What an estate cleanout covers in a Los Angeles house
The job is practical. The family keeps what it wants to keep, and the rest of the house, with the garage and the yard, is what the cleanout runs through.
Rooms and closets
Rooms and closets carry the bulk of a cleanout. Couches, chairs, bedroom sets, a desk, hallway closets of coats and linens, kitchen cabinets of pans and small appliances, boxes stacked in a spare room from years back. Furniture and mattresses each have their own page for a single piece, but inside a cleanout they ride with the rest of the rooms. Kitchen appliances have their own page too.
The garage and the yard are separate parts
A house with a detached garage runs as two parts that meet at the driveway: the inside work from the rooms, and the garage with its shelves, boxes, bikes and workbench. The yard is a third slice when bagged trimmings, old folding chairs or a dead planter are part of the cleanout.
The three piles the family sorts into
Before anything moves, the family sorts into three piles: keeps, give-aways, send-outs. A piece of painter's tape, a sticker or a labeled room sets the keeps aside. LA Sanitation encourages residents to think about donating before scheduling a pickup,1 with furniture or appliances still in good shape going to a local thrift store or a charity, or listed on a community exchange app. Ask the center first about what it takes. Furniture that cannot be given away rides out with the send-outs.
Sorting a house into three piles
Keep, give away, send out.
Keep
- What the family wants kept goes first
- Set it in one room, out of the way
Give away
- Ask a donation center what it accepts
- The City advises thinking about donating before scheduling a pickup
Send out
- The City's bulky pickup lists furniture and mattresses
- Household hazardous waste goes to a S.A.F.E. Center
Sources: LA Sanitation & Environment, Schedule a Bulky Item Pickup; LA Sanitation & Environment, Weekly Curbside Black Bin Collection (Trash). Illustration by this site.
House cleanout is the same work for any reason
A house cleanout and an estate cleanout are the same job, named for the reason.
What decides how big the job is
The size of the job turns on how many rooms are going and how full they are, especially the garage and any spare bedroom where things pile up. The number of floors matters, and so does the path to the driveway with its hallways, turns and stairs. The family's own sorting is the other half: a house where the keeps are already in a corner carries less to pull together than one still mid-sort. A checklist covers the house room by room.
| Part of the house | What it usually holds | What to tell us when you phone |
|---|---|---|
| Living room and dining room | Couches, chairs, side tables, a china cabinet, lamps | How many pieces, and which ones the family wants kept |
| Bedrooms and closets | A bedframe and mattress, a dresser, closets of clothes and linens | How many bedrooms, and whether the mattresses go |
| Kitchen and pantry | Pots, pans, small appliances, dishes, cabinets of staples | Whether cabinets are being emptied, and whether an appliance comes out |
| Garage | Shelves, boxes, old furniture, bikes, a workbench | How full the garage is, and where its door opens |
| Yard | Folding chairs, bagged trimmings, boxes | How much is bagged, and where it sits |
| Hallways and stairs | Rugs, side tables, hall closets, a landing | The number of floors and the path to the driveway |
When an estate cleanout fits, and when another service does
When an estate cleanout fits
The job is a full house of furniture, boxes and household contents. A garage and a yard go along with the rooms, and the family wants the whole cleanout handled together instead of piece by piece.
When another service fits better
One couch, one chair or one dresser belongs on the furniture page, not a cleanout. A single mattress and box spring goes with the mattress page, and one old fridge or washer rides on the appliance page. A garage with the rest of the house staying lived-in is a garage cleanout on its own.
What to tell us about the house
Tell us which rooms are going and how many floors the house has. Say whether a garage and a yard come with it, and what the family wants kept and has already set aside. Describe the way to the driveway, with any stairs, gates and the front door between.
An estate cleanout in a Los Angeles house
About 78 percent of the city's owner households live in detached houses,2 where an estate cleanout runs as one address with rooms and outside space together. The median home in the City of Los Angeles was built in 1965,3 and about 18 percent of owner households moved in during 1989 or earlier, and about 34 percent before 2000.4
For the City's curbside service, household hazardous waste including batteries, paint, light bulbs, electronics and chemicals must be taken to a S.A.F.E. Center and does not go in the black bin,5 LA Sanitation says. A resident takes those to a S.A.F.E. Center.