Renting a Dumpster for a Big Farm Cleanout and Demolition

In today’s episode, we dive into the not-so-glamorous but necessary task of renting a dumpster to help us clean up and demolish an old trailer that had been used as a "business office" by our tenant farmer. This project is part of the ongoing efforts here at York Meadow Farm, and let me tell you, it’s been quite the endeavor!

Using some helpful talking points from a local waste & recycling company guide on dumpster rentals, we walk through:

• The importance of dumpster rentals for large projects like home renovations, farm cleanouts, and demolition jobs.
• Understanding dumpster sizes: From 10-yard to 40-yard options, and how to choose the right one based on your project’s needs, volume, and debris type.
• Why we opted for a larger size—because as my mom used to say, “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
• Project-specific tips: Whether you’re cleaning out a home, doing a landscaping project, or taking on a big construction job, having the right dumpster makes everything smoother and easier.

Throughout the episode, I also share some behind-the-scenes stories about our tenant farmer's old trailer and the fun (and chaos) of tearing it down and clearing it out.

Special Shoutouts: We’ve seen a big boost in downloads recently, so thank you to all of our new and loyal listeners! Special thanks to our current Patreon subscribers—Sean, Rachel, Kyriaki, and Brian—for your consistent support. You guys keep the show going and I truly appreciate it!

If you haven’t already, consider joining the Patreon community for a behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening here at York Meadow Farm. There’s a lot going on, and this is your chance to get the insider scoop!

Thanks for tuning in, and stay tuned for more updates on our projects around the farm!

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Discussion Links:

