As we head into the new year, I thought I’d share a secret… Dumpster bags.
If you have a LOT of stuff to clean out during your spring cleaning and want it all picked up, this is a great solution. It has a 3-cubic-yard volume (actually 83.2 cubic feet), but that’s just within the bag. You can pile the stuff up above the bag’s edge so long as it will stay inside the bag while it’s being lifted and the primary side straps can be pulled together over it. The items taking up that capacity can weigh up to 3,300 pounds or 1,500 kilograms.
The dumpster bag, aka The Bagster, is a combination of a $25-35 bag sold at Amazon and major hardware retailers and a service from Waste Management to pick it up when it’s full. But the pick-up is a separate service that brings the total cost to about $200 for both including tax. If you fill it up to capacity, that’s less than $2.50 a cubic foot, or 6 cents a pound.
The pick-up service is provided by Waste Management (for people in their service area). If you have a small child, you’ll want to wait for the pickup so they can watch. The bag must be somewhere their truck can reach (we put it at the edge of our driveway), the truck comes, the driver extends a crane from the truck, lowers a latch from the crane, and latches up the handles of the dumpster bag. They do some test lifting to try to get the bag balanced, then they lift the bag up in the air, slowly swing it over the truck, then lower it into the garbage area.
Now you know why I said your little one will want to watch. This is cool big machinery operating right in front of your house. My wife and I have watched with glee from an upstair window in the past. It brings out the kid in us.
There are things that are not allowed, such as appliances, poisons, or large electronics. I also don’t recommend this as an annual ritual, because you really do need to have enough trash to make it worth $200 to you, but you might share it with a neighbor, and some times you just need to throw out a LOT of stuff. Decluttering can produce more than you think after 3 years of pandemic.
If you want or need a mini dumpster you can unfold on Saturday morning, fill over the weekend, then get it picked up Monday or Tuesday (they try to accommodate your requested date but might take a day or two longer), a dumpster bag is your answer.