The short answer

Estate cleanouts price by volume. A full truck is $732. Two full loads is $732 + $732 = $1,464. Three is $732 + $732 + $732 = $2,196.

Partial loads price down the ladder: three-quarters $587, five-eighths $513, half $431, three-eighths $338, quarter $241.

Rough scoping for this city's housing. A one-bedroom apartment or a condo where the family has already taken what they want is often a half to three-quarters truck. A two-bedroom bungalow in Nokomis or Standish with a full basement is commonly two loads. A four-square or a larger Fulton, Linden Hills or Kenwood house with a basement, an attic and a detached garage is two to four.

Individual pieces can be priced separately if the job is small: an upright piano is $290, a standard dresser $126, a china hutch $160.

The Minneapolis basement is the whole story

In most parts of the country an estate cleanout is a house-sized job. Here it is a house plus a full, dry, usable basement that has been absorbing sixty years of storage.

Nearly every pre-war home in this city has one. Block or limestone walls, a boiler or a converted furnace, a workbench, shelving somebody's father built in 1974, and behind it: canning jars, paint cans, a chest freezer that has run continuously since the Carter administration, holiday decorations in original boxes, and the furniture from the last three living rooms.

Families scope the upstairs accurately and then find the basement doubles the job. If you are budgeting, walk down there first with a flashlight and look behind the stairs. That is where the second truck comes from.

The other two rooms that surprise people

The attic of a story-and-a-half. In the bungalows through Hiawatha, Field, Bancroft and Keewaydin, the half-story has knee-wall storage doors on both sides. They are small, they are full, and nobody has opened them since the roof was last done. Everything in there comes out one armload at a time.

The detached garage off the alley. Separate building, separate lifetime of accumulation. Storm windows for a house that got new windows in 1998. Snow tires for a car that was sold. Bags of salt, a push mower ($65), a workbench nobody can lift alone.

Neither costs extra to reach. But both need to be in the count, or the estimate you got is not the estimate you will pay.

What gets taken out before the truck is booked

The cheapest estate cleanout is the one where three things happened first.

  • The family walked it. Everyone who wants something takes it or forfeits it, with a date attached. This is the step that drags for months.
  • The documents got pulled. Deeds, titles, tax records, photographs, the safe. A small safe is $100 to remove, but open it first.
  • Anything genuinely valuable got appraised. Not by us — we are a removal service, not a valuation service. Twin Cities estate sale companies will do a walk-through and tell you quickly if there is a sale worth running.

Run the estate sale first if there is one, then book the cleanout for what is left. That order routinely takes a full truck out of the job.

Worked pricing on real house types

  • Two-bedroom Nokomis bungalow, basement included. Two full loads: $732 + $732 = $1,464.
  • Senior condo downtown, family has cleared personal items. Three-quarters truck: $587.
  • Longfellow four-square with attic and alley garage. Three full loads: $732 + $732 + $732 = $2,196.
  • Small job, furniture only, in a Kingfield duplex. Sofa $126 + china hutch $160 + dining table 6-8 seat $163 + large dresser $148 = $597. A full truck at $732 would be more, so you pay the $597.
  • Upright piano nobody in the family wants. $290 on its own, or folded into a truck load.

Every total there is plain addition of published rates. No bundle pricing and no discounts to ask for.

Timing it around a Minneapolis winter

If the house is going on the market, the season matters more here than in most cities.

Listings cluster hard in spring. Getting the house empty in March or early April puts you ahead of that, but March is also when the alley is at its worst — plow ridge at the apron, ice underneath, then mud when it goes. Crews work through it, and the price does not change, but a three-load job takes longer in February than in June.

If the property is going to sit vacant over winter, get the cleanout done before the heat gets turned down. A vacant Minneapolis house at 50 degrees with a basement full of paint, canned goods and pressurized cans is a mess waiting to freeze and burst.

What is included and what is not

Included: two or more people, carry-out from the basement, attic, garage and every floor between, loading, the drive, and disposal or donation routing. No stair charge, no long-carry fee, no separate dump fee, no fuel surcharge.

Not included: hazardous materials. Old paint, solvents, pesticides, pool chemicals and automotive fluids go to a Hennepin County household hazardous waste drop-off — check current locations and hours before you load them in a car. Nearly every Minneapolis basement estate cleanout has a shelf of these.

Also not included: appraisal, estate sale management, or deep cleaning. We empty the building.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a full house estate cleanout cost in Minneapolis?

A full truck load is $732 and most whole-house jobs are one to three loads, so roughly $732 to $2,196. Two loads at $732 + $732 = $1,464 is the most common outcome for a bungalow with a full basement.

Does the basement cost extra?

No. There is no stair charge and no per-floor fee. But the basement usually adds volume, and volume is what you pay for — so count it before you budget.

Can you do it in stages?

Yes. Many families do the garage and basement first, then the living space after the estate sale. Each visit is priced on its own at the published truck-fraction rates, with a $75 minimum per visit.

Do you take paint and chemicals from the basement?

No. Household hazardous waste goes to a Hennepin County drop-off. Set those aside before the crew arrives — almost every older Minneapolis basement has a shelf of them.

Will you donate usable items?

Where there is a taker, yes, at no change to your price. Furniture in good condition and unopened household goods get routed to donation rather than disposal wherever we can place them.

How far ahead should I book?

For a multi-load job, about a week, and more in spring when listings cluster. Single partial loads are usually available much sooner.