastic bins, the patio set, the broken chairs. Then the heavy, dense material — tile, pavers, bags of concrete mix — which is what pushes a load over the landfill’s 2,000-pound line into $38-a-ton pricing, so it should be counted, not guessed. The second refrigerator goes last, emptied and defrosted, with the $20 refrigerant fee already in the quote.

What comes out of a Tucson garage that qualifies for the free city pickup — furniture, up to five tires, lumber and scrap metal cut to five feet — can wait for a Brush and Bulky week if one is close and the address is inside the city limits. What a garage produces that the city refuses — paint, propane, concrete, TVs — is the reason the truck is there.

Junk removal companies and clutter-free spaces: the hauler clears, the deciding is yours

The search results promise clutter-free spaces, and it is worth being clear about which part of that a junk removal company does. A hauler removes what you have already decided to let go; he does not sort a family’s belongings into keep and discard, and a good one refuses to, because the box of photographs and the box of dead batteries look the same from the truck. Professional organizers do the deciding with you, by the hour, and sell nothing that goes on a truck; this site does not refer to any and has not vetted one. The clutter-free garage is the product of both jobs in the right order — decide first, with painter’s tape and four corners, then have the load carried out in one morning — and the hauler’s part is the cheaper of the two if the deciding is done before he arrives.

A morning’s worth of preparation

• Sort into four corners: keep, hazardous, scrap metal, haul.
• Check tool cases and coffee cans before they go — cash and documents hide in garages.
• Photograph anything you might sell, and post it before the cleanout day.
• Empty the second fridge and defrost it; tell the hauler it is there.
• For a storage unit, confirm the gate hours and the elevator, and bring the lease or the authority paperwork.

Questions people ask

How much does a garage cleanout cost in Tucson?

Published truck-fraction ranges: $150 to $350 for a quarter truck, $300 to $550 for a half, $600 to $900 for a full. A typical one-car garage is a quarter to a half; a packed two-car garage is a half to a full. Refrigerators add about $20 each, and the hazardous items are handled separately.

Where do I take old paint in Tucson?

Liquid paint goes to the Household Hazardous Waste drop-off at Los Reales, Thursday to Saturday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., up to 25 gallons a visit — free for city residents, $15 for everyone else in Pima County with proof of address. Fully dried paint and empty cans can go in the regular trash.

Can the hauler take my old tires?

Yes, and expect to pay for them: Los Reales charges $5 per passenger tire, ten per load. Inside the city, up to five tires can go to the curb on your Brush and Bulky week for nothing. The county tire site on W. Ina Road charges by the ton with a $15 minimum and $75 extra per load for tires on rims.

What about the propane tank for the grill?

HHW at Los Reales accepts propane cylinders; the landfill and Brush and Bulky both refuse them. Do not put it in the load. A tank that is still mostly full is worth keeping or giving to a neighbor.

Can a storage facility’s dumpster be used during a cleanout?

Assume not. Facility dumpsters are for the office, and tenants who fill them are typically billed for the haul. Everything from the unit goes on the truck or in your own vehicle, and the landfill run works around the facility’s gate hours.

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Where this service is available

TucsonOro ValleyMaranaSahuaritaVailCatalina FoothillsGreen Valley

Insured local companies serving Tucson and Pima County; travel to outlying areas is usually included in the estimate — ask.

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