Apartment cleanout cost in Minneapolis

The short answer

Apartment cleanouts price by volume, because that is what they are — a pile of mixed things rather than a tidy list of furniture.

Rough guide for this city: a studio or small one-bedroom is a quarter to a half truck. A full one-bedroom with furniture is a half. A two-bedroom is a half to three-quarters. A furnished two-bedroom where nobody sorted first is a full load at $732.

If you only have a few pieces, item pricing is cheaper and you will be quoted that instead. The minimum is $75.

Minneapolis apartment stock, and why it matters to the price

Three very different buildings, three very different jobs.

Pre-war walk-ups. Whittier, Lowry Hill East, Uptown, Stevens Square. Two to four storys, no elevator, a stairwell landing with a hard turn, and a back staircase that is narrower than the front one. Everything comes out on someone's back.

1960s and 70s brick blocks. Along Lyndale, Hennepin, Nicollet and out into Richfield and St. Louis Park. Usually a small elevator, usually a long interior corridor, sometimes a loading door on the alley side.

New construction. North Loop, the Mill District, along the Green Line in Prospect Park and the Downtown East blocks. Real elevators, but a booked service elevator, a loading dock with a window, and a certificate of insurance requirement.

All three cost the same per truck fraction. The difference is scheduling, not price.

No stair charge, and why we mean it

The single most common question in this city is whether a third-floor walk-up costs more. It does not. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee, no per-floor fee and no charge for a long carry to the alley.

A half truck out of a third-floor unit off Lyndale is $431. A half truck out of a ground-floor unit in Richfield is $431. The crew works harder for the first one; you pay the same.

The same holds for the far end of the building. Some of the 1970s blocks have a hundred feet of corridor between the unit and the elevator, and some new North Loop buildings put the dock a level below the lobby. Still no charge for distance.

The building rules that actually cost you time

Price is easy here; logistics is where apartment jobs go sideways. Before you book, find out:

• Service elevator booking. Most newer downtown and North Loop buildings require a reserved window, often on weekdays only, sometimes only in the morning.
• Certificate of insurance. Property managers increasingly want one on file before the crew is allowed up. Ask for the requirement early; it is routine to provide but not instant.
• Loading zone. On the tighter Uptown blocks there is often nowhere legal to sit a truck for forty minutes, and in winter the parking lane is a snowbank.
• Snow emergency days. When one is declared, the parking rules shift and whole blocks empty out on one side. It is worth checking the morning of.

Worked examples with the arithmetic shown

• Studio in Stevens Square, mostly boxes and a futon. Futon $111 + 10 bags of debris $132 = $243. A quarter truck at $241 is two dollars less, so that is what you would be quoted.
• One-bedroom in a Whittier walk-up. Sofa $126 + queen set $143 + dresser $126 + desk $83 = $478. A half truck at $431 comes in lower if it all fits.
• Two-bedroom in a 1970s block on Nicollet. Two twin mattresses at $82 each ($164) + two bed frames at $68 each ($136) + dining table 2-4 seat $103 + four dining chairs at $45 each ($180) = $583. Three-quarters truck at $587 is close; you take the $583.
• North Loop one-bedroom, sparse. Sectional sofa two-piece $141 + 65in+ TV $73 + bar stool $37 = $251.

Every one of those is plain addition. No bundle rates, no discounts.

Move-out cleanouts and the deposit

If this is an end-of-lease clearout, the calculation is not really about the junk. It is about whether the unit passes inspection.

Leaving a sofa in the unit or in the building's trash room is the fastest way to lose several hundred dollars of deposit, because the management company will charge a removal fee at their rate, not at ours. The same goes for the mattress propped against the dumpster enclosure in the alley.

In Minneapolis the pinch points are predictable: the June 1 turnover across the city, and the late-August turnover in the student belt around the University — Como, Marcy-Holmes, Prospect Park, Cedar-Riverside and Dinkytown. Those weeks book out. If your lease ends then, get on the calendar a week early.

How to get an accurate number in five minutes

Do not try to eyeball truck fractions. Do this instead:

• Walk the unit and list the furniture by name — sofa, queen set, dresser, desk, TV.
• Count the bags and boxes. Ten bags of debris is $132, fifteen is $196, twenty is $259.
• Photograph each room from the doorway.

Send that and you will get both numbers back: the item total and the truck-fraction total. You pay whichever is lower, and it does not change when the crew sees the stairs.

Frequently asked questions