Angie's List: A Better Way To Remove Junk From Your Home

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Getting rid of junk, or any items you no longer use isn't always as easy as it seems.

You need to be healthy enough to move it, have a large vehicle to transport it and know the right place to take it. If any of that is a problem, a junk hauler may be a better option.

"We'll go in the basement, we'll go in the garage, we'll go upstairs and haul the heavy items out regardless of where they're at. So, we don't ask the homeowner to have everything centrally located in the home. We'll do all the heavy lifting and all the sorting once we get there," Jeff Johnson, of College Hunks Hauling Junk, said.

Johnson and his crew will haul away just about anything. No gas cans or propane tanks, but they will take paint cans if the paint has hardened. The most common items they see are exercise equipment, televisions and old furniture.

"It's always amazing to us what people are getting rid of, but it's not just the junk that we're hauling away. These are items that they no longer need or want," Johnson said.

That doesn't mean somebody else can't use them, which is why Johnson donates more than half the items they pick-up to Goodwill, thrift stores and other nonprofits.

"Some people don't really care what happens to their junk when it leaves their house, but other people are very particular about how it's going to be disposed of, so talk to your hauler before you hire them," Angie's List Founder Angie Hicks said.

"Anytime we do enter into a partnership with a recycle organization, we go down and we look at their site and we understand how the things we give to them are going to be processed," Johnson said.

Whether your stuff gets hauled to the Goodwill or the landfill, the price is the same.

"While some haulers do charge by the hour, most charge on volume – how much space the junk is going to take up on the truck – so you should ask for an in-person estimate and that should be free of charge," Hicks said.

Hicks said you should expect to pay around $500 per truckload, but just one or two large items can be removed for under $100. Most companies are happy to provide same-day service for no extra charge, but Hicks said to make sure they are insured just in case that big television goes rolling back down the staircase.

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter