Can you donate a couch for free to Goodwill?

Yes, you can. Homeowners renovating their homes, buying new furniture and appliances due to the old ones wearing out, or simply doing a smashing job of spring cleaning require the services of a junk removal company. We pass their trucks on the road every day. We watch as they remove things from someone’s house. What will they do for you?

As a general rule, yes Goodwill will accept your couch as a donation.

Who Uses Junk Removal Services?

That’s a good question. Not many homeowners know what junk removal services are or what they do. Numerous services and products have to fight for the public’s attention due to the public not being aware they’re out there. Junk removal and demolition is one of them.

Just know that you no longer have to buy lunch and a suitcase of Coke for Uncle Gary and Cousin Tim to haul away your unwanted stuff. You don’t have to beg your co-workers to help. No more cornering friends with trucks and bribing them with tickets to whatever they want to see. You have resources now.

If you have a piano taking up space, and the kids are off at college, then you need junk removal services. Replacing your carpet with hardwood flooring? You need junk removal services. If you’re getting new furnishings and appliances from the top of the house to the bottom, you’ll require junk removal services to fetch the old before the new can be placed.

How Exactly Do Junk Removal Companies Work?

When you throw away the cans, boxes, and scraped remains of cooking, that’s trash. When you throw away the tubes and bottles of personal care products, that’s trash. When you throw away paper products, tin cans, and other containers, no matter what was in them, that’s trash. The city or county comes around every week to cart it off.

Now, how do you throw away a desk older than dirt? How do you toss broken chairs, a sofa with springs long gone, or appliances that gave up a while ago? These can’t be picked up in the regular trash, so you need a specialized service to pick them up. Enter junk removal services.

You’ll need larger containers than trash bags for removing building or renovation waste, furniture and appliances, and so on. Junk removal companies do this in one of two ways: they back up a truck to the door, load the junk onto the truck, and drive it out of your life. The second way is to park a dumpster on your property. You fill it up, and the junk removal company removes it.

What Do Junk Removal Companies Accept?

• Shed, barn, deck, and any other outdoor or building debris

• Kitchen and bathroom renovation debris

• Cabinetry

• Flooring

• Paneling and/or drywall

• Hot tubs and/or spas

• Appliances of any size

• Air conditioners

• Electronics

• Furniture, including mattresses

• Gym equipment

Junk removal services also take books and toys, musical instruments, clothing, pots and pans, dishes, and pretty much anything that isn’t hazardous. They won’t take open paint cans, chemicals, solvents, gasoline, and/or any type of hazardous material.

What Happens To The Junk After Removal?

We said at the beginning of this article that you could donate a sofa for free to Goodwill. The junk removal service will recycle what they can from renovating building materials to appliances to furniture to almost everything you toss out. That’s why junk removal services are good for the environment – almost everything gets recycled and/or upcycled.

How Can A Junk Hauling Company Do Demolition?

Let’s say a homeowner wants to renovate his kitchen and primary bathroom. Let’s further say that the flooring, walls, and cabinetry have to go. You’re going to put heated floors in the primary bath, granite countertops in both, add built-ins, as well as buy new appliances for the kitchen, and a new tub and shower in the bath.

The old stuff has to be removed anyway. While the junk removal specialists are removing the old stuff, why not have them demo the space? Junk removal companies are equipped and experienced in taking down decks, sheds, above-ground pools, fences, and most any small outdoor structure. They will certainly demo a kitchen and bathroom for a homeowner.

Why Should I Use Junk Removal Demolition Services Instead Of A Contractor?

When homeowners are doing a renovation project, time and money are the first considerations. This is their home someone is demolishing. They have to live there, or they have to rent something until the project is finished. All of this takes money the likes of which the homeowner might not have.

Contractors have to get in there, do the job, and get out as quickly as possible while still delivering quality work. This is due to many of them having other projects going simultaneously. Home improvement is trending now, so contractors are in big demand.

Numerous homeowners aren’t aware, however, that junk removal companies are also demolition specialists. They can get to your house, demo the required spaces, carry off the debris, and leave the homeowner prepared for the next phase of the home renovation. Dealing with just one company serves the homeowner better than dealing with contractors and their multiple subcontractors from the get-go.

How Should Homeowners Prepare For Junk Removal?

Making the decision to get rid of your junk is the first step in junk removal. These steps will help in junk removal preparation:

• Panic is not an option. You’ve invested considerable time, emotion, and money in what you consider junk. Getting rid of it represents an opportunity for a new beginning, I. e., your home renovation. Now you can invest your time, emotion, and money in a new beginning.

• It might not be your problem. Removing waste resulting from a storm or other natural catastrophe might be the problem of your home insurance carrier. Alert them to the problem, and follow their directions for removal.

• Make a list. Following the first two steps, make a list of the junk to be removed. Keep in mind that some of the junk can be recycled. The removal service should know which items can be recycled, which are the responsibility of the city or county, and which can be donated.

• Resale value is an option. Some junk such as antique doors, molding, handles, or doorknobs are of value to collectors and remodelers. Putting them out there on eBay, Craigslist, or another advertising medium will net you some extra cash.

• Get a quote. When you’ve made your piles of “to donate,” “to toss,” and “to sell,” you’ll call several junk removal companies for quotes. Now that’s done, grab a coffee and begin planning your home renovation.

How Do Junk Removal Companies Streamline Home Renovations?

A safe working site is vital to the health of both family and demolition workers. No one can get a decent job done with piles of debris tripping them up and causing unsafe air quality inside the site. Debris removal is necessary, and that’s where junk removal and demolition services enter the picture.

Families generally go somewhere else while their home is being renovated. No family wants to see their children or the dog with nails in their feet or paws. No kid or dog wants to get splinters in their hands, feet, or paws. They certainly don’t want to trip over random tools, boards, or other building debris. Enter junk removal and demolition services.

These professionals understand that a streamlined workspace is central to a quality home renovation. It isn’t only removing demolition debris, either. It’s removing appliances. Junk removal companies know who recycles them. They know who takes them as donations whatever their condition. They also take old windows, doors, and flooring for recycling.

Doing It Yourself versus Hiring The Pros

Homeowners wishing to save money and time might consider doing their own hauling. The snag to that is they might not know some pertinent information such as:

• The law. There are laws and regulations governing the disposal of certain types of junk. You can’t take your junk just any old place and expect it to be dealt with. Professional junk removal specialists are experts at knowing the laws and where to properly dispose of your junk.

• Insurance. The homeowner who rounds up several people to help with junk removal hasn’t thought through the fact that the people helping could be injured. Does your homeowner’s policy pay for these injuries? What if the homeowner gets sued by one of the helpers? This is one of the times junk removal is best left to the pros.

• Time. Homeowners hauling their own junk aren’t aware that it sometimes will take them all day or all week to remove their own junk. The professionals have the proper equipment with which to complete the job. They do this every day and take less time to do it than homeowners.

• Personal safety. Junk removal requires heavy lifting. It requires the proper equipment to get the heavy lifting done safely. Homeowners might not have that equipment. If they try to remove heavy items, they could injure themselves. That will necessitate time in a hospital, pain killers, physical therapy, and doctor visits. It would be cheaper and safer to leave it to the pros.

• Convenience. All that time used in hauling your own junk could have been better used in renovating your house, going to work, or a dozen other things that could benefit the family. Allowing the junk removal specialists to do their job means homeowners have the time to accomplish other important tasks.

What Should Homeowners Look For In A Junk Removal Company?

Hiring a junk removal company isn’t like hiring a moving van. Everyone knows the names of the top moving companies such as Atlas Van Lines or Mayflower. On the other hand, not many people can name a famous junk removal service. So homeowners are going to need to do some research before hiring a junk removal company:

• Insurance. Most homeowners think of price first, and that’s a normal reaction. However, the price won’t matter a bit if the removal company isn’t insured. Damages to your belongings or the house will be on the homeowner’s shoulders while the removal company skates. Make very sure you get a copy of the company’s insurance information and check it before you do anything.

• Reputation. Does the company have a website built by a webmaster or one of those free web-building site pages? Is there a working phone number, a fax number, and email address, as well as a contact us method? Do they reply quickly to calls or emails? If none of this works, then move on to the next removal company on the list.

• Industry associations. Most professional services are registered with local, state, and national professional associations. This is a further aspect of company legitimacy. Ask for printouts of their professional associations and make sure to call them for information.

• Skills. While some junk removal companies have no problem hauling furnishings or demolition, they might not be able to demolish a pool or remove the concrete base of fence posts. Depending upon what you need to be done, it would be a good idea to ask if they can do it. Get references and make sure to call them.

• Trucks. The trucks are the backbone of any junk removal company. Ask how many trucks are in their fleet. A company just starting out, for example, might only have one or two trucks. While this isn’t a bad thing, you want to go with a more established company with a large fleet.

• Cost. If the company won’t give you an estimate based on the cubic yardage of your junk, then move on to the next company on the list. Prices based on time or the number of workers on the project aren’t part of the industry’s best practices and so are a red flag. Go with a company whose prices are based on cubic footage.

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