Garage cleanout cost in Minneapolis

The short answer

Garages price by volume:

Guide for Minneapolis: a single-stall detached garage where you can still see most of the floor is a quarter to a half. A single-stall where the car has not been parked inside for years is a half to three-quarters. A two-stall with a loft or rafters loaded is three-quarters to a full truck at $732.

If it is really just a few large items, item pricing is cheaper: a lawn mower is $65, a propane grill $71, a weight bench $69, a bicycle $37. The minimum for a visit is $75.

Why Minneapolis garages fill up differently

Most of this city's garages are detached, single-stall, and reached from the alley rather than a driveway. They were built for a Model A and they are now expected to hold a modern car plus everything a household in a four-season climate owns twice over.

That is the real driver. Everything here exists in a summer version and a winter version. Screens and storm windows. Patio furniture and the snowblower. Bikes and skis. Lawn mower and shovels. Each swap leaves something behind, and the thing left behind goes to the back wall where it stays.

Then there is the volume nobody plans for: bags of ice melt that hardened into bricks, a dead second fridge, tires from two cars ago, half-used paint that froze and separated, and a workbench buried under the last eight years of it.

The alley, and what winter does to it

Alley access is mostly an advantage. The truck backs to the garage door, the carry is ten feet, and the job goes quickly.

From roughly December through March that changes. The plow pushes a ridge across the alley apron and it freezes into a solid bar. The concrete pad inside the door has a sheet of ice on it from melt-and-refreeze. Half the garage doors in the city will not lift past the ice on the track.

Crews deal with all of it and the price does not change — no winter surcharge, no access fee — but two practical things make the day much faster:

• Clear the apron and the pad if you can, or tell us so we bring a shovel and salt.
• Check whether the door actually opens before booking. If it has been frozen shut since January, find out in advance, not on the morning.

The easiest month to do this is genuinely April through October. If it can wait for the thaw, let it.

What comes out of a typical Minneapolis garage

Priced individually, in case your job is small enough to go item by item:

Worked examples with the addition shown

• Single-stall in Longfellow, just the big stuff. Lawn mower $65 + propane grill $71 + two bicycles at $37 each ($74) + weight bench $69 = $279. A quarter truck at $241 is lower, so you would be quoted $241.
• Single-stall in Powderhorn, full clearout. Half truck: $431.
• Two-stall in Fulton with loaded rafters. Three-quarters truck: $587.
• Northeast garage plus the dead beer fridge. Half truck $431 + refrigerator $164 = $595.
• Everything, including the workbench and the pool frame. Full truck: $732.

Plain addition of published rates. You are always quoted both the item total and the volume total and you pay the lower one.

What we cannot take out of a garage

This matters more in a garage than anywhere else in the house, because garages are where the chemicals live.

• Paint, stain, solvents, thinner. Especially the cans that froze and separated over a Minneapolis winter. These go to a Hennepin County household hazardous waste drop-off.
• Gasoline and two-stroke mix. Drain the mower and the snowblower before the crew comes; fuel goes to the same place.
• Propane tanks. Not in the truck. The grill itself is fine at $71 — the tank comes off and goes to an exchange point.
• Car batteries, motor oil, antifreeze. Auto parts stores in the metro take most of these back.
• Tires. Usually accepted at county drop-offs for a per-tire fee; check the current rate.

Set those aside in one spot before the day. It takes ten minutes and keeps everything else moving.

Getting an accurate quote without guessing at truck fractions

Nobody is good at estimating a truck fraction, including people who do it for a living, which is why the photo route is better.

Open the garage door, stand at the alley, and take one photo. Then step inside and take one from each back corner. Note the big items by name — mower, grill, fridge, weights, pool frame — and roughly how many bags of loose debris there are.

Send that and you get the number before anyone drives over. It includes the carry, the load, the drive and disposal. No stair charge, no long-carry fee, no winter surcharge, no dump fee afterward.

Frequently asked questions