Start a Junk Cleanout Service Business

In this very lucrative cleaning business, you clean abandoned homes and apartments, attics, basements, garages. If someone is moving and needs her home cleaned out completely, you would handle this.

And in addition to cleaning out the entire homes, often it is done on a “what’s left is yours” agreement. This means any antiques or junk can make you a lot of extra money. There are people who make fortunes selling the antiques that they find in homes where the owner has died or just moved away.

You can hire people to remove the trash and debris and rent a trash bin for the garbage. You can pay someone to haul the trash.

Owners or landlords of apartment buildings often hire and contract out the cleanup once an apartment is vacated. Often the apartment cleaning includes basic touchup of paint and basic repairs.

If you can contract with a large apartment management company with multiple apartment locations, your business will be consistent and profitable.

Valuable skills/Requirements

Basic business skills are helpful, especially to approach prospective clients.

In the beginning, and especially if you’re doing the labor end of the business yourself, you’re going to need at least average physical strength. A good amount of the lifting is involved and could include furniture, books, large boxes full of junk, and other heavy objects.

For this reason, you should definitely keep an eye on hiring employees soon after you get your business started. The heavy lifting tends to wear on most people after a while. But if you get to a point where you’re doing more management than labor, this business is very, very lucrative.

You should be bonded and have business liability insurance.

How much you can make

One single truck could easily bring you a six-figure income, depending on what type of business you’re bringing in. Some of the bigger companies rely on gorilla marketing tactics and truck signage to grow their businesses.

Charges are often based on the amount of junk that fits into the truck. A full truckload, according to a quote taken from a junk removal service, was $400.

If you can also bundle in additional services down the road, such as organizing or installing shelves to help people keep their homes in shape after the cleanup, you’re looking at exceeding typical profit margins.

Because your margins are so high in this type of service business – the profits will certainly outweigh the amount of sweat equity you’ll have to invest in your business in the beginning.

Startup Costs/What you need to begin

You can start this business for less than $500. All you need is a contract with a dumpster leasing company and a few employees. And if the job is not a complete overhaul or cleanup, a mid-sized truck will do – and you can rent one for the day for less than $50!

There are franchises available, but it’s an easy business to startup on your own. As I mentioned above, the most equipment you need is a truck and some physical strength.

Running basic small ads will bring you in plenty of business and get you going right away.