A garage cleanout is priced like every other job, by how much room it takes in the truck. It still costs more than people expect, and rarely because of volume. It is the five or six things on the back shelf that cannot legally ride in with the rest of the load.
The short answer
- The minimum is $120. For a very small job close to our Salem base we can sometimes come down to $80 to $100, so it is worth asking.
- Above that it is about $80 to $100 per cubic yard. If the load is light and we can walk straight to it, which is what a driveway gives you, the rate drops toward $70 a yard. For scale, our truck holds 20 cubic yards, about 8 pickup truck beds.
- Paint, motor oil, propane tanks, tires, appliances, electronics and concrete are quoted separately, because each one goes somewhere different and each one charges us.
- The price is set in person before we start, and it does not go up. If the pile is smaller than the photos suggested, it comes down.
Labor, hauling, dump fees and donation drop offs are inside those numbers. The general cost post has the wider version, and the pricing page carries the same figures.
What sets the price in a garage
Volume, usually less than you think
Garages look full because everything is stacked against the walls at eye level. On the driveway it flattens out. Bikes, bins, lawn chairs and cardboard are bulky and weigh nothing, the cheap end of the rate. I will not print a cubic yard figure for a one-car garage, because mine vary too much to average honestly.
Weight, the part that surprises people
The back of a garage is where the dense material lives: hardened mortar, patio pavers, floor tile, a box of tools, a car battery. Disposal is charged by the ton and we pay $185 to $300 a ton, so a small pile of heavy material can cost more to get rid of than a whole truck of light stuff.
Access, which a photo hides
A driveway garage with the door up is the easiest access, and it is priced that way. What changes it is a detached garage at the back of the lot, a narrow side yard, or a shared driveway we cannot back into.
The garage items that get their own line
Massachusetts bans a list of materials from ordinary trash, and a garage is where most of them end up. The list is on MassDEP’s waste ban page, read September 15, 2026: cathode ray tubes, white goods, whole tires, ferrous and non ferrous metals, asphalt pavement, brick and concrete, plus mattresses and textiles, both added November 1, 2022. Banned does not mean we cannot take it. It means it cannot ride in with the general load, so it goes somewhere specific and carries a fee.
Paint
Massachusetts is not a PaintCare state. PaintCare’s own list of operating programs names thirteen jurisdictions, none of them Massachusetts, checked September 15, 2026, so there is no year round hardware store take back here.
Instead you have your town’s hazardous waste day, plus a private option: Beverly’s Health Department points residents at ReColor, which takes latex, water based and acrylic paint and lists drop off points across the North Shore, including Salem at 281 Derby St, Beverly, Peabody, Lynn, Swampscott and Gloucester. Its $2 per container fee applies at its Hanover headquarters. Both pages checked September 15, 2026. Oil based has to go to a collection day.
Motor oil, gas cans and old chemicals
Salem’s own rules are blunt: no tires, fluorescent bulbs, TVs, computers, propane tanks, paints, batteries, used motor oil, chemicals or oils go out curbside, save them for Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day, checked September 15, 2026. Hence their own line on our quote.
Propane tanks
MassDEP’s household hazardous products page says a propane tank should not go in the trash even when empty, because a compactor can puncture it, and sends you to AmeriGas or Blue Rhino or a local scrap metal or hazardous waste collection, checked September 15, 2026. Empty decides the price: the Danvers Transfer Station takes empty tanks free at its Universal Waste Shed, checked September 15, 2026, and a tank with gas in it gets quoted.
Tires
Whole tires are banned from landfills. Danvers charges $50 each at the Transfer Station for tires, televisions, monitors, appliances, furniture and other bulky items, checked September 15, 2026. Beverly takes residents’ tires at its hazardous waste events with the rims off, per the city’s Hazardous Waste Day page, checked September 15, 2026.
The dead fridge and the other appliances
White goods are on the ban list, and anything holding refrigerant has to be handled before the metal can be recycled. That is appliance removal, quoted per unit. Danvers charges $50 an item, checked September 15, 2026.
Old electronics
Cathode ray tubes have been banned for years, and the tube TV in the corner is the classic case. It goes out through electronic waste removal.
Concrete, brick and leftover masonry
Danvers will not take construction and demolition materials or masonry debris at the Transfer Station, checked September 15, 2026. Set mortar, broken pavers and busted step pieces get priced as concrete removal, by weight.
Scrap metal, which goes your way
Metal is on the ban list too, and it is the one category that helps you: it comes out of the load, goes to Turner Inc in Lynn and does not get dumped. If a real share of your garage is scrap metal, say so, because it moves the arithmetic in your favor.
What your town will and will not do
Salem charges $20 per item for curbside bulk pickup, in effect since July 1, 2025, and the same page says the city does not pick up cleanouts, checked September 15, 2026. Curbside is for one item you can carry out yourself, not for a room.
For the hazardous half of the garage, Salem and Beverly share collection days and alternate hosting. Beverly’s page lists a $30 co-pay per car, cash or check only, proof of Beverly or Salem residency, and a reciprocal schedule for residents who miss their own day; the date still posted, September 12, 2026 at Salem High School, is already past. Salem’s page says the next is spring 2027 at Beverly High School, date still to be set. Both checked September 15, 2026. Miss one and the next may be months out, which is usually why the paint and oil end up on our truck.
Hauling it yourself, Danvers residents pay $0.17 per pound for trash and miscellaneous metal at the Transfer Station as of July 1, 2026, with proof of residency and your own hard hat and safety vest. Card only, Monday to Saturday 7 am to 4 pm, entry by 3:45 pm, and yard waste needs a $15 sticker for the calendar year, all on the town’s page, checked September 15, 2026.
Most of our garage work lands in Salem, Beverly, Peabody and Danvers, where the single family stock with a real driveway sits.
Four things that lower the bill
- Pull what you safely can to the driveway. Access is a big share of what you pay for, and junk already outside the door is a faster job at a lower rate. Nothing heavy, and not alone.
- Group the heavy material in one spot. Pavers, tile, mortar, brick. Priced as its own pile it is often cheaper than dragging the whole job into a weight based rate.
- Pick the donation pile first. Tools, bikes, patio furniture and yard gear in usable shape are worth something. Anything usable on our truck gets donated anyway, mostly to Big Blue Bargains in Swampscott, More Than Words in Boston and The Salvation Army, but every piece you pull out first is volume you do not pay to haul.
- Line the banned items up against one wall. Paint, oil, propane, tires, the old TV. Seeing them together lets us price them on the spot instead of guessing high.
Getting a number
Text photos to 978-915-3399. Stand back far enough to get the whole bay in frame, one shot of the back shelf where the cans are, and say whether the garage is attached or at the back of the lot.
We are brother owned, licensed and insured: $2M general liability, a $1M umbrella policy and $1M commercial auto, USDOT 8843043. Monday to Saturday between 8am and 5pm we reply within 5 minutes, evenings and early mornings within 1 to 2 hours, Sundays within 30 minutes. Work is often same-day, though I will not promise it as a guarantee.
Call or text 978-915-3399 and a real person on our team picks up, never an AI and never a call center. Here is how our garage cleanouts run, and the rest of our cleanout services if it is not the only room on the list.