What a garage cleanout costs in Seattle

The short answer

Garages are volume jobs. Nobody itemizes twenty years of shelving over the phone, and pretending otherwise produces a quote that changes on the day.

• A tidy single-car garage, one wall of shelving — a quarter to three-eighths truck, $241 to $338.
• A typical single-car detached garage off a Ballard or Wallingford alley — a half truck, $431.
• A two-car that has not held a car this decade — three quarters at $587, or a full truck at $732.
• Clearing for a conversion, where the shell has to be empty and swept — usually a full truck at $732, sometimes more.

Minimum visit $95. Disposal and all the carrying are included, and there is no charge for the fact that the garage is down a slope from the house.

What is actually in a Seattle garage

Remarkably consistent across the city, and quite different from what is in a garage in a dry state.

• Outdoor gear that outlived the enthusiasm. A kayak, canoe or paddleboard at $71. Camping equipment. Skis and other sports gear at $33. Bicycles at $37, usually more than one, usually with flat tires.
• The second fridge or a chest freezer — $164 and $146 — quietly running or quietly not.
• The paint shelf. Every old house here has one. $30 a one-gallon can, $52 a five-gallon bucket.
• Exercise equipment that migrated out of the house: treadmill $115, exercise bike $72, weight set $93, weight bench $69.
• Garden and yard things: lawn mower $65, snow blower $71, wheelbarrow $37, hand and yard tools $33 each, planters $45.
• Patio furniture waiting out the winter that never came back inside: patio table $89, patio chairs $30 each, propane grill $71, patio umbrella and base $53.
• Metal shelving at $71, and the rolling tool chest or workbench at $100.

The damp problem

This is the Seattle-specific part and it changes the job in two ways.

Most garages here are detached, single-skin, uninsulated and unheated, and a lot of them are seventy or eighty years old with a cedar or asphalt roof that has seen better decades. Through nine months of wet weather the inside sits at ambient humidity, and moss grows on the north side of the roof regardless.

So: cardboard has failed. Boxes stacked on a concrete floor wick moisture from below and tear when lifted, which means what looks like forty sealed boxes is actually forty bags' worth of loose contents. Particleboard has swollen. Flat-pack shelving and old cabinets are heavier and structurally gone. Upholstery is done. The sofa that was "stored in the garage for now" three winters ago is moldy underneath and cannot be rehomed.

None of that changes the price — a half truck is $431 either way. It changes the expectation. Very little of what comes out of a Seattle garage is worth saving, and it is worth being decisive about that rather than sorting damp boxes for a weekend.

Access: the alley, the slope, or neither

Three access patterns, and they are the whole logistics conversation.

Alley-facing detached garages in Ballard, Wallingford, Fremont and much of the Central District are the best case. The truck backs to the door and the carry is short.

Garages below the house, cut into the slope on Queen Anne, Magnolia, Beacon Hill and West Seattle, with a steep short driveway down from the street. Workable, but a loaded truck does not always want to be on that driveway, so the load may come up by hand.

No vehicle access at all — a garage or shed at the bottom of a garden, reached by a path and steps. This is more common here than people expect on the older lots.

There is no long-carry fee for any of it. Tell us which one you have so the right crew and truck turn up.

Clearing for an ADU conversion

Seattle converts a lot of garages into living space, and every one of those projects starts with the same job: empty the building completely, because a contractor is booked for Monday.

Two things make this different from a normal garage clear.

First, it has to be total. Shelving comes off the walls, the workbench goes, the hooks come out. Nothing can be left in the corner for now.

Second, the demolition debris can go on the same truck as the household clutter. Construction debris is $120, drywall $37 per sheet or small bundle, lumber $41 per bundle, and a small disassembled storage shed is $186 if one is coming out of the garden at the same time.

Practical sequence: clear the contents first as a full truck at $732, let the contractor open the building up, then take the demolition debris as a separate load once there is something to take. Trying to do both in one visit before demolition has started usually means a second visit anyway.

What comes out, priced

A very common combination: the garage as a half truck plus the failed second fridge is $431 + $164 = $595.

Add the chest freezer beside it and it is $431 + $164 + $146 = $741.

How to make the day go quickly

1. Decide before the truck comes. Put anything you are keeping in the house or in the car, not in a corner of the garage.
2. Pull the good outdoor gear out first and post it — bikes, camping equipment and tools genuinely rehome well here.
3. Flag the paint and chemicals when you book. They are handled differently and they should not be buried in a box.
4. Say whether the fridge or freezer is going. Refrigerant recovery is included in the price but the load is planned around it.
5. Do not drag it all onto the driveway the night before. Everything you stage outside in Seattle gets wet, and wet is heavier and less recyclable.

Frequently asked questions