The best time to schedule junk removal in Minneapolis

The short answer

Best availability: weekday mornings, in July or in the January-to-March stretch.

Worst availability: the first week of June, the last week of August, and most of April.

Prices are identical across all of it. A sofa is $126, a quarter truck $241, a half $431, a full $732, minimum $75 per visit. There is no weekend surcharge, no same-day surcharge, no peak-season pricing and no winter pricing.

So the scheduling question is purely about getting the slot you want and the job going quickly once the crew is there.

Weekday versus weekend

Saturday is what everyone asks for, which is exactly why it is the hardest day to get.

Weekday mornings are the easiest slot in the week, and in this city they have three practical advantages beyond availability. Alleys are clearer, because fewer people are home with cars parked on the apron. Buildings that require a service elevator booking generally only offer weekday windows. And if a snow emergency has been declared, weekday parking sorts itself out faster than weekend parking does.

Weekday afternoons are nearly as good, with one caveat between November and February: it is dark by late afternoon, and a carry across an icy path in the dark is slower for everyone.

Saturdays work fine, they just book first. If your job is on a June 1 or late-August weekend, reserve it a week out.

The Minneapolis year, month by month

• January to March. Quiet, good availability, same prices. Interior work only in practice — basements, apartments, appliances. Garages and yards are difficult.
• April. The busiest month of the year. The thaw opens every garage, basement and yard in the city simultaneously and everyone deals with winter at once. Book ahead.
• May. Busy but manageable. The last easy stretch before June 1.
• June. Chaotic in the first week, then normal. The citywide lease turnover lands on the 1st.
• July. The best month of the year. Open calendars, long daylight, dry alleys, no turnover crunch.
• August. Easy until about the 20th, then the student wave around the University.
• September. The first week finishes the campus turnover, then it drops off quickly.
• October. Busy again. Everything outdoors comes in for the winter and whatever does not fit gets removed.
• November and December. Quiet. Good availability right up to the holidays.

The two crunch weeks, in detail

Around June 1. Leases across Uptown, Lowry Hill East, Whittier, Northeast, Powderhorn and the southwest neighborhoods end on the same day. Rental trucks vanish, movers are booked, and so is every hauler in the metro. Typical jobs that week: quarter and half loads of move-out leftovers at $241 and $431.

The last week of August. Dinkytown, Marcy-Holmes, Como, Prospect Park and Cedar-Riverside turn over almost entirely in about ten days. Typical jobs: mattresses in volume — twin $82, full $94, queen $103 — plus desks at $83, futons at $111 and bookshelves at $72.

If your date falls in either window, book about a week ahead. The price is unchanged; you are reserving a slot, not paying a premium.

Season by job type

Some work is genuinely easier at certain times of year, and if you are flexible it is worth matching them up.

• Detached alley garage. May through October. In winter the plow ridge across the apron and an iced garage door track are the constraint, not the alley.
• Basement. Any month. Climate irrelevant, and January is a genuinely good time to clear one.
• Apartment or condo. Weekday, because of service elevator windows. Season does not matter.
• Hot tub, deck or yard. Late spring through early autumn. Frozen ground in winter, soft ground in April.
• Outdoor furniture. October, when it comes in for the winter and you can see what did not survive.
• Estate or whole-house. Late winter into early spring if the house is going on the market, to land ahead of the spring listing rush.

Booking the winter job properly

From December through March the work is entirely doable at the same price — there is no winter surcharge — but a few minutes of preparation changes the day.

• Check the snow emergency status the morning of. When one is declared the parking rules shift and one side of the street empties. It changes where the truck can sit.
• Clear and salt the path. From the door to wherever the truck will be. This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it is a safety matter more than a speed one.
• Check the alley apron. If there is a plow ridge across it, say so and a shovel comes along.
• Check the garage door actually opens. On Tuesday, not on Saturday morning. Ice on the track and a seal frozen to the pad will stop a sectional door.
• Book a morning slot. Daylight ends early and an icy carry in the dark is slower.

How much notice to give

Rough guide, from experience in this market:

• Single item, off-peak. Often same day or next day. No same-day surcharge.
• Single item, June 1 or late August. Three to five days.
• Apartment or garage clear-out. Two to three days most of the year, a week in April and the crunch windows.
• Multi-load estate or hoarding job. A week, more in spring.
• Anything needing a building service elevator. As long as the building takes to give you a window, which is usually several days and weekday-only.

And the one piece of advice that saves the most money: consolidate. The $75 minimum is per visit, so three separate small jobs is three minimums. One visit with everything in it — the couch, the dead window unit, the bags from the basement — is one.

Frequently asked questions