Rumpke Dumpster Rental Guide

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi there and welcome back to the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about roll off dumpsters and what size dumpster you might need for whatever projects you are taking on at your home, your farm, your homestead, or your business. Today is October 22nd, 2024, and this is season five, episode 19 of a show where I am building a life and homestead with my family here at York Meadow Farm and a show where you join me as I do so. So let's get right into it. Last week, after we talked about um the update on the property walk, which followed an episode on a general update of the farm, we decided to move forward with the projects that we are getting started with, and uh that project includes the demolition of an old trailer that we had here on the farm. I will post a picture of the trailer and the dumpster so you can get an idea of what we're looking at. And um but that trailer that we had was purchased from another homestead acquaintance several years ago and was intended to serve as a temporary let's say business location, right? A temporary business office during the construction period, but it did not initially serve its intended purpose. However, later on, after we moved in here and it being here for a couple of years, we did some work to it, did some rewiring, and our tenant farmer utilized that trailer for his business office nudge nudge wink wink, and that it served its purpose for a few years, and for the last few years it has been vacant and unoccupied, except for basically serving as a um storage unit of sorts, and it was time to demolish the trailer and repurpose the frame for the chicken tractor on steroids. We are going to build a large chicken tractor eggmobile type of structure on top of this frame. It's got a double axle frame. It looks to be a homemade job, but um you know considering considering how it was uh how it was constructed, I am surprised and pleased that it made the two and a half hour journey to the homesteads safely, as safely as it did back when I initially bought it in twenty fifteen, sixteen or so. At any rate, um last week we were talking about dumpsters and what we would need for the demolition of this trailer. I don't have the exact dimensions, but it is eight feet tall, approximately nine feet wide, and I would estimate that it is about thirty feet long. Uh it has a bedroom in the back, a bathroom in the middle, and up front is the kitchen area with a sink and a four-burner stove. Um it was a homemade type of trailer, and um it it basically it looks like a type of construction trailer that you would find on a job site, a commercial job site, that had some additional windows installed and some additional work done to it. And that's what I initially thought it was, but upon deconstructing it, I think that it was just a completely homemade um and home fabricated trailer. But that's neither here nor there. Uh just in talking about the project with my brother, we decided that we would go with the largest dumpster that our local trash um I don't even know what you would what what you would call them. The trash contractor, garbage contractor, waste management contractor. The the largest one that they have is a 40-yard dumpster, and that the size of that dumpster is about 22 feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and eight feet tall. It can accommodate 10,000 to 12,000 pounds and is equivalent to roughly 16 pickup truck loads and can hold around 240 garbage bags. Now, when I initially made this phone call on Monday to schedule it, I was hoping that I could get it delivered sometime during the week and you know be able to work on it during the week, have the weekend to work on it with my brother and hopefully my brother-in-law, if his schedule allowed, which it did for a little bit, and then a couple of days after that, because the way that it works is you have it for a week, and if you need it for an additional couple of days, you are charged accordingly based on how much time you need it for. Luckily, I was able to get it delivered for this weekend because my brother, you know, last weekend said, Yeah, let's get started, let's do this thing, let's do it next week. And I wasn't really expecting that. I you know, had some orders come in. I need to get caught up on production in the kitchen, and that's why today's episode is going to be kind of brief and to the point, so I can get this out there and get back to work in the kitchen making sauerkraut and take advantage of the rest of the week ahead with the dumpster. Because here's the deal when you rent a dumpster, at least with this particular company, and I suspect that there are some other advantages or similarities with other companies elsewhere in the country. When you rent a dumpster, you rent it for a week. Okay? And but when you rent a dumpster and schedule the date of delivery, they can't give you an exact time. For example, you want it delivered Wednesday? Well, it's going to be delivered Wednesday. Um, and you're gonna probably get that dumpster anywhere between 10 a.m. and five p.m., something like that. So they begin charging you on Thursday, and you have it from Thursday until the next Thursday when it's scheduled to be picked up. So one week. However, if you have the dumpster delivered on Friday, they do not schedule that or um they do not begin charging you uh f until the next day, which for them is Monday. Right? Because they're they're not open on the weekends. Uh so what happened for us, and I I didn't know this, but this is this is this is kind of how we lucked out. What happened is that the dumpster was delivered last Friday on Friday the 18th, and we have a week from yesterday, the twenty-first, which means they're going to come back next Monday, the twenty-eighth, to pick it up. And luckily, we had such a productive weekend that we got the entire trailer demolished and broken down and stuffed into that dumpster, and we still have some room for some things. And uh luckily, you know, we were able to do so and be strategic about how we loaded the dumpster so we can utilize as much space as possible for all of our other little miscellaneous piles around the farm and homestead. So, like I said, uh we went with the 40-yard dumpster, the biggest dumpster that they have. Um, it they also offer you know four other sizes: a 10-yard, 15-yard, a 20-yard, and a 30-yard dumpster. And just for reference, uh a 10-yard dumpster measures around 14 feet, 7.5 feet wide, and 3.5 feet tall, can accommodate 4,000 to 6,000 pounds. It's equivalent to roughly four pickup truck loads and can hold around 60 standard trash bags. Um, a 15-yard dumpster is 16 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, 4.5 feet tall, can accommodate 400,000 to 6,000 pounds. It is equivalent to 6 pickup truck loads and can hold around 90 trash bags. The 20-yard dumpster measures around 22 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, 4.5 feet tall, can accommodate 4,000 to 6,000 pounds, and is equivalent to roughly 8 pickup truck loads and can handle approximately 120 garbage bags. The 30-yard dumpster, same length, 22 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and 6 feet tall instead of 4.5 feet tall, 7,000 to 10,000 pounds, 12 pickup truckloads or 180 trash bags, or the big dumpster, which is 22 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, 8 feet tall, 10,000 to 12,000 pounds, 16 pickup truckloads, or 240 garbage bags. Um, you know, some things to consider when choosing the right dumpster size, and I'll just link to this of our local provider, which serves a large portion of Ohio, parts of Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia. They do a lot of work here in the Midwest, but you know, just some things to consider when taking or when scheduling a dumpster is you know what it is that you're loading, the type of debris, the total volume of it, the the weight, um, and the location. Where can you put it? Uh, luckily, because the trucks that they use, um, the dumpsters, even the big dumpster, the 40-yard dumpsters, they're only 22 feet long. So, luckily, the trucks that they use don't need a huge turnaround area. You know, we're not talking like semi trucks. Um, so you can get them into de you know, as long as you've got a firm place for the truck to offload the trailer or the uh dumpster, rather, it can, you know, you you you've got the ability to get it just about anywhere you want. And the driver told me, as long as he doesn't sink, you know, he'll get as far back as he can. So we got it exactly where we wanted it, very close to the trailer to minimize the time spent walking back and forth, putting things into the dumpster from the trailer, and it was just it was it was great. So, you know, for us, which basically was a construction project, um accommodating, you know, a big volume of bulky, heavy stuff. The the 40-yard dumpster was was great. Um, while I was on the phone scheduling it, I almost went with the 30-yard dumpster because it seemed quite large. But as I was giving her my billing information, I decided at the last minute that we were going to go ahead and stick with the 40-yard dumpster because that is what my brother and I initially talked about. And after after seeing the uh the the the work that we did um and seeing how full the dumpster is, I'm glad that we went with the bigger dumpster. Uh the difference in cost for us here in Northeast Ohio between the 30-yard and the 40-yard dumpster was about 120 or 130 bucks. It, you know, all of the costs are gonna be dependent on where you live, um city, rural, the accessibility, availability, you know, business, residential, all sorts of things. But at any rate, um that's that's where we're at. And uh I think in the bottom line is in terms of dumpster rentals, if you're not sure about what size to get, you know, 10 versus 15 yard, uh 20 yard versus 30 yard, 30 yard versus 40 yard, it's better to err on the the the you know side of caution and get something bigger rather than something smaller because like mom always said, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. So all that said, I'm gonna wrap it up here. I hope that you guys had a great weekend. I hope that you guys have a great week ahead, and you know, I think this was one of the best things that we've done here on the homestead in a long time. Dumpster rentals are great, they are not cheap, but they are worth it, and it sure beats making multiple trips to the dump because for us here, a trip to the dump is about 25-30 minutes uh drive to get there. And um hey, you know what? Not everybody has a pickup truck as well. So if you you know, just it's it's it's great. Uh renting a dumpster is a good thing to do, and um, I would encourage everyone to take it into consideration, you know, check out the options locally, and if you got a big project coming up, do it. Or consider renting a dumpster, clean out your house, offload some stuff, lighten your load, and uh live a better life. Just uh unjust live, yeah, get the dumpster and unburden what has been, right? Okay, guys. So have a have a wonderful week ahead and uh hat tip to you if you uh if you caught my joke. I uh I appreciate you. God bless guys. Thanks for listening. Oh, one quick thing before I forget. Big shout out to all the new listeners. Um, we had a tremendous increase in uh listenership over the last week or so, a big boost in downloads. Um, so welcome everybody to the show if you are new. And uh last but not least, big shout out to all the Patreon subscribers, Sean, Rachel, Kiriki, and Brian. You know, we we are a small crew, but you guys again, as always, I'm very grateful for your long time support. Next year we are approaching a year of Patreon activity, and um hopefully we will get back to some video calls so we can connect with one another a little bit more deeply. Um, we already have a private telegram group just for us. And uh if you are interested in joining our little Motley crew, you can do so at patreon.com slash allaroundgrowth and get some behind the scenes action on what is going on. So I think with all that said, what we're going to do is I will drop this today for the Patreon subscribers. I'll drop it publicly next week for those who are not subscribers and throw out a teaser for everyone to let them know and encourage people to join Patreon and support the show because it really helps uh pay the bills. Because at this point, you know, being self-employed, doing what I do, uh all the pennies, all the pennies matter. So this this little help that you provide is uh it makes a big big difference in helping keep the lights on and helping pay the bills. So thank you very much for your support. I very much appreciate you and uh I look forward to checking in with you on Telegram and elsewhere. I hope that you guys have a great day and a great week ahead. Thank you and God bless you.