Cleanouts
The Weekend Whole-Home Cleanout: A Room-by-Room Plan for Scranton Homeowners
A working room-by-room plan for clearing a Scranton home in a weekend, with honest hour estimates, container sizing, coal cellar and basement tactics, banned items, and loading technique that buys extra space.
I have been running roll-offs in Scranton since 2011, and I can tell you the difference between a cleanout that finishes and a cleanout that turns into a two-year project has almost nothing to do with how much stuff you own. It comes down to whether there was a container in front of the house on the morning you started. Everything else — the sorting rules, the room order, the crew — is built on top of that one decision.
This is the plan I give homeowners in Green Ridge, South Side, West Scranton, Dunmore and Olyphant when they call about clearing a house for a listing, a downsize, or just because the basement has been swallowing boxes since the Carter administration. It is written for the housing stock we actually have here: pre-war doubles and singles with full basements, coal cellars, walk-up attics and a garage off the alley.
Set the Scope Before You Touch a Single Box
Most weekend cleanouts fail because the owner budgeted four hours for something that takes fourteen. Real numbers from jobs I have watched go out the door:
- One average bedroom or a home office: 2 to 3 hours.
- Kitchen, including cabinets and the pantry: 3 to 4 hours.
- A full Scranton basement that has been storing for sixty years: 8 to 12 hours, and that is with two people and a stair relay.
- A walk-up attic: 4 to 6 hours, less if you work at 7 a.m. in August.
- A detached garage off the alley: a full day. Not half a day. A full day.
- A whole three-bedroom house: a weekend with three or four able bodies, or two weekends alone.
Write those numbers on a sheet, add 20 percent, and you have an honest schedule. Then book the container for the first morning, not the last.
The Container-First Principle
The trap I see constantly: people start sorting with no can on site, so everything they pull becomes a pile in the basement, the porch or the driveway "until we deal with it." That pile has a gravitational field. It sits through a rainstorm, the cardboard slumps, the crew loses interest, and six months later you are paying for a full junk removal crew to handle what you already sorted once.
With a can out front, every decision has an immediate physical destination. You touch the item once. Momentum is the whole game, and a residential dumpster rental parked on day one is what supplies it.
Picking the Size
For a whole-home cleanout in Scranton, the honest answer is usually bigger than people guess, because basements and attics hide volume in a way closets do not.
- 15 yard: a two-bedroom, a light-clutter house, or a targeted basement-and-attic job.
- 20 yard: the workhorse for a three-bedroom whole-home cleanout. This is what I send most often.
- 30 yard: deep clutter, a hoarding situation, decades of accumulation, or a house with an attic and a full basement and a garage.
If you are torn between two, take the larger one. The price difference between a 15 and a 20 is smaller than a second haul. Our size guide for Scranton homes walks through the math, and our flat-rate pricing has no surprise add-ons.
The Staging System and the Rules That Stop Debate
Four zones, marked with painter's tape on the floor: KEEP, SELL, DONATE, DISPOSE. No fifth pile. "Undecided" is how a cleanout dies.
- The one-year rule. Not used, worn or needed in twelve months, it goes. Seasonal gear and tax paperwork are the only exceptions.
- The replacement-cost test. If you would not pay $25 and drive to Home Depot on Keyser Avenue to replace it today, you do not want it — you are just used to owning it.
- Photograph the sentiment, release the object. Your grandfather's toolbox matters. Forty pounds of rusted wrenches in a damp basement is not the memory. Take the picture, keep two pieces, let the rest go.
Give one person final say. Committee decisions on a Saturday afternoon cost you three hours.
Room-by-Room Order of Attack
Start where the emotion is lowest. Momentum built in the linen closet carries you through the boxes of letters later.
| Zone | Typical time | Typical volume | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linen closets, bathrooms | 1 hr | 2-3 bags | Expired meds — never in the can |
| Kitchen & pantry | 3-4 hrs | 1-2 cu yd | Small appliances, glass weight |
| Bedrooms | 2-3 hrs each | 1-2 cu yd | Mattresses eat space — flatten them |
| Living/dining | 3 hrs | 2-3 cu yd | TVs are banned from landfill |
| Enclosed back porch | 2-3 hrs | 2-4 cu yd | Rotted wood, wasp nests, mouse nests |
| Walk-up attic | 4-6 hrs | 3-6 cu yd | 120°F heat, joists not floored, dust |
| Full basement | 8-12 hrs | 6-12 cu yd | Mildew, wet weight, low headroom |
| Coal cellar / bin | 2-4 hrs | 1-3 cu yd | Ash dust, mask required, heavy per yard |
| Detached garage / alley shed | 8+ hrs | 4-8 cu yd | Fuel, oil, tires, batteries |
The Scranton Zones Every Generic Guide Skips
The full basement
Nearly every pre-war house in this city has one, and it has been absorbing storage for three generations. Budget more time than any other room. Work in a line from the stairs backward so you always have a clear path out, and stage material at the bottom of the steps rather than carrying single items up.
The coal cellar
If your house was built before 1950, there is a bin or a walled corner near the old chute that still holds ash, clinkers and sixty years of whatever got shoved in after the boiler was converted. Ash is heavy and it becomes airborne the second you disturb it. Respirator, not a paper mask. Bag it wet if you can.
The walk-up attic
August attics in NEPA hit 120 degrees by ten in the morning and January attics will take the feeling out of your hands. Work early or work in the shoulder seasons. Check that you have actual flooring and not just joists with a plank laid across.
The garage off the alley and the back shed
This is where the paint, the old push mower, the tires and the half-empty gas cans live. Sort it in daylight and separate hazardous material before anything gets carried to the can.
Metal that is worth money, not space
Cast-iron radiators, boiler sections, steel storm-window frames, old bed rails, copper pipe, aluminum screens and cast-iron tubs are worth real cash at a scrap yard. A single radiator can run 200 to 400 pounds. Pull that material out of the waste stream first — it lightens the load and it may pay for a chunk of the rental. See our notes on recycling and disposal in Lackawanna County.
Damp Basement Reality: Wet Weighs More Than It Looks
Mildewed cardboard, warped particle-board furniture, soaked carpet and rusted tools are the standard basement haul here. Water is the problem. A soaked sectional can weigh double what it did dry, and wet carpet is one of the heaviest things you can throw. Load damp material low, spread it out, and do not fill an entire can with saturated goods. If the basement took water from a storm, treat it as flood debris and get it out fast.
What Cannot Go in the Can
Keep these out, every time: liquid paint, solvents, motor oil, pesticides, pool chemicals, propane tanks, tires, car and lithium batteries, and any appliance with refrigerant — fridges, freezers, window air conditioners, dehumidifiers.
Televisions and computers are the one that surprises people. Under Pennsylvania's Covered Device Recycling Act, TVs, monitors, computers, laptops, tablets and e-readers cannot go in a landfill or out at the curb. They have to go to a covered-device collection point. Check Lackawanna County for collection events and the Pennsylvania DEP for the current statewide list. Dried-out latex paint (lid off, hardened with kitty litter) is generally acceptable; liquid paint is not. Full detail lives in what can go in a dumpster in Lackawanna County.
Loading Technique That Buys You 30 Percent
- Break down furniture. A dresser with the drawers pulled and the back kicked off takes a third of the space.
- Flatten every box. Loose cardboard is mostly air.
- Heavy and flat on the floor — doors, plywood, tabletops — then build upward.
- Fill voids with bags and soft goods as you go. Never leave a hollow.
- Level with the top rail. Nothing above it; an overloaded can cannot legally leave the street.
Sell, Donate, or Let It Go
Worth listing locally: solid-wood furniture, working tools, appliances under eight years old, bikes, quality outdoor gear. Not worth it: entertainment centers, particle-board anything, exercise equipment, older TVs, mattresses. Those cost you a weekend of no-shows. Set one hard deadline — if it has not sold by the time the can leaves, it rides. Get a written receipt for donations; a full-house donation is a real deduction. If you are clearing a family home after a loss, our estate cleanout checklist handles the pacing differently.
Placement on a Scranton City Lot
Half the homes downtown and on the flats have no driveway. If the can has to sit on the street, you need a permit from the city, and that takes lead time — we cover it in the Scranton permit guide. Shared driveways need a conversation with the neighbor before delivery day, not during it. Alley placement behind the garage works well when the alley is wide enough and not blocked. On a driveway, we lay boards under the rails; see driveway protection. Tell us the carrying distance when you book — a 60-foot walk from the basement door changes how the day runs.
Crew, Safety, and the Reset
Three people is the sweet spot: one deciding, two hauling. Feed them — pizza and a case of water buys more labor than anything else. N95 masks in the basement and attic, real gloves, closed boots, long sleeves in the coal cellar. Old lumber is full of nails. Two people on anything awkward down a narrow row-home stairwell, and one person on the stairs at a time, always. Nobody carries a load they cannot see over.
When the can goes, spend thirty minutes on the reset: sweep the basement floor, label the shelving you kept, put a single labeled bin in the attic for seasonal items, and hang a rule on the fridge — nothing enters the basement without a home. That half hour is what keeps you from doing this again in three years.
Ready When You Are
Big Z Dumpster Rental has been handling Scranton cleanouts since 2011 — flat rates, no surprise fees, licensed and insured, with same-day and next-day delivery across Lackawanna County. Tell us the house size and what is in the basement and we will tell you honestly which can you need. Call (570) 774-4910, send us a note, or check the areas we serve. Get the container out front Friday, and by Sunday night the house is yours again.
Questions this guide did not answer? Call (570) 774-4910. We would rather spend two minutes on the phone than have you order the wrong container